Hey everybody, I go to odu and my 98 civic won't start, I've tried almost everything now.

Okay I've been working all day and night on this and I cant seem to figure it out. The car as of right now does not start and the fuel pump isnt priming, at least I can't hear anything from it when I turn the key to on.

I figured it was a bad pump, so I bought a new one, and a new fuel filter as well because I've been having problems with sluggish acceleration. Replaced both today, and car still doesn't start. It cranks (slowly, but I figure that's just cold cranking) and when I try and jump it, it cranks fast but it just won't turn over.. fuel pump still is not priming.

Checked the ground in the main relay harness, that's good. Checked for power in the battery line to the main relay, also good. Then the Haynes manual said to check for power at the #5 terminal, which apparently goes from the fuel pump fuse to the relay, and I got about 2 volts.

At this point the manual says to repair a short or open in that line, OR replace the #13 fuse (fuel pump fuse) if it's bad. I pulled that fuse and it's good, but I checked for power while the fuse was pulled out and only got about 2 volts at the fuse itself. ANYONE have any idea as to why this could be? My mind is blown here.

So far I've heard bad ECU, bad engine ground, or shortage in wiring.

ANY help would be appreciated, I'm a poor college student and I dont want to be stuck here for Christmas

 

I got nothing for your Honda problems but good luck

 

If you're getting 2V at the fuse, find out why. I suspect this is directly related to why you're also cranking slowly. You probably have a broken battery cable clamp, corroded ground, or something along those lines. Basically if you're getting 2V at that fuse, keep tracing back to the battery until you're getting proper battery voltage. If I'm correct, this is going to be something that affects more than just the fuel pump circuit.

If it's cranking a lot faster when jumped to another car, that would tend to say that you're bypassing the factory power and ground and using power from the other car, which would make the starter motor circuit work fine. The other circuits could easily still be affected by whatever is causing the actual problem though, such as a bad ground.

 

Rule out a fuel issue. The main relays are notorious for going out in temperature extremes (cold and hot). I know you said you checked the relay, but I misdiagnosed my starting problem a while back doing the same thing. If your fuel pump isn't priming then I would check there. It could be a ground, but I doubt it. Check for power running to the pump (the connector actually attached to the top of the fuel pump assembly), it's a much easier way to check the relay. OR Find someone with a working relay and just swap it in, another very easy way to check. There should be plenty of people here that have honda's, finding one that might help is another story.

 

Crankshaft position sensor.

 

Thanks guys, this is all really helpful info so far, I'm gonna do some more investigating here in about an hour. Some other info I should include is that (before it just stopped working altogether), the car would have a real problem turning over if I had anything less than about a third of a tank. Also, every now and then when I flip my turn signals, the tach will jump to zero and then back again.

As far as it possibly being the CPS, any way I can test that? Also, I already bought a new main relay and plugged it in, that didn't help. Gonna return that later

 

Fuck a mechanic, you need an exorcist.

 

^ You're not kidding dude, trust me I've been thinking that for the last few days. Shit's enough to drive me crazy.

 

I was hoping it would be my main relay but like I said I already tried a brand new one and that didn't help at all. So I traced power all the way back to the fusebox where I only found 2 volts at the fuel pump fuse itself. So that fuse isnt even getting power which is whats confusing me. Definitely not what I want to be dealing with in the ice cold, lol

Going out to check all grounds in the engine bay now, will update

 

it's probably just your horn relay