Motor possibly shot?

So, here as of late, my car has been cutting off on me while at a low idle. It usually starts right up though. This morning, it cut off while I was driving at about 45 mph. Luckily, I was able to pull to a stop off of the road in a parking lot. This time, it wouldn't turn over.

So, I pulled the battery thinking it might be dead. I took it to O'Reillys and they charged it fully. Took it back and it wouldn't crank. So, my brother in law came up there and checked everything he could think of. He pulled the spark plugs and low and behold, they had oil on them, but only on the bottom. So, he pulled the top of the head off and everything looked good there. He thinkgs it is probably the rings, which basically means replacing the motor since it would only be a little more money to put in a ZC.

Question is, anyone else had this type of problem and what solved it. I'm hoping it's something easier to fix and less expensive. If not then I know where my income tax refund is going to.

you friend thinks your rings are shot because the motor suddenly wont turn over? sounds like we have a genious on our hands.

first thing id be checking since the battery is good, would be the connections at the starter, and the lines going to it.

for the dying issue, check to make sure you are getting spark and fuel. then come back and tell us whats up.

No, he thought the rings might be shot because the oil was on the bottom end of the spark plugs. Plus, he's my brother in law, and he works on cars all the time so he's no dummy when it comes to Hondas.

He already tested to make sure I was getting spark and fuel and both are fine. However, it now seems that there was no oil on the electrodes and that it might actually be the spark plug seals or the head gasket.

check main relay always something to look at...and if you think bad head gasket man you be smoking like a mother down the road...also is ecu throwing any codes if so get the codes and come back and post them

I know he checked the map sensor and it was clean. CPU was clean and no codes were being shown. He even brought a spare cpu and it checked ok as well.

I've totally been forgetting to state that this is in a 1988 Civic 4 door, 1.5 sohc. Automatic trans and no mods done to it.

main relay, and check all ur grounds, mine wouldnt start because the ground on the tranny was loose

No, he thought the rings might be shot because the oil was on the bottom end of the spark plugs. Plus, he's my brother in law, and he works on cars all the time so he's no dummy when it comes to Hondas.

He already tested to make sure I was getting spark and fuel and both are fine. However, it now seems that there was no oil on the electrodes and that it might actually be the spark plug seals or the head gasket.

i had to replace those once. really, though, they weren't doing anything except coating the outside of the spark plugs in oil. car ran fine.

lol...
replace the ignition coil
same problem happened to me about a year ago,
correct me if im incorrect,but the coil is going bad,
pretty soon,it'll stop working!

I had a simalar problem, totally different solution. My O2 senser had the wire ripped out of it and would cause the engine to just die all of a sudden, then it wouldnt crank...turned out that the clutch safety switch had lost the little wax plug thing, and was going through the pedal and not getting hit. It was wierd and my car sat in a parking lot for like 2 days...

Well, we've been trying to find the problem with no luck so far. The timing belt, ignition coil and fuel system are fine. So are the spark plugs. My father in law, that knows a ton more than I do, thinks it seems to be some kind of wiring problem somewhere. He examined the valve cover and head and everything seems in order.

It's strange because when you try to turn it over the battery gets weaker and weaker and it starts bogging while it tries to turn over.

are you getting power to the ecu? should give 1 blink when first started to show power. if it stays on indefinetly its internal in the ecu.

Yeah, there's power to the ecu. My father in law has been doing some researching and he said something about some kind of fuel relay or something. Something about it clicking 3 times when the car is turned on before it's cranked. Basically, the car acts like it's flooded and the battery gets sluggish as you try to start it.

Well, I'm pretty sure I have bad injectors now. I've gone over a few people's posts on the net and they seem to have the same exact problems. New injectors solved their issues.

the "fuel relay" is the main relay.

to check for injectors when cranking the motor put a screw driver on the injector and the platic part to your ear, you should be able to hear them clicking. or if you have access to a scope, you can hook it up and check for your pulse width and voltage spike.

im just curious, if your letting people who have worked on cars before, diagnose your car......................why hasnt anyone done a compression and leakdown yet if there is oil on the plugs?????????????????????

i dont think its a compression issue or else it would have been running like shit all the time and not just cutting out on him. but yeah oil on the plugs aint helping either.

may not be compression, but, oil on the electrodes combined with the comp and leakdown will help you narrow some problems down.

Well, it's not the inhectors. My brother in law is going to go pull the whole throttle body from his old CRX and see if that does it. As of right now, we figure it has to be either one of the sensors or the ECU.

:banghead: :banghead:

did you check for power to the ecu?

no offence but your brother in law sounds like a hack.

Yeah, the ecu is getting power. My father in law thinks it might be the main relay. My brother in law thinks it might be either a sensor or the ecu. Going to test them as soon as I get the time between my two jobs.

I trust my brother in law since he owns a Prelude and a CRX(his 3rd one) and he does his own work, including a complete motor swap on the CRX and complete electrical work on the Prelude. We're actually planning on pulling the whole throttle body from another CRX dpfi and seeing if that helps. He's got a spare ecu from it also but he has to find it first.

Soon as I get a little spare cash I plan on picking up a compression kit.

Well, I replaced the ECU and no go. Only thing left to check is the throttle body, which I will be pulling soon. After that, I have no ideas left.