1997 Honda Civic DX Starting Problems

My 1997 Honda Civic DX started for two or three seconds then died. The
engine turns over fine but will not start or even fire. When I disconnect
the fuel line at the manifold to check for pressure and flow, the engine
starts. It runs until the fuel in the injection manifold is gone. When
the fuel line is hooked back up, the engine will not fire. Removing the
fuel line from the manifold brings the same result every time. It did
this last winter once, but came back to life and has ran fine since.

 

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Is the outside temperature below freezing, and have you been keeping
your tank fairly full, or running on 'E' ? Have you ever used gas line
antifreeze?

'Curly'

 

Curly,
It's just above freezing and has been for several days. I've never used
gas line antifreeze but do put fuel injector cleaner in every other tank.
I generally drive off of the top of the tank. It's 3/4 full now.

 

So your car is running now?
Or it only runs briefly when you disconnect the fuel line?

Have you checked your fuel pressure? Also be sure to check your filter.

 

Fuel pressure is good and filter is only 6 months old. The car only runs
after the fuel line is disconnected and the fuel mixture runs lean (for
about 10 seconds). I checked the resistance across A & B on the igniter
and got 1 to 1.2 ohms. The book calls for .5 to .6. A to coil was OK
(15.9 ohms). Is the difference in ohms across A & B enough to warrant a
new igniter? Also, this seems to be a cold/wet weather problem.
Any help is appreciated!

 

I don't think your ignitor is the problem -- that is basically just a
switch, causing 12V to pulse on the coil.
If the ignitor was bad, you would not be able to start the car with the
fuel line disconnected.
Also measuring low resistance is tricky with most meters -- you'll have
a hard time telling the difference between 1.2 and .6 ohms. In low
resistance ranges, only a four wire setup could measure it properly so
I wouldn't worry about the discrepancy in resistance.

When the car doesn't start, does it appear flooded? I wonder if one of
the injectors is stuck open or somehow is injector related. Maybe you
removing the fuel line causes it not to flood and start for that brief
instance.

 

When the car is turning over and not starting, it is just on the verge of
firing. I've never had an injector out. Is that something only for the
professionals? Also, I noticed what appears to be a regulator on the fuel
rail. Could this be a suspect?
Your help is certainly appreciated.

 

Not absolutely sure what would happen if your pressure is too high, but
one would imagine that this could cause the car to flood. I'd check
the pressure, since you taking the pressure off the system stops this
from happening and allows you to start the car, as you mentioned.

Also, after you pressurize the fuel system (by just turning the key and
not starting), you could see if an injector is leaking by watching the
pressure: If it stays where it is, your injectors are most likely fine
in that respect. If the pressure slowly decays, you have an injector
leaking into the cylinder.

There might be others here that have other good ideas and perhaps have
seen this before.
Just be careful working with injectors. Besides them being fairly
fragile, you don't want to make a mistake and start a fire.

Remco

 

Epilogue - I re-installed the igniter after testing it, and put the
distributor back together. Touched nothing else. Car started right up
and will not repeat the problem. Bad connection in the wiring in the
distributor? I still don't understand why relieving the fuel pressure in
the fuel rail would aid in the engine momentarily firing. Thanks for
responding to my posts.

 

Yeah.. That doesn't make very much sense to me either. Owell, you must
have reseated a connection somewhere. Let's hope it remains seated.

Congratulations on keeping that money in your pocket
Remco