no start 89 honda civic 1.5

The car has 230,000 miles on the body and 130,000 on replaced SOHC1.5
Dual Point Injected . While driving the car began to miss, it was
parked for a day then it wouldnt start. 5 months later i replaced the
fuel filter and put in some new plugs and it started and ran well for
about 30minutes then it bogged down and died again, any ideas?
maybe just old gas, on high mileage car with an old fuel tank...

 

wrote in @o42g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:

Got spark?

 

Sorta sounds like a dying coil..

JT

 

yeah i have spark on all the plugs

 

also, when trying to pull out the primary ingector for a visual check
i broke off the plastic connector, i have that replaced with a
remanufactured one..., when i pulled off the old fuel filter i dumped
it out and dark brown gas came out, im still thinking there is some
crap in the tank from being run on empty to many times, so i put the
backend of the car on jacks and lowered the fuel tank and drained the
old gas which came out very yellow, and took off the fuel line that
goes to the filter from the tank and disconnected the connection at
the filter and used compressed air to blow that line out of any
buildup, there were some small particles that came out that like
dust .

now after reading almost everything on your website im starting to
worry that it might not be anything related with the fuel system at
all. when i turn the ignition on i can hear the fuel pump turn on ,
so idont know, the ingector cost me 80bucks for that mistake, its
probably something simple right,

i was thinking that maybe the filter on the fuel pump might be clogged
up, after 230,000miles

thanks for your response!

 

open the air bleed plug at the top of the filter and turn the ignition
on - if the pump's pumping, you'll get plenty of gas out. next time,
unless one is /known/ to have failed, never touch the injectors on the
dpfi - they're ultra reliable. and removal requires a special puller to
get them out without damage.

next step is look for stored codes on the ecu - report back accordingly.

also how old are the plugs? are they bosch? if so, replace with oem
ngk plugs - my experience with bosch is exactly as you describe - work
fine one day, will even spark out of the car, but the car will /never/
start. toss them out and replace. do the same for the plug leads too
while you're at it. only use honda oem or the expensive high quality
coiled core leads from ngk or magnecor. make sure the leads are on in
the right order - it's not unknown for the neighbor kids to mess things
about.

 

right now the battery is on charge, but the plugs are brand new ngk

i will get the battery back in and check for codes soon

 

With your decription of the gas, I'd say you have a fuel problem,
all right. Brown and yellow gas doesn't burn particularly well.

If the spark is nice and blue, it's fine.

And you should be able to find decent injectors at a local wreckers for a
lot less than $80.

 

most wreckers want to keep the injectors with the engines, and arent
willing to sell them seperatly, in the greater Dallas area i couldnt
get a single yard to let me pull one.

so, i guess its a fuel pump. i think that it might be worth totally
disconnecting the tank,

 

This will not be "worth it" until after you have
checked/replace a number of other, much easier to check
items. I base this on the many reports of no start here and
their remedy. Rarely has the problem been the fuel pump. You
need to check the items listed at Tegger's site. E.g.

-- check the main relay. See Tegger's site for quick ways to
diagnose this.
-- Are ignition parts (wires, plugs, distributor rotor and
cap) OEM? Yup they cost more. That's because they last way
longer. I say this as a cheapskate who learned the hard way.
Check the wires' resistance. Car sounds like it's due for a
tuneup, anyway.
-- Put a bottle of Chevron Techron fuel system cleaner into
a near empty tank, filled the tank, and run?

You have an old car with an engine with an unknown history.
You want to start with as clean a slate as possible when
diagnosing, and one that has to be cleaned anyway for
optimal operation.

 

when i replaced the fuel pump before i checked and all the plugs had
spark, now NO SPARK...the plugs are new the cables have little
resistance none over 14000ohms, the distributor is in good shape and
so is the rotor(they look like new but probly not OEM), i found the
elusive Main relay and it passed the 3 click test, i tested the
ignitor and on the white wire i couldnt get continuity from the white
to ground, my book says to look for an open on the white wire or
check for ground on G101 and G151, but i cant seem to find G101 or
g151 ,and the white leads to the ECU if im not mistaken but no visible
open, the ground on the thermostat is solid and uncorroded, a new
dist cap and rotor might do the trick so i will go to get those
tonight

anyways thanks for all the constructive criticsm, the quest continues,
this forum discussion board is so nice to fall back
on ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,thanks all!

 

ok so new distcap and rotor, still no spark???

 

okay just threw on some good working cables and no spark, so its
either the coil or the igniter right?

 

Unless some non-OEM part is not working, then I would next
check the coil and igniter. Use Tegger's site
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/faq.html#startrun for tips on
checking each, plus the several free online manuals for your
89 Civic, like at autozone.com and
http://www.honda.co.uk/car/owner/workshop.html

 

see if it will pump through the bleed before you do that. absolutely no
point doing work based on guesses - be sure of your diagnosis first.

 

check out the igniter pages at tegger.com.

 

i have an 90 honda civic Shop Service Mnual and im going through the
test...

 

here are some relevant topics on which the manual is insufficient.

1. main relay - you still need to pull it and check it.
2. igniter testing.
3. coil testing.

that's why those of us with experience in this stuff refer you to the
collective knowledge contained in tegger.com. or you can keep wasting
your [our] fucking time. your call.

 

yes i have been reading the fucking tegger page , im working on it,
sorry to waste your fucking time!

 

Just sharing opinions. The shop manual is helpful for coil
and igniter diagnostics. So is Tegger's site. Use both,
afaic. Your 90 Civic manual may not nail exactly your 89
Civic. Maybe skim the 89 Civic CRX manual at the UK site,
for one.

Elle
Original owner, 91 Civic, with its igniter, coil, and
distributor housing all replaced at least once by yours
truly, with help from this group and the manual (Tegger's
site did not have info on this then).