Rep Power: 0

Looking for direction and guidance with this civic. Have replaced fuel pump, filter, pressure regulator, plugs, crank and cam sensors chasing down a starting issue. Car is not mine, simply trying to help this unfortunate elderly person. The car will start after cranking on it for a while. It acts like a carburetorated (if that is a word) car. I have pulled plugs and they are very wet. Car runs fairly well after starting. Idle gets a little goofy at times. Will restart easily when hot, but if it cools down for more than an hour takes lots of cranking. Could the injectors and throttle body be dirty??
Any help would be appreciated. I'm almost

 
Rep Power: 517

Got a check engine light on?
Got codes?


Got a scanner that can let you see live operating data from the computer?
Are the two temp sensors pretty close in readings after the engine is stone cold?


Got pure gasoline in the tank, or could the fuel be contaminated.....with diesel or something?



Is the crank-cam relationship out of time by a tooth or two?

Got any other symptoms you didn't mention, like say the engine won't go higher than 3000, or the gauges act whacky?




During the periods it won't start, does it soak the spark plugs or are they dry?
Does the fuel pump run every time you crank it?


How much did those cost,
where did they come from,
and do you still have the original parts?

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks for the reply Ezone.
CEL came on today. Got it cleared a few weeks ago by replacing thermostat. I do have code reader that connects to an old lap top, That's how we found the bad thermostat. I'm not sure about two temperature sensors to read a "stone cold". There's two??
There's today's real gas in car. He filled up again yesterday and drove less then 20 miles and he's telling me there's now half a tank. He smells gas when he gets out. Sees no puddles. Pulled out back seat to view gas tank, nothing visible that points to a leak.
I don't know about the timing. he has had this car into two, maybe three, garages where they keep it for weeks, charge an ungodly amount simply to have the same issue. The last me left the timing belt cover loose and a couple other things not bolted down.
I'm a Volvo DIY guy. These Honda's are much different. With that being said, all internal combustion engines require the same things to happen at the right times in order to run. I know Paul and I can get this thing to run right before 2020 comes around.
This started with a bad fuel pump and filter. Diagnosed by placing thumb over tank discharge line with the key on. Wasn't much pressure. That's changed a lot, lots of pressure. Maybe to much??? He was told by someone to change fuel reg, so he did. I had to go back in the tank to fix his fix. I know that is in right.
Can this engine jump timing?? That's the one thing I haven't wanted to look at since I'm not at all familiar with how it is setup.
Another symptom appeared today, idle goes all other the place. Please know that this has been going on since last October. Just a warning you might get adopted like whats happened to me.
Thanks

 
Rep Power: 138

Can you test fuel pressure to see if it's within spec?

 
Rep Power: 517

One of the basic checks for temp sensor accuracy is to check the ECT and IAT sensor readings after the car has sat overnight, before the engine has been started, and before the car has sat in the sun and heated up. The two sensor readings should be very close to each other in that cold soak or "stone cold" condition.

Did you remove the inspection cover to see the top of the pump module? Slide under the car to look around the tank for wet stains there? Or very strong fresh fuel smell there?
Any EVAP codes stored?


Have YOU verified it is raw gasoline smell, and not raw exhaust smell coming from a cracked exhaust manifold?
Front or rear of car? Inside or outside?
Mechanic is broken. Replace mechanic.
Simple, yet superbly engineered cars.


A fuel pressure gauge would reveal nothing but truth. Anything less is guessing.

I've made that same mistake too.
Where's the fuel smell coming from?

Yeah, that's why I listed it in my previous reply.

The last mechanic left the cover halfway loose for you. Lift valve cover, remove top timing cover.
Timing marks are easy to locate. Search here or google image search 'D17 timing marks' or something like that.


It's been at the mechanics shop for the last 10 months? Daaaang.