'03 Accord, 4cyl. ~100k miles.

Just changed the plugs 2 weeks ago. Ran great afterwards.

Check engine light came on today on the way to work. Went out at lunch time and it cranked right up, drove to the stopsign in the parkinglot and it died.

It spins over but wont crank. I cleaned the terminals, tried to jump it with a Ford Ranger(running) and it still wont crank.

It's getting gas because I can smell it, and it's backfiring every now and then. Since it's backfiring, I'm assuming it's getting spark as well. I pulled each individual coil pack one at a time and tried to crank it to weed out a possible bad coil pack. Still no worky.

Anyone have any ideas before I tow this thing to High Point to my dad's garage?

4/20/2009 4:33:24 PM

chances are if you have pulled each coil pack and cranked it, you have burned out most of them, gg

put a screwdriver in the end of the plug boot, hold it near a ground a crank it to see if you have fire, it should jump a good 1/4" gap with a good blue spark


first thing you should do though is find out what fuckin code the cel is

4/20/2009 4:35:36 PM

Yeah, I'm at work and have minimal access to tools at the moment, haha.

My dumbass roommate told me to pull the coil packs one at a time...

He's on his way now with some tools and I'm gonna pull a plug and make sure I get a spark.

4/20/2009 4:38:42 PM

It's acting like a broken timing chain or camshaft.... FML.

Had it towed to my dad's store in High Point this morning.

4/21/2009 10:01:11 AM

^ well shit, all you gotta do is pull the oil fill cap and see if the valves are moving when you crank it, itll answer that question real quick

4/21/2009 4:58:08 PM

i think those cars have a splash sheild or whatever its called, and you cant see the valves. i think

4/21/2009 5:05:00 PM

Dad pulled it apart yesterday...

NOT a broken camshaft or timing chain...

He put a compression gauge on it and it has NO compression....

4/22/2009 11:36:24 AM

damn son

4/22/2009 12:16:06 PM

No compression on any cylinder? That blows.

4/22/2009 12:17:23 PM

need to do a leakdown on all the cylinders and you will find out real quick what the problem is before you pull the head

4/22/2009 11:10:34 PM

Could be as simple as the Piston rings, but with zero compression, good luck with that!

4/23/2009 1:08:54 PM

worn or borken rings /= no compression

4/25/2009 8:17:32 PM

oh noes!

4/29/2009 1:24:30 PM

So, I think we've fixed it.

Broken timing chain tensioner...which made it jump timing and not crank.

4/29/2009 3:17:57 PM

jump timing and /NOT/ bend up all the valves?

4/29/2009 5:21:03 PM

Quote :

"Could be as simple as the Piston rings, but with zero compression, good luck with that!"

There is nothing simple about replacing piston rings.

Quote :

"worn or borken rings /= no compression"

exactly..

4/29/2009 7:11:33 PM

^^^ how could it jump timing like that and not bend up the valves?

4/29/2009 9:04:48 PM

No idea. Dad said he replaced the tensioner and set the timing and it's running like a top now.

4/30/2009 12:49:52 PM

its a timing chain and not an interference motor

5/2/2009 5:46:38 PM