Hopefully someone here can help me figure this out because I'm hitting a wall here. Heres a little history:
I have a 99 base prelude that I bought used about 1.5 years ago from a dude on craigslist. It was my baby and I had it running smooth until about 8 months ago when I gave it to my fiance (I got a WRX :biggrin. The previous owner had done a *proper* 5-speed MT swap on it (with ECU jumper and everything) so there are plenty of unused connectors under the hood... Anyways, besides an AEM V2, headers, EGR block-off, and exhaust, the only other mod the previous owner had done was install a MSD 6 series ignition with a blaster SS coil. As I said, it was running fine until about 6 months ago when it progressively started burning more and more oil... I have assumed that its the piston rings and/or valve seals, but I havent had any time to take on fixing all that. Besides the oil consumption, It was still running fine, until about a month ago. My fiance, who'd been driving it, told me that it had been idling rough, sometimes hesitated, and had a blinking CEL (misfire). So I did a little tune up on it about 3 weeks ago...
Heres what I did:
So after doing all that, I drove the car home across town that night. I'd put half a tank of gas (premium) in it on the way. It drove good, none of the symptoms she had told me. So she drove it to work the next day and called me at lunch time telling me the car ran out of gas and she was stuck on the side of the road... There is no way it would have burned half a tank just from her driving to work...so I went out and put 2 gallons in it, however it wouldnt start. Ended up towing it to my parents house, where it has sat and not started since.
After checking it out, I discovered one of the injector o-rings had failed after I reinstalled them after the tune up... so that explained the gas consumption. I went ahead and replaced all the gaskets/o-rings for all 4 injectors... so I thought the problem was solved however it still wont start.
So here is what I've done/tested/found out (mostly per the Helms manual):
Now on top of not finding out anything useful by testing, I'm still confused as to how/why would a car be running fine, run out of gas, and then the ignition system no longer works... I guess it would have to be a huge coincidence for the car to run out of gas at the very same time as some other part of the car/ignition broke/failed?
...So after checking all this stuff out, here is what I'm thinking could be the problem(s):
Im pretty good with wiring and testing with a multimeter, I can tear an engine apart and rebuild it no problem, and I know just about every inch of this prelude... but Ive gotten to the point where Im running out of ideas. I have always come to these forums for help/guidance by reading other peoples' threads, but this is my first thread I've started, so I really hope you guys will be able to help me out.
Any insight or point in the right direction would be much appreciated... And thanks for reading this mini-novel on the history of my poor prelude :redface:
I have a 99 base prelude that I bought used about 1.5 years ago from a dude on craigslist. It was my baby and I had it running smooth until about 8 months ago when I gave it to my fiance (I got a WRX :biggrin. The previous owner had done a *proper* 5-speed MT swap on it (with ECU jumper and everything) so there are plenty of unused connectors under the hood... Anyways, besides an AEM V2, headers, EGR block-off, and exhaust, the only other mod the previous owner had done was install a MSD 6 series ignition with a blaster SS coil. As I said, it was running fine until about 6 months ago when it progressively started burning more and more oil... I have assumed that its the piston rings and/or valve seals, but I havent had any time to take on fixing all that. Besides the oil consumption, It was still running fine, until about a month ago. My fiance, who'd been driving it, told me that it had been idling rough, sometimes hesitated, and had a blinking CEL (misfire). So I did a little tune up on it about 3 weeks ago...
Heres what I did:
- -New spark plugs(NGK), spark plug wires(NGK), and replaced dizzy cap and rotor
- -Adjusted valve lash clearance (within spec)
- -Reinstalled EGR valve and cleaned out/replaced EGR ports on the manifold
- -cleaned out IAC valve
So after doing all that, I drove the car home across town that night. I'd put half a tank of gas (premium) in it on the way. It drove good, none of the symptoms she had told me. So she drove it to work the next day and called me at lunch time telling me the car ran out of gas and she was stuck on the side of the road... There is no way it would have burned half a tank just from her driving to work...so I went out and put 2 gallons in it, however it wouldnt start. Ended up towing it to my parents house, where it has sat and not started since.
After checking it out, I discovered one of the injector o-rings had failed after I reinstalled them after the tune up... so that explained the gas consumption. I went ahead and replaced all the gaskets/o-rings for all 4 injectors... so I thought the problem was solved however it still wont start.
So here is what I've done/tested/found out (mostly per the Helms manual):
- -Fuel is not an issue because the spark plugs smell of gas when taken out and I can hear the fuel pump priming when I put the key in (I assume this means the Main relay is good)
- -Battery was charged and tested good
- -All fuses checked out good and I even replaced the 100A battery fuse under the hood
- -All Grounds (upgraded to 0 ga wire) are good and tight and I even added a few extras
- -Havent tested the compression yet, but it doesnt seem to be getting any spark... Ive tested this several ways...with spark plug plugged in, but threads grounded with a wire, I also went and bought a spark plug tester, and I also followed the MSD website's diagnostic procedure... all with no luck
- -All the MSD wiring was good so I decided to remove the MSD Ignition box and Wire it to just the MSD coil... still no luck... I dont have the original stock coil, so idk if one or both of the MSD components have failed
Now on top of not finding out anything useful by testing, I'm still confused as to how/why would a car be running fine, run out of gas, and then the ignition system no longer works... I guess it would have to be a huge coincidence for the car to run out of gas at the very same time as some other part of the car/ignition broke/failed?
...So after checking all this stuff out, here is what I'm thinking could be the problem(s):
- -Either MSD Ignition box OR MSD Coil (not sure how to test the coil itself)
- -Possibly the Scytek alarm with remote start, which I installed myself and has not given me a single problem since I put it in... I'm currently in the process of removing all of the remote start components of the alarm and checking all the wiring... Will report back tomorrow
- -Factory Immobilizer?
- -Compression maybe? Will rent a tester on the way home from work tomorrow morning
Im pretty good with wiring and testing with a multimeter, I can tear an engine apart and rebuild it no problem, and I know just about every inch of this prelude... but Ive gotten to the point where Im running out of ideas. I have always come to these forums for help/guidance by reading other peoples' threads, but this is my first thread I've started, so I really hope you guys will be able to help me out.
Any insight or point in the right direction would be much appreciated... And thanks for reading this mini-novel on the history of my poor prelude :redface: