99 Civic starting issue

Hello:

My 1999 Civic LX 4-dr sedan has the following problem: when I try to start
the car, it keeps trying but does not actually start. The battery is about
9months old. The car was in my garage for 4days and yesterday when I tried
to start it, no success.

Any ideas what might be the problem? I am planning on having it towed to a
dealership today. I just wanted to be semi-informed on what might be the
issues (and how much they could cost)?

Thanks.

 

when were the plugs last changed? what's the service history? mileage?

 

The car has 47k miles on it. I am the first owner. I have had regular
service done at Honda dealerships...the last was a 45k service which was
done about 4months ago. I went through the paperwork -- it does not appear
as though the plugs were cleaned/changed at that time.

 

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Don't have it towed. Parts don't fail while a car is sitting inside a
garage (unless the garage was struck by lightning) Read the chapter in
your manual called STARTING THE ENGINE. You've got a flooded engine
because one injector stuck open, and dribbled gas into the engine while
it was parked. My Odyssey did the same trick to us. Just do like the
manual says, and hold the pedal to the floor, crank it, and release the
pedal when it starts to run. It will blow a bit of black smoke.

Your dealer should know about this. the cure is to run some injector
cleaner thru it, or a couple tanks of Gasohol (see your manual)

'Curly'

 

standard plugs are rated for 30k - if they were not changed, they are a
prime candidate. if you can change them yourself, you're going to
change yourself a bunch of cash on having the dealer tow & do the same
thing for you.

you could probably translate your savings into one of these:

http://www.midwayautosupply.com/detailedproductdescription.asp?3352

which will save you a bunch of trouble in the future for this or any
other post 96 car you own. first thing any repair shop does is plug one
of these in & get the codes.

 

leaky injector could have flooded it? did ya try flooring the pedal
while cranking to let more air in?

 

it was likely done at the 30k service.

 

That's exactly how my igniter failed on my 90 accord. drove it
running fine. parked it for several days and when I tried to restart
it igniter was bad. replaced igniter and all is well. Had about 50K
miles on it when it happened.




(unless the garage was struck by lightning) Read the chapter in

 

Thanks for your response.

It was exactly what you said...I had to hold the pedal down fully and crank
it a couple of times. I now need to implement the injector cleaner part of
your message. Any suggestions on brand names for that product?

There was another response saying that spark plugs would have been replaced
at 30k. That is correct. I just looked at my 30k service records.

Thanks again.

 

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Techron seems to be the 'de facto' standard. It's an American product,
but I don't remember what gas station sells it. I'm in Canada, so I just
filled the sucker up with Mohawk 'PLUS' gas, two tanks must have cured it.

'Curly'

 

chevron... techron, techroline, something like that.

any time! ive got a 98 myself ive done all the work on. same service
intervals