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Old October 27th 04, 11:59 AM
Alan Russell
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Default 2000 Civic LX hard to start, no spark at all.

My wifes Honda won't start when it's been sitting for 6 hours or so.
I hesitate to call it cold, as we live in South Florida and it does
this when it's 95 degrees out, but it technically is a 'cold start'
issue.

So here is what I've done. Attache a FI pressure test guage. As soon
as I turn the key the guage reads about 38psi, perfect per the manual.
It maintains pressure when I crank, and I can hear the injectors
clicking through a screwdriver.

So the FI system seems good.

So my next guess is that its ignition. So I hooked my inductive
timing light to #2 plug and zip-tied the trigger so it would stay on.
When I crank the engine the timing light does not blink at ALL. After
I've cranked it 7 or 8 times (for about 4 seconds at a time) I will
start to get a blink from the timing light right after I release the
key! Once it starts doing this, it will start within the next couple
of trys, but it still only sparks when the key is released from the
start position to the run position. Once the engine starts I get a
consistant and non-wobbly spark indicated by the light. I did the
same test with the same results using an inline spark tester.

The book (I think I have a chiltons) has some ignition tests for me to
go through, which I will do tomorrow morning, but I'd really just like
to get this darn thing fixed. Anyone have any idea what this problem
is?

Alan
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