When I try to start my 1990 Civic 1.5 w/ dual point injection, the primary injector is going full-bore. And even if it starts it keeps dumping fuel. I have checked all sensors and even swapped out the ECU and the distributor, but no change. Could it be the injector is stuck open? Engine has over 200K miles on it. Anyone here had this problem and corrected it. I want to be sure as the part is about $140 to buy. Thanks!

Dave B.

 

thats what id guess it to be.... if its stuck dumping fuel then replace it..... but if you got 200K miles on them you might be beter to replace both at the same time....

 

But if the injector was stuck open wouldn't the fuel just come out from pump pressure as soon as the ignition was turned on? It doesn't start coming out until the engine is turned over and it stops as soon as the key is released.

 

Lol, what costs $140? Pick up a couple of junkyard injectors and swap them out...

 

Not sure, but could a faulty injector resistor cause your problem?

 

ON DUAL POINT FUEL INJECTION 1 INJECTOR SPRAYS CONSTANT FOR IDLE AND OTHER INJECTOR SPRAYS FOR THROTTLE

 

94civichatchback's comment above would seem to suggest that your primary injector is fine. Is the engine having any starting, running, or performance problems?

 

Ok, here's the whole story just so you guys have the complete picture:

The car ran ok, some valve noise, during the summer. When I got the car a year ago all I did was replace the head gasket and it ran fine. Anyhow,the manual transmission broke and I had to replace it, which I did about a month ago. The car is a 1990 and I put a 1988 tranny in it. I had to replace the flywheel, clutch/pressure plate as well because of the year difference.

I got everything back together and started the car. What I didn't realize is that I had forgotten to install the bracket with the main ground strap on it. God only knows how the car started. It must have grounded on the body where it was hanging loose and completed the circuit through the valve cover ground strap. ANyway, it started finally and actually ran fine. I took it down the road, tranny is fine, but then it starts to slowly lose power. I didn't get a 1/4 mile and I could barely keep it running. Oh, and another thing, I lost vacuum on my brake booster. I still had vacuum but it was like it was too low or something and I had to really push hard to get the car to stop.

I looked for loose hoses, etc., but found none. I checked the compression and get 180+ on every cylinder. Again, I have changed the plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil, ignitor, coolant sensor (mechanic did that one), even the ECU. I ran through the checks on the sensors described in the Haynes manual. And then finally I swapped out the distributor w/ a used one. I even cut out the cat. converterjust in case it got plugged up from sitting/rust. Nothing has helped.

At this point the car will not start with the new distributor. So I am going to put the old one back on. I took the ECU back and put the old one back on. I don't think there is anything wrong with it. It flashes codes when I remove wires off sensors, etc. The primary injector (on top) keeps pulsing in fuel. I am going to set the timing next (which I haven't done yet) and see what happens. I should at least be able to get it to run a little.

 

If you can't find a vacuum leak anywhere, your brake booster probably failed. Happened to me in my CRX. Also, are you using all OEM ignition components? I was having problems with my car not starting (also in the CRX) and we traced it back to a made-in-taiwan ignition coil, also the non-OEM rotor was starting to melt... [8D] I'm assuming you have your ground wires all hooked up properly now?

 

On many other makes and models (mostly older generations and American cars), the crank position sensor is on the bell housing with the pick-up being on the flywheel. I don't have a repair manual for a 90 model (mine's a '95), but you might check to see if that's where the CPS lives.

Since it's an older car, could it be sinceyou changed the flywheel, this is no longer functioning properly (pick-up in a different place, or missingbecause of anon-injected donor vehicle, etc.)?

Disregard if I'm off-base here.

As far as the brake booster issue goes - I'd say get the car running first... fix one thing at a time. If it was working before the tranny swap, and now it's not and the engine's having issues, the engine problems areprobably taking the booster's vacuum away. Once the engine's squared away, the brake booster quite likely may not even be an issue anymore.