Honda Car Forum

My Civic has recently stopped working. The car doesn't start but the pistons move. What can be the problem?

19 words to describe your car's symtoms? Surely you can tell more than that!Let's have a go at it though...Any car needs two things to make something happen... fuel and ignition. If you have good fuel and good ignition, something is going to happen whether you like it or not! To develop power, your engine must process the combustion properly to convert the energy released into useable work, i.e. turn the wheels.So... it doesn't start...1. Drain the fuel from the tank and put in a known good fuel. I you really think your fuel is good, skip this step.2. Check for spark at the spark plugs... pull all four spark plugs from their cylinders and reconnect the ignition wire to the loose spark plug. Lay the connected spark plug down in such a fashion that the "L" shape probe on the very end is touching clean metal on the engine. Do this for all four spark plugs. If you had a convenient wire with alligator clips on each end this would be easy to accomplish. Then have someone get in and crank the car over while you observe for a good healthy spark at each plug.3. Assuming good gas and good spark, the engine should at least sputter as it tries to burn the fuel in the cylinders so maybe your engine isn't compressing the air/fuel mixture properly. With the spark plugs removed, insert a compression checker (gauge) into each cylinder and crank the engine. The pressure should be at least 90 to 130 psi after several pulses of compression. If the gauge fails to achieve any pressure, you have a damaged engine that might cost you a bunch... never a little in these cases.If the car was working just fine one day and then suddenly stopped working altogether, it would be an electrical problem unless (in a honda) the engine made some pretty bad sounds before it simply turned over without starting, i.e. broken timing belt.I hope this helped even a little.

you simply need to give more info. For one, I assume you mean the starter is turning the engine when you turn the key. This would mean that you have either no fuel or no spark.Either one can be cause by electrical or mechanical failure. You simply need to have someone look at the car (who preferably knows a few things about them) and try to start it and go from there.good luck.

was your timing belt ever change?? if your timing belt snapped , chances are that you might of collapse your valves . do a compression test on all four cylinders .