Civic break down

[honfit]

Try tapping on idle air control valve located below throttle body while cranking engine. Also try to determine if spark is present at spark plugs by pulling one and grounding it against valve cover,also while cranking.
GOOD LUCK I work at a Honda dealership and this is the advice of 2 techs....
Honfit (Sean)

[SentraSE-R]

Sorry, I don't know Hondas. The initial 2000 rpm surge sounds like the engine ran lean. Have you pulled the sparkplugs and examined them? Have you run a compression test on each cylinder?

I hope you can fix it without it getting as expensive as I'm thinking it might be.

[jakobnev]

I see you car has the same hair brained design with the ignition module and coil inside the distributor as mine. :P (Heat shortens the life of these things)

It seems as the pump is working(Do you smell gas at the tail pipe after an attempted start?)

(And you actually checked for spark right?)

With a brand new module your next suspects are: signal from the ECU to the module, and the ignition coil. (I guess B+ and ground to the module as well)

Lack of signal can be caused by bad cam angle sensors(or their wiring)

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by jakobnev

I see you car has the same hair brained design with the ignition module and coil inside the distributor as mine. :P (Heat shortens the life of these things)

It seems as the pump is working(Do you smell gas at the tail pipe after an attempted start?)

(And you actually checked for spark right?)

With a brand new module your next suspects are: signal from the ECU to the module, and the ignition coil. (I guess B+ and ground to the module as well)

Lack of signal can be caused by bad cam angle sensors(or their wiring)

Thanks guys... I have my new list of things to check... this time I want to follow method correctly. I knew to test for power and continuity at the ICM before installing. But I got impatient last night, in the dark, because I needed the car this morning. So I skipped that testing. Gotta slow down and test more possibilities before deciding. AND ... thanks for the tips.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by jakobnev

(And you actually checked for spark right?)

Well, I have now! I pulled the #1 plug to test it. It was so ugly that I pulled the others to have a look. They were all awful. To large a gap, burnt, grey and and dark browns. I decided they needed replacing anyway. Put new single-platinum plugs in, and it fired right up instantly.

I am running the car with a WAI and with 2* ignition timing advance. These were old plugs anyway. Their age and the mods maybe killed the plugs off?

I'm learning, but I'm still not much of a mechanic. At least now I understand my distributor better, have done the fuel filter change, and have done a plug change... I also became familiar with testing the fuel pump and such. I spent $90 on an ICM I may not have needed (I don't know for certain because I never actually tested the old one). Well, if they are both working... I guess I have a back-up in case one burns, and they apparently do on these Hondas.

A plus is also that I did not take it to a shop and get charged who knows how much for stuff I did not have need, I guess.

[honfit]

Congrats ! Now that you have a new igniter you may be needing a coil soon as it may have been stressed by trying to fire those old plugs. If you pull the coil you may find discoloration/burn marks on it from trying to arc elsewhere.
-Honfit

[mswehx]

check the timming see if belt slipped,i had this happen once,belt slipped couple teeth didn't damage anything ,but car didn't run.

[Ladogaboy]

Wow. I haven't heard of plugs making the car go bad so suddenly, but glad to hear you're up and running again!

[TXwaterdog]

I'm glad to see you you're tackling this on your own. But sometimes, when you're over your head you can simply take the car to a mechanic and have them troubleshoot the car. They typically charge me around $65 to diagnose a problem. I like to think I can fix just about anything and I have tackled many many issues on my cars over the years but if it's something that just puts me against the wall I take it in to get diagnosed.

[jakobnev]

Plugs! \o/

Something to consider: Were the plugs just old as shït, or is something wrong with your car that makes it destroy plugs?