1988 Civic won’t start

I have a 1988 Civic DX 4 door sedan with a 1.5 engine and dual point
PGM-FI fuel injection. This car has been sitting for the better part
of a year outside here in S. Jersey. I jumped the battery and drove it
into the garage where I charged the battery with a 2 amp charger
overnight. Took the charger off this am and It started right up and I
moved it out to the driveway where I left it running and tested the
heater and radio etc. while I waited for a buddy of mine to come over
and follow me out to the country so I could rev up the battery in
third gear at 50mph for awhile without worrying about killing the
engine and getting stranded. While waiting I thought I’d take it
around the block and work some of the kinks out. I put it in gear and
the engine stalled. I tried restarting it and it cranks but doesn’t
start. Bought a can of starting spray and shot some into the butterfly
valve and still nothing. It spits fuel out and tries to turn over and
then I get a clunk and nothing. I get the 3 clicks, the check engine
light and brake lights come on. This car has 108,000 miles on it. I
had the ignition igniter changed in 92 or 93 I think. Would error
codes
show up on the ECU for this problem and where do I find the ECU on
this model car? I’m supposed to be selling it tomorrow so I’d sure
like to get it running for the buyer. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.

 

The ECU and code info is available at
http://www.iequus.com/assets/manuals/3173_ICCR_E_14JAN03.pdf

Mike

 

Thanks Mike. Ok I went out this am and tried jumping it with my other
car to check the ECU and it fired right up. Got no error codes at all
on the ECU once the car was started. So pressing my luck and having a
few hours to kill before the buyer was scheduled to show up I decided
to charge the battery up and make sure the car actually still runs.
Drove it up to Sam’s Exxon station and put air in the tires. It
sounded terrible (as any car would if it sat for most of a year) so I
decided to have Sam change the oil. As I was putting air in the tires
it died on me again. Sam let me borrow a battery to jump it but it
wouldn’t start again. Cranks, but won’t turn over just like yday. Well
Sam doesn’t have time to diagnose the problem today. We pushed it out
of the way and I got a lift home. Called the buyer and told him to
hang on til tomorrow but he still wants to come out today and see if
he can get it running. He’s bringing a battery and plugs. What do you
guys think? I had the ignition igniter replaced about 13 years ago.
Payed for that myself. Was it a recall item? I’m asking cuz it was a
lot of money back then and I’m sure it’s more now. If that’s the
problem I want to see if Honda will pick up the cost. Not likely on a
17 year old car I know. Other guesses? coil? Main relay? I mentioned
that to Sam and he says he has no idea yet and won’t til he looks at
it. Once again any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Does this model have a relay to control the electric fuel pump? Many
Honda/Acura's have problems with cold solder joints on the "main relay",not
energizing the fuel pump,so not enough pressure to run the fuel
injection(for more than a second or two).

Google Honda main relay and see what you get.

 

The buyer came out and put new plugs, wires distributor cap, rotor
and battery in it and it ran fine.
Drove it away and I have another satisfied Ebay customer and my old
Civic has a happy new home . Thanks for the help guys.

 

BTW the problerm was the rotor. It was wobbling around loose in the
cap only occasionally making contact with the points. 3 of the plugs
were all fouled with oil.

 

I'm betting against the ignitor because intermittency isn't a common failure
mode for it.

Is the fuel a year old? If so, you can be sure it is bad. I don't know if
gasoline additives for injector cleaning will make it usable or not, but
it's cheap and easy, and sure beats the hassle of draining the tank and
disposing of the old gasoline.

You really need to determine whether the problem is fuel or ignition. A
spray of starter fluid into the air cleaner (close the air cleaner before
cranking) is a great way of determining whether it is delivering fuel. As
for the main relay, if you hear the fuel pump running for a few seconds when
the ignition switch is placed in the "on" position, that probably isn't the
problem.

Mike

 

Sorry - see you got it taken care of in another post.

 

dude, you wasted a lot of time. when ever u let a car sit that long, when u
go to use it again u always change all the fluids plugs, wires, cap rotor
fuel filters air filter, this is all easy to fix stuff, you can do it yoru
self. all these things can get corroded if they arent used in a longtime.
thats just the first thing u do.