my car just won't start...

vladlos · #1 01-24-2005, 10:56 AM

ok.. here's the situation. i have a 91 civic standard hatch. it was -1 out this morning and i got to start up my car but it cranks and cranks but wont start up. eventually my battery was like starting to die out after a few attempts. so i charged it up with the van at our house. tried starting it up again and nothing. so me and my neighbor pushed it into his garage and put a heater in the garage because he thought the fuel line was frozen or something. i come back an hour later and tried to start it up and all it does is crank. so i checked for spark... i've got spark. i checked for fuel and i've got fuel. so what else could it be?

1PhatCX · #2 01-24-2005, 11:22 AM

hmmmm.... ur fuel pump is clicking on? does it turn over fast or slow? try pulling the plugs out and cleaning em off

turtlecrxsi · #3 01-24-2005, 11:50 AM

Do you have any codes? You could have screwed up your dizzy or sensors on it. Check wiring. Grounds.

vladlos · #4 01-24-2005, 11:51 AM

it turns over pretty slowly but that's cus my battery was like starting to die. after i charged it from the van it turned over quickly.

i just tried retarding the ignition timing and advancing the ignition timing and nothing happened.

i do have a lot of play in my timing belt. like 1.5 inches? its supposed to be like 1/8 inch so i'm gonna go tighten it.

i'll go and clean off the spark plugs too.

vladlos · #5 01-24-2005, 11:53 AM

distributor seems fine i guess. i changed my coil like 3-4 months ago and my cap and rotor recently but..its getting spark so i dont really think its the distributor, but then again, i dunno. no codes, no check engine light. all my grounds are fine. as a matter of fact i have 3 more grounds than before so i really don't think its a problem.

turtlecrxsi · #6 01-24-2005, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vladlos

i do have a lot of play in my timing belt. like 1.5 inches? its supposed to be like 1/8 inch so i'm gonna go tighten it.

i'll go and clean off the spark plugs too.

That's a lot of play in the timing belt.

vladlos · #7 01-24-2005, 12:34 PM

ok, i checked my plugs, they're all clean and are all of a tan-ish brownish color so its all good. i tightened my belt and now there's only like an eighth of an inch of play. but......my car still won't start! god dammit

bambam89lx · #8 01-24-2005, 02:45 PM

it was running before you parked it?
and the only thing that changed is that the temperature is alot colder?
sounds to me like a fuel problem. or a fuse is blown. Check your starter and alternator fuse under ur steering wheel. If those are ok, then check all the fuses in your upper left hand corner of your engine bay. Make sure none of those are blown especially the ecu fuse.
no check engine lights?

integrod · #9 01-24-2005, 03:32 PM

i just had a similar prob with my si....it ran great when i parked it, then a week later after temps in the teens, it ran like hell when i started it up again, sputtering and missing, then eventually not starting at all. i thought it might be moisture in the gas tank since it was almost empty when i parked it, so i put 5 gallons of gas in it and some fuel line anti-freeze, and i noticed that the gas cap was not on all the way.....probably let alot of condensation build up. anyway, i put the gas in and it started up and ran like a champ. try it out.

vladlos · #10 01-24-2005, 04:24 PM

ok, here's what happened today.....after my last post today i went back to checking stuff on my car like the grounds and whatnt and i had brian (hybrid1990crx) and 2 other guys come over and help me out. we thought the timing belt skipped a tooth. so we retarded the timing... nothing. we advanced the timing..... nothing. we checked everything. oil pressure, fuel pressure, air. we checked spark and gap setting on the spark plugs and everytrhing was ok except the gaps were at like .044-.045 . we were stumped, we dont know what to do. it worked perfectly fine yesterday, it ran extremely well actually... and then today, nothing. we did somewhat of a compression check and everything was fine and then we took paper and put it on the exhaust tips and as the car would crank the paper would try to get sucked inside the pipes.

we thought maybe i had bent valves but i dunno. brian said i could have his old a6 if i pay for the cam/camgear.

we checked the fuses in the upper left hand corner of the engine bay and they were all fine. i'm gonna go check the starter and alternator fuses under the steering wheel now.

vladlos · #11 01-24-2005, 04:44 PM

fuses are fine. i guess i'm just gonna go and get some more gas and get some of that fuel anti-freeze stuff even though i dont want to be putting in other additional crap in my fuel.

Deadhead · #12 01-24-2005, 05:10 PM

Does it smell bad when u crank it?

vladlos · #13 01-24-2005, 05:14 PM

it smells like fuel

icE_x · #14 01-24-2005, 05:21 PM

weird...maybe since the timing is so off, something was damaged internally?

bambam89lx · #15 01-24-2005, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by icE_x

weird...maybe since the timing is so off, something was damaged internally?

i doubt there is anything really wrong with your motor if it was running strong before you parked it. It prolly has something to do with the cold weather. It wouldn't jump timing by just sitting there not running....lol...think about it logically. did you check the thermostat ground behind the starter?

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