Jump to content
  • 0

Engine wont start


armin81
 Share

Question

Hi,

 

My Civic MB8 '98 wont start. Bought in august with fault that the engine did not work. Previous owners had also problems with fuel pump, which has been replaced.

Engine wont start although the green immo key goes out, the engine cranks but no spark and I cant smell petrol (possibly no signal to the injectors?).

Trobleshooting with the help of the service manual was no success until I found that the ecu has been fried. Looked for a new one.

The engine is a D14A7 - 1.4 petrol with 55kw.

 

I got a second hand ecu possibly from an MA model '96. The engine was 1.4 petrol 66kw. Engine wont start although the green immo key goes out, the engine cranks but no spark and I cant smell petrol (possibly no signal to the injectors?).

Thinking that there would be immo problem tried to replace the immo chip (found later the article that it doesnt work). Tried also desoldering the immo chip. Nothing changed. Green immo key goes out and engine only cranks.

 

Next I got a set of everything: key, immo unit, ecu from an MA9 '96 (have the complete car. it was driving). Engine is 1.5 petrol vtec-e 66kw. All three things changed and engine olny cranks. It cant be immo related?

 

If i have a matching immo unit and the key AND any ecu - fuel pump primes, green immo key goes out, engine cranks but still no spark.

 

I think that I have checked all the fuses from under-dash and under-hood fuseboxes.

The under-dash fusebox has different connectors. Tried to change that.

I have a D14A4 on my EJ9. It's OBD2a and has the same dizzy. Both Dizzy's work on the EJ9. But the MB8 is missing 5V for the TDC (has only 0,8V). Measured directly from ecu output.

 

Any ideas what am I missing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recommended Posts

  • 0

Updating this topic. It can be closed. I have a working engine under the hood now.

 

After I relocated two wires for the grounds I got a MIL. The D14 was missing some sensors witch the D15 had.

So I had working ECUs that were better than the D14 under the hood. Only solution I was thinking of was a engine swap.

 

Cause the D16 was already waiting and the D15 had to be dismounted first I went for the vtec engine. :)

On a saturday spending around 11 hours I had dropped in the D16Z9. I left the original gearbox for now. It's 9A. Let's see how it handles.

This weekend I worked on the wiring. D14 had two plugs under the hood. D16 engine wiring had 3 and D15 had 4. Not sure why so many.

There are some things to do. But the engine started.

jdm1001.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1

as said above. make sure the earth from the battery is a good one, we had it on one of our mates cars. the earth wasn't good, it would spark, then no spark.

 

Honda's hate bad earths!

had it with mine, painted the bay. drove it 10 miles, turned the car off. went to start and had some problems as you until i scratched away some paint and made a better earth

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Might be worth checking the main relay that runs the fuel pump? I know the Eg's used to have problems with these, down to a dry solder joint inside the relay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Thanks for the answers. I replaced the main relay also with a known good one. Nothing changed.

Next up is the wiring. Waiting now for the weekend to have a chance to keep digging.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

So. I was checking the car in the weekend.

Tried different ignition switch.

Changed 3 underhood ground terminals, and checked with a tester the ground wires at ecu connectors. Also couldn't find any loose grounds under-dash.

 

Visiting a dealer might be the best option? How much data can they read from ecu? I have heard that OBD2 gives more data. But they should be able to diagnose the problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I have no troublecodes.

 

Actually I paid a visit to the dealer. They tried sorting the problem for 4 hours and didn't find anything useful. They concluded that the ecu is bad/locked or smth. They couldn't access it. Tried to teach something, but I'm not sure what.

Anyway. I was dissappointed. Estimated time was 2 hours and they didn't call me before they had been working for 3,5 hours. And claimeing the ecu is bad.

I put everything back on the MA9 and it started on the first try.

 

More and more I'm thinking on the wiring. Has Honda changed some wires between MA and MB? Or shall I install MA9 underdash wiring in MB8 car?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Answer this question...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...