dkrege

Alright, so i have a 02 lx and the other day while i was taking a left turn the car suddenly died and it will not start back up. It cranks strong but will not start. The first thing i checked was the timing belt, as my engine would be due for one and it is still intact. The next thing i checked was to hear the fuel pump prime, which it does. i sprayed some 'extremely flammable' liquid into the intake as i cranked it and opened the throttle a little bit and it didnt make any attempt to start. This leads me to believe i have an electrical problem, as i seemingly dont have spark. Although all the rest of the electrical components seem to be working normally, I also checked all the fuses and none were popped. what are some potential issues that I should check out?
The engine was running normally up until the moment the car died, and now im pretty stumped. Any input would be great.

rr081709

I'm curious about what you definition of seem to be working properly is... have you checked the spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor but ignition coil or ignition control module? I'm having a similar problem with my 99 civic was running and just stopped, i've had a problem like this before and it was the ICM. I replaced the ignition coil due to being faulty but still will not start. These all seem to be the most common electrical component that fail at least from my experience....

dkrege

basically by that i just mean that we all the accessories and whatnot are still working. Honestly i didnt check the plugs because i assumed that unless all 4 went out at once that wouldnt be the problem. starting in 01 from what i understand civics no longer had a distributor. I dont really know the ins and outs of the electrical system, and i dont really know what to check next

ezone

Explain exactly how you checked this please.





Next question: Is it in time?

dkrege

I removed the valve cover and was able to see the top of the belt, i assumed that if it was broken it would have a space between it and the pulley, or look buckled. Im not sure how to check its timing, can you simply use the marks on the cam and crank shafts to check that they're in time? I changed the timing belt on my friends 03 lx so im familiar with it, but I wouldnt know if its out of time.

ezone

Yes.

I would pull the valve cover and the upper timing cover off and use the timing marks on the harmonic balancer pulley and the cam gear.

Similar to this, but this is a pic of an older engine:




These are more like what your engine has:





If you set the harmonic balancer pulley is set to the 0 degree mark and keep it there, you don't need to remove it to see this timing gear on the crankshaft.
You only need to find the UP word and marks on the cam gear now to verify timing is right or wrong.

HTH

scooty

Put more gas in the car

I wouldn't turn the motor over any more until you can verify it's in time.

mikey1

1 - never assume anything when troubleshooting

2 - check the timing marks, if they are fine proceed to step 3

3 - remove all spark plugs

4 - do a spark test on all 4 plugs/coils