Won't start when warm sometimes.

Hi all,

Could somebody please give me some ideas? I drive my Civic around the city. Sometimes if I stop at a store for a minute or two, my 91 Civic tends to not want to start. I'll sit there, grinding away at the starter for 5 or 10 minutes sometimes. It eventually starts, possibly when it cools enough. The problem only occurs maybe once a week. It's had a recent tune up, and runs flawlessly otherwise. Any suggestions?

Main relay. Use the search to find the exact location and stuff.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=118785

Get your head about underneath the dash where your looking up at the steering wheel. Look towards the driver door, and up in the dash and you'll find it. :smile:

i hear main relay way too much. that's like the instant answer.

check this out guys...generally it is the coil or ignitor in the dizzy. it is the most common problem we see at our shop.it's more common for it to be the ignitor over the coil. however, i have noticed that when an ignitor goes bad the coil shortly follows.

next time your car dies, check for spark. if no spark then you know where the problem lies. the bad news is that the easiest way to check for spark is a 2 person job. pull a spark plug out and have it touch the plug wire, then ground the sparking end of the plug. the best way is to hook/loop it into the wires of the ground wire attached to your valve cover. then have somebody start the car as the other person watches for spark. you're looking for a good spark. a weak or no spark at all means ignitor/coil

good luck! try it out and let us know how it goes :thumbsup:

Thanks for the info guys. I'll check it out.

I was just gonna say to check the coil and/or igniter...

i have that identical problem. it's intermittant, though, and it only happens in select locations... certain gas stations... certain parking lots.

if i drop off a payment for my car insurance at the insurance office, parking anywhere in that lot will make my car not want to start for about 2 minutes.

a certain gas station in the area. same story

my bank. same story.


there are a few other locations, but usually it's those places. the parking spots are, granted, slightly, slightly uneven. but my car WILL crank at more extreme angles... my aunt's driveway, for example.


anyway, someone posted this problem last week and an answer was that gas vaporizes because the engine is warm, before it reaches the engine, and somehow that does some kinda something that makes gremlins keep your engine from cranking. i dunno. it was explained a little better by that other guy.