Hi. I am a girl with no money to go to the mechanic but I do know quite a bit about fixing a Civic as this is my 4th one. I'm mechanically inclined but I don't have any fancy tools besides wrenches and screwdrivers.

So one day I was driving and the car just shut down like there was no gas, even tho there was gas in the car. The radio and lights worked fine. No jumpy gauges or sputtering or firing just boom! shut off. Then I coasted and parked it on the side of the road and about an hour later it started again and I drove it home.

Then it never started again.

I changed the fuel filter and I am getting clean gas to the plugs, main relay works and clicks and obviously send the fuel to the engine. I changed the coil and rotor and cap, that didn't work. So I got a new distributor, that didn't work, got battery tested that is fine, all fuses work, alternator is new, spark plugs are new. The starter works, engine cranks and tries real hard but no spark comes out of the wires. Spark plug wires are a year old but not exactly the best quality so I haven't ruled that out and I'm going to get some new ones today but other than that any suggestions?

I checked my ground wires. Except someone else mentions the thermostat ground g101 which I can't find for the life of me. Where is that?

Any suggestions? Please please I can't afford a new car.

 

I highly highly doubt it's your plug wires so save your money!

Are you sure it's not getting spark? Best way to check is to pull one of the plug wires, hook it up to a spark plug, turn the motor over and see if it's sparking.

Have you checked your timing belt? By pulling the oil cap off and looking in to see if the valves are moving? If you're unsure w/this process, pull the upper timing cover off, should be held on by 3 bolts. You will have to loosen the valve cover and pull it up a bit but no need to pull it off.

 

Thanks for the reply. I did check for spark with the plug method and the screwdriver method. Nothing both times. I tested all 4 plugs too. I highly doubt all 4plug wires would go bad too which is why that's my last resort to try new plugs. Plus they are relatively new.

The timing belt is moving. We checked that too.

I'm so lost. and 3 friends of mine who work on Hondas regularly are stumped too.

 

Yeah I'd be stumped too. Seems like you've tried everything that's related to spark.

It sounds a lot like a bad coil. Especially with it stalling out only to start back up once things cooled down.

Do any of your friends have a 6th gen Civic like yours? I'd pull out their coil and put it in yours, maybe the new one you tried was defective.

I did some searching and found this link: Honda Acura ignition (no spark) troubleshooting tutorial - How to

There's some tests you can do to hopefully find the problem.

Did the check engine light ever come on?

 

Check if you get battery voltage to the distributor on the black and yellow wire while cranking.

 

you think you fried your ecu? dont think its n issue but can be but yeah maybe pick up coil is shot, or something came loose or wires to your distrubuitor are spliceD?