Honda guys in here....

[Rreemo]

Trying to help out a friend who has a 2001 Civic....just the standard little 4-pot, 1.7 or whatever. The thing will start right up, idles itself immediately up to about 2000rpm, and then dies within a couple seconds. Will do this over and over again, but never stays running. Weird thing is that it was running fine, he drove it to work one evening and when he came back to it the next morning it was doing this.

I checked it for codes but its clear...confirmed the fuel pump is running, didn't find any major vacuum leaks or anything like that. I'm wondering if it might be something like a crank or cam sensor?

I honestly haven't really worked on any Hondas past the early 90s year models, so I'm a bit in the dark on what makes the squirrel run in these....anyone seen symptoms like this?

[90GT50]

Well I was going to say vacuum leak, but you already covered that. TPS or EGR possibly?

[beefed88]

Can you keep it running with starter fluid. If so I would guess cam sensor.

[shumpertdavid]

Egr would be unlikely, tps would likely show up askew in scan data. Does it start back up immediately, I haven't seen too many running issues with the 1.7s.

[Rreemo]

Egr would be unlikely, tps would likely show up askew in scan data. Does it start back up immediately, I haven't seen too many running issues with the 1.7s.

Yeah, it starts right back up immediately....it'll do it over & over again. That's why I was thinking maybe cam or crank sensor....I'm assuming ignition comes from Crank and Injector pulse from the cam sensor like most others, yeah?

May or may not be in some way related, but he said that he had the timing belt done back in January....a little over 1000 miles ago. I visual inspected all around the timing cover and checked all the plugs that I could get to, but haven't found anything suspect yet.

[shumpertdavid]

That one uses a spring loaded tensioner that freely pivots, I wouldn't suspect a jumped timing belt unless the tensioner had a defect. Do you have a way to look at the scan data and see if it has anything out of range?

[Baron Von Crowder]

ignition switch?

[dee]

Have you actually checked fuel pressure? I've seen a few vehicles have enough initial pressure to start buy not enough to stay running.

[JimD]

That one uses a spring loaded tensioner that freely pivots, I wouldn't suspect a jumped timing belt unless the tensioner had a defect. Do you have a way to look at the scan data and see if it has anything out of range?

X3 on the belt.. its interference

[Rreemo]

No way to look at scan data right now. On the belt...I figured this was an interference motor, so didn't think that it had jumped time...what I was more-so thinking is that someone was in there and likely around (or possibly had to R&I?) those sensors...maybe caused some issue that way?

Good point on fuel pressure too...I'll see about hooking up a gauge. I also had a thought earlier, wondering if someone might have put something in the tank while he was at work....he's a pilot, so it sits out on a dark lot over night usually when he flies these redeyes. Just thinking again how it ran fine going to work, then had this problem after he parked it.

Nevertheless, thanks for the ideas....keep em coming. I'll try to get out in the shop and mess with it tonight some after work.

[shumpertdavid]

pull a fuel sample into a coke bottle or something and see if it separates. I would imagine if it had much in the tank it wouldn't want to run at all, at least in the few instances I've ran into that with customer cars. The cam sensor plugs in through the upper timing cover, the sensor itself shouldn't need removal for the belt. The crank sensor would either need to be moved out of the way, or you can easily slide the crank gear out on the shaft a little to facilitate belt removal and install. I was just into one of these Monday, pretty simple and straight forward job. I would assume if the cam or crank sensor were having a problem a code would ensue. Generally if one of the other looses signal while the opposing is present it will generate a lost signal code of some sort.

[AdRock]

If I remember correctly those have an iac on them. Pull the connector for it and see what happens when you start it.

[Rreemo]

Just an update in case anyone here was wondering....found that the timing belt slipped 1-tooth.

[shumpertdavid]

Thanks for the update, glad you got it fixed up, odd it would have slipped a tooth, tensioner weak?

[Rreemo]

No, actually appears it had a loose bolt in the plastic cover....belt slightly rubbed the cover which in-turn got plastic shavings under the belt and caused it to slip. I've actually seen this happen one other time...in an old diesel VW Rabbit...except that one grenaded the motor. This one appears to be okay.