Hi, I have a 1996 Honda accord lx coupe 2.2 non vtec
I’ve been running into an issues with starting for the past few months and I can not figure it out.
Compression is good
I have spark and fuel
timing is good
it started where it would struggle to start maybe once every two weeks and then once a week and then twice a week and then everyday and now it doesn’t start at all. I’ve put new injectors in it a new fuel pump, a new ignition switch I tried an ecu out of another Honda exactly the same it still won’t start, I also have no check engine light.
im beyond confused one the issues I’ve been searching online for months for answers and I can’t find anything I’m desperate for help. Can someone please give me an answer

 

Is the a crank/no-start or no-crank/no-start. A good crank is when you turn the key to start the engine means the starter motor spins the engine.

 

it cranks you can hear the starter turning the motor but has no start it’ll bump a few times like it’s gonna start but now it won’t even bump

 

If the starter motor is spinning the engine normally and the engine won't run, then this is a crank/no-start.

Top two causes are lack of spark and lack of fuel. How did you test for spark and fuel?

 

I am a Nissan tech we tested spark at the ignition coil and each Individual wire with the spark plug it has spark, we tested fuel pressure, I can hear the fuel pump priming and I have checked and made sure the injectors are firing and they are

 

Based on the information your first post, the engine should run, so I'll suggest some basic checks to make sure something wasn't missed. My apologies if I'm coming across as condesending, as you are a tech. Just trying to cover all the basics and help others who may read this thread in the future. I owned the 95 EX, so I'm very familiar with that car. I'll throw some ideas out there of things I can think of.

Get cyl 1 to TDC based on the timing marks (pulling the valve cover and using the cam sprockets is best) and pull off the distributor cap, is the rotor tip pointing towards the spark plug wire that goes to cyl 1 (driver's side cylinder farthest from the distributor)? I installed a distributor 180 out of time on my 95 accord, and I knew better, so it is possible. My mistake was not looking at the contact, but the rotor shape and I lined it up 180 out of time, so look specifically at the contact. Check the spark plug wires are in the correct firing order (1-3-4-2) on the cap looking at the cap from the passenger side of the car going clockwise.

It is possible the spark test by grounding the plug has enough spark to jump the gap at atmospheric pressure, but the coil is too weak when the plug is under compression in the cylinder. Essentially, you could have weak spark. If you haver access to an identical accord, you can swap over the coil to see if the car starts.

It is possible to switch the map and tps sensor electrical connectors on a 96 accord, because they are identical and close by. Check the wire colors to the map are yel/wht, grn/wht, and wht/yel. The TPS colors should be grn/blu, red/blk, and yel/blu.

An open EGR valve can also cause this problem. The EGR valve is operated by vacuum, so you can pull off the vacuum line and plug the line with a spark plug. Try to start the car. You can also pull the valve to check that the pintle isn't stuck. Use a swivel socket and 12mm (I think) 6-point socket, as using a boxed wrench can strip the bolt (Guess how I know?).

 

timing has previously been checked and is good I have replaced the tps already and the map sensor I replaced them at different times to ensure nothing was mixed up , I can check the egr tho, what about possibly crank sensor issues

 

The map/tp wire color check is very quick check vs other items. Since the car was worked on over months, I'm not assuming anything. Just throwing out some simple checks in case something was overlooked.

As for the crank signal, you can try using a timing light on cyl #1 wire to measure the timing off the crank pulley. The OBD1 service connector under the glovebox has to be shorted, so the PCM doesn't adjust the spark timing. That should read about 15° before top dead center at normal rpm. The starter speed should be near 15, so a wildly off number would indicate timing or crank signal. This is a round-about way to see if the crank sensor 1is producing a good signal.

The 96 accord is the first year the 4-cylinder was OBD2, so the OBD2 connector is behind the ashtray. I'm not sure what data is accessable, but you might have a PID to look at some signals. If you have an oscilloscope, you can tap into the crank sensor wiring to get a live reading. The 96 accord crank sensor is on the engine block under the timing cover. TDC and cam sensors are part of the distributor.

 

I don't see in your post that you put fuel or starting fuel down the throttle body to eliminate a fuel issue ? What do the spark plugs look like? Are they covered in gas?

 

we tried starting it by starting fuel, it did not start the spark plugs only come out covered in gas after attempting to start, the car has new fuel injectors in it