Civic Starting Problem

Since the radiator burst, flooded and stalled the engine on my 1993 Honda
Civic with more than 150 thousand miles on it, I am experiencing
intermittant starting problems on cold and damp mornings. The starter turns
the engine but it won't start. After several cranking attempts over three
or four minutes the engine sputters slowly to life. I changed the ignition
coil, but no help.
Could have I injested coolant? What parts might have been affected? The
engine runs very good after it starts, it's a little tired because of it's
age, but runs good.
I would appreciate any advice.
RichR

 

With the engine flooding, do you mean that coolant sprayed all over the
engine or that it appeared flooded in that it has too much gas?
Have you determined that the spark was indeed a problem, since you
needed to replace the coil?

Bad wires sometimes can cause conditions like this as well. If you
replaced the wires, cap, rotor, coil, did you use orginal Honda parts
(makes a big difference).

You might have hosed some of the electrical components down with
coolant, but one would doubt it finds its way inside the engine.
You could try and clean all electrical components and connections well
- WD40 is not a very good lubricant, but it does tend to dry things out
very well and cleans connections.

Remco

 

That this correlates to damp mornings (which cold ISTM would
exacerbate) strongly suggests the distributor needs a
thorough drying out. I would start by replacing the cap and
rotor with OEM (= genuine Honda ones). That's around $30 for
parts. Labor is straightforward. Consider removing the
distributor housing and letting it sit in a warm house for a
day, too. If all of this doesn't help, then consider
replacing the housing seal. Be gentle with all distributor
parts. Its connections are fine electrical ones. Moisture
ingress can foul it up. Forcing the cap on incorrectly is
easy to do. The top holds the coil. Don't let it take a
blow. One side of the housing holds the igniter; its wire
harness connections can start snapping off.

A full tuneup could certainly help. It's due every few
years, anyway. Also you don't want minor problems, easily
remedied by a tuneup, to compound your troubleshooting.
Check ignition wire resistance; all should be less than 15k
ohms. If not OEM wires, then replace them, period. Spark
plugs should be as recommended by the owner's manual,
period. NGK spark plugs one of a few the manual recommends
and what I use in my 91 Civic. Platinum plugs are not
necessary. Replace air filter and fuel filter, unless you
know they're less than two years old. Then at least inspect
and shake out the air filter (though moisture wear won't be
obvious). If possible, get a timing light and check the
timing, per the online 93 Civic manual at www.autozone.com .
Also per the manual top off and purge the cooling system of
air.

Your engine may be flooding, due to leaky fuel injectors.
Buy a bottle of Chevron Techron injector etc. cleaner for $6
at WalMart, dump into a near empty fuel tank, fillup.

What you describe does not sound serious, and I'd be
optimistic it can be remedied over several hours and for
under $150 (which may include a tuneup that is due, anyway).

www.tegger.com/hondafaq reinforces several of the points
above, particularly under the running/starting problems
section.

Updates welcome, to help others in the future.

Ingested where? Into the distributor housing? Sure. Into the
engine? Not from the radiator itself bursting.

You sure you don't mean something like the engine cylinder
head gasket failed? That would get coolant into the engine
cylinders.

 

Elle responded:

Elle got this one right.

The antifreeze together with water conducts
electricity sufficiently to cause this malfunction. It
occurs almost certainly at the high voltage side of the
ignition system. Likely places would be those where a
film of antifreeze between a high voltage point and
ground can be formed. I am talking in general terms
because I have no knowledge about the 93 Civic. Very
likely, you do not have to replace anything; repeated
wiping with a wet cloth, even washing with water, to
remove the antifreeze will be enough. But be sure to
get the water off. Then, after the items are clean and
dry, apply a >thin< film of silicone grease (shouldn't
be visible) and the problems will be gone.

Disregard what Elle wrote after her first paragraph.



..

 

Can you at leat critique what she wrote after her first paragraph? I've got
some of the same stuff on my Web site. If it's wrong, I want to correct it.

 

Date: Wed, Jan 25 2006 12:37 pm

You know it better.

Irrelevant stuff needs no critique.


..

 

Saying something is wrong or irrelevant without stating reason makes
your post irrelevant.

Aren't you the Karl that also critiqued (different thread) as to where
to measure voltage when there is no current running?
You are like a thread seagull - you crap all over the thread and then
leave.