So I visited my girlfriend this weekend in Wisconsin, a good 300 miles away from my school in Iowa (God, two states I absolutely hate) and I went to leave last night around 6 and my car wouldn't start. This is the first time the Honda has ever given me trouble that I haven't induced myself through monkeying around. So, the car turns over but it won't start. The battery is fine, we jumped it and I was actually giving power to the other car, no clicking from mine. So I'm thinking no fuel or no spark. On the fuel end, I'm pretty sure that neither the fuel pump nor filter have been changed since I've owned it. I turn the ignition on a few times before turning it over to build fuel pressure but that didn't help much, it fired a few times once. On the spark end, I haven't changed anything with the distributor or the wires so that could be the case too. It was raining a little bit last night making the wires a bit wet so I had my girlfriend turn it over a few times and I didn't observe any arcing of the wires. Do any of you have some relatively easy (and cheap) suggestions to try?

 

Take out a spark plug and ground it to the engine. Crank it to see if you have spark. This sounds like a coil/ignighter issue, but you may also need a cap, rotor, wires and plugs since you've never changed them ..... these wouldn't cause the stranded condition though.

 

You can crack the banjo bolt (12 or 14 mm open end) on the fuel rail (where supply line meets fuel injection rail) after turning keyswitch to ON. You should get a sharp powerful spray of fuel. If nothing or a dribble, low fuel pressure is the problem.

good luck

 

Be sure to check the fuses. It's unlikely but its free and easy.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm hopefully going to check all of those tomorrow. You have no idea how hard it is to find tools besides a hammer, especially metric, at a college. It's just so odd that it ran perfectly on Friday and I go to start it again it won't work.

 

I agree with TexasHonda. Download an online manual from the DIY section (they are available for your car.) If you have an AutoZone nearby, they will either lend you a tool or tools, or you can buy a set of metric and a set of standard open end wrenches for pretty cheap. If it is the fuel filter (keep your fingers crossed) it can be fixed yourself for around $20. It sounds like it is about time for a fuel filter change anyway.

 

go to the DIY section there are some write ups on How to diagnose if it is lack of fuel..

 

Okay I went out to my car and undid the banjo nut, sprayed fuel everywhere that was fun. I also unplugged each spark plug wire and put a screwdriver in them and they arced to the engine block. I might just give up and have a buddy tow it to a shop. I've already missed more class that I need to.

 

I'm checking plugs tomorrow morning. I noticed a few months back that one (maybe two) had oil on them. So I might even get to change seals tomorrow too! If so, I'm not looking forward to taking off my valve cover in the parking lot.

 

You should go to http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/faq.html which has some excellent diagnostic advice for hondas. Just look at the starting/running problems.

You need to pay attention to the color of the spark as stated in the website above while grounding the sparkplug.

TexasHonda and I were involved in a thread from another forum that took forever to figure solve, because the guy saw a spark when he pulled the spark plug and grounded it. It turned out to be the coil wasn't providing a decent spark.

After firing countless suggestions to him (that never worked), he tried to test the timing, and there wasn't enough current to flash the timing light. That was when we told him to change the coil and the car fired right up.

Since you want to get back to Iowa (trust me Illinois is just as bad) I would call some local junkyards and see if they have a coil or ignition control module for your car. Also explain to them your situation and see if they will let you return a part since you are trying to diagnose the problem.