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I am new to the Forum, so if this is in the wrong place, sorry.
2003 Civic LX 4 door 221,000 miles, original owner, no aftermarket modifications.
I have tried everything I can think of with the car but here is the problem.
My wife was at a stop light and the car just died on her.
It had/ has about 1/2 a tank of gas left. It will crank but not start. I have 44+/- psi at fuel pump and fuel coming out of the line in at fuel rail. I have spark at all four plugs (just put 4 brand new ones in)
Timing belt is intact and looks good.
Battery is in good condition.
Fuses are all tested and all working.

Cant figure it out and about ready to part her out (don't want to).

Terry

 
Rep Power: 518

Welcome.
You hit the right place.

Do the injectors click or pulse, do they squirt fuel? Are they being triggered by the computer?

Aaaand were the plugs wet or dry?




Is it still in correct time?


Got codes?
Got a scanner that can display live operating data?
Does the check engine light come on when you turn the key on?
Is the green key light flashing angrily while you try to start it?

Has there been any strange issues leading up to this point? Gauges acting weird, loss of power, hard to accelerate?

 
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Sorry it took me a bit to get back and reply.

I have not got a chance to pull or test the injectors.

Old plugs were a little wet not overly so.

As far as the correct time. I do not know, that was my next thing I was going to try and figure out.

I am taking it over to a buddies shop to get it scanned and checked out (he owes me a favor).

Thanks for the Help I will post the results and any more questions when I get the car back.

 
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Ok. I hit this thread in a Google search. This is exactly my situation only it is a 2004 civic lx. I also am baffled. Have spark and gas (wet plugs and it shoots out of spark plug holes when cranked with the plugs out). Car does not even sound like it fires at all while cranking. Terry never posted his solution....help!

 
Rep Power: 518

Flooded? How did it get flooded? Did someone start the engine and not let it run long enough to get warned up? Did it jump time? Got fault codes?

Assuming it is JUST flooded due to circumstances or operator error and nothing else is wrong
Dry the cylinders out and dry or replace the plugs (wet plugs won't fire), disable fuel injection and crank several times with spark plugs removed to try to expel raw fuel

Re-oil the cylinders so the rings can seal again and restore some compression, pour a couple tablespoons of engine oil through each of the spark plug holes
crank again with plugs left out to distribute that oil in the cylinders and to make sure excess oil is blown out and you won't bend connecting rods

(always lay a towel over the spark plug holes while cranking, this should help catch any liquids that come out of the spark plug holes ---to reduce messes)

Reinstall plugs.
Hold gas pedal flat to the floor during cranking (deflood mode, fuel is not injected) until you hear it try to fire. After it tries to fire you will have to use the gas pedal to work the fuel on and off until it will run on its own.

 
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Hello ezone, thanks for the reply.

Flooded? How did it get flooded?
Well actually it is what I would expect from an engine that was cranking and not firing. Injectors are squirting, gas is accumulating.

Did someone start the engine and not let it run long enough to get warned up?
Nope. Hasnt so much as burped since it died last week. It quietly stalled while running and would crank and not start.

Did it jump time?
Good question. Timing belt seemed tight from the fingers I could get on it. Other 4 cyl cars Ive had that jumped time still detonated the gas in the cylinders, but then you could rotate the distributor and get them to run like crap. Can I still check this with a timing light on this car?

Got fault codes?
Somebody made off with the scanner, trying to line up another one...
Are fault codes reliable when the engine wont start?

I really dont think it is just flooded since there were 1-2 days between start attempts before I had it towed home. And we have tried the de-flood procedure a couple of times...

Assuming it is JUST flooded due to circumstances or operator error and nothing else is wrong
Dry the cylinders out and dry or replace the plugs (wet plugs won't fire), disable fuel injection and crank several times with spark plugs removed to try to expel raw fuel

Re-oil the cylinders so the rings can seal again and restore some compression, pour a couple tablespoons of engine oil through each of the spark plug holes
crank again with plugs left out to distribute that oil in the cylinders and to make sure excess oil is blown out and you won't bend connecting rods

(always lay a towel over the spark plug holes while cranking, this should help catch any liquids that come out of the spark plug holes ---to reduce messes)

Reinstall plugs.
Hold gas pedal flat to the floor during cranking (deflood mode, fuel is not injected) until you hear it try to fire. After it tries to fire you will have to use the gas pedal to work the fuel on and off until it will run on its own.[/QUOTE]

Thanks,
Snarksdad

 
Rep Power: 518

Quote:

It quietly stalled while running and would crank and not start.

"Died while running" makes the flooded diagnosis completely different. There must be a reason (usually some failure) that caused it to quit running.


That would be tricky. Probably easier to just pull the top timing cover and roll the crank to see if all the marks align correctly, as you say you already had the timing belt exposed?

Sure can be.
Let's see what you have for codes first.
If you can get ahold of a scanner that can supply live data, even better. Check out all the temp sensor values, see if they are plausible for a cold engine.
Wet plugs are still flooded and won't fire easily, but now the root cause still needs to be found and remedied.
Deflood procedure can still take forever to work even when all is operating correctly, and the loss of compression may still be helped by re-oiling the cylinders......Sometimes unplugging fuel injectors can help as far as stopping additional fuel from entering the engine until you want it to.

Heck, if you figure out what caused it to stall and fix that, it may fire up and run without extra help.

 
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Yeah, wouldn't that be great. I'm almost afraid I have...

Still have not located a scanner but the symptoms to me really indicate the timing belt has jumped. Someone suggested the MAF so I pulled that off today and had it cranked while I held the butterfly open on the intake. Exhaust gasses were puffing out of the intake. I can't think of anything that would do that except way off timing...
Watched some youtubes on timing belt replacement and I don't see how I can tell if the belt slipped without pulling the entire cover off and verifying the crank pulley with the cam pulley. I mean sure I can pull the top off and roll it until the cam pulley marks show TDC but without seeing the crank marks at the same time, how would I know if it slipped.

Got a simple(r) way of checking timing belts slips?

Thanks,
Snarksdad

 
Rep Power: 518

You only need to pull the top timing cover to inspect.
The crank pulley and cover have a set of timing marks right on them, no need to pull lower cover to see anything inside until you are ready to see inside.

Align crank to TDC then check the marks on the cam gear. If the word UP is not at the top of the cam gear, spin the crank one more revolution.