Car won't start — useful tips (Honda CR-V 1)

Your technical equipment must be impeccable - after all, the time you have is the same money that we hope you also have. Don't lose either one. If a missing tie or a burnt trouser leg can cause a business meeting to be cancelled, what can we say about a car that won't start an hour before the scheduled meeting?.

...Early in the morning, freshly shaved and full of great plans (the child - to school, the wife - to the hairdresser, and yourself - to forge a hard-earned penny), you jump into the car, "key to start" and... What the hell... One more time. One more... Nervous manipulations with the key and pedals do not bring success. The day is ruined from the very beginning. Plans and mood - down the drain.

Calm down. There is no need to rush under the hood in an English suit and, smearing the oily mud with your tie, try to make a diagnosis. You most likely won't be cured in 5 minutes. Take another car and leave treating your sick friend until the evening. And it is better to entrust it to doctors with a good reputation, especially if you have an expensive car and you are not a specialist. It will be cheaper this way. Well, if your friend is well-known to you and you consider yourself a healer, well, try it yourself if you are not too lazy to get dirty or there is no other way out.

The diagnosis must be made calmly

Study the symptoms mentally. First - does the starter turn? And if so, how vigorously? You already know the answer - remember what happened during the first attempts to start the car. If you don't remember, try again.

If the starter does not turn at all and does not even click the traction relay when the ignition is turned on, then it is either faulty (you can close the hood and follow the advice above: Take another car), or there is a problem with the battery - it has turned off or is dead. Only in rare models can the starter power supply circuit be protected by a fuse - about 300 amperes - it is not difficult to find, especially if you know in advance where it is. If the battery is at fault, then, as a rule, all electrical equipment does not work either. The simplest and easiest case is when one of the terminals has come off or become dirty, but the battery is fine. Tighten the terminal fastenings on it and on the starter (if any). If it turns out that the battery is completely dead (forgot to turn off the headlights at night), it is still possible to leave. But with outside help. Here, as they say, there are options. You can try to start it by pushing it, by driving it downhill, or by towing it. Don't try to avoid the pitfalls: a car with an automatic transmission or electronic fuel injection (if there is an electric fuel pump) it won't be possible to start it using these methods. I'll have to get a light from my neighbor. However, for some machines this can lead to damage to the computer (read the car manual). If the starter turns, but sluggishly (this happens in the summer, in winter it is a subject of a separate conversation), most likely, the battery is almost completely discharged. This will be visible by the weak headlights or weak signal. In this case, the above-mentioned options for outside assistance come into play.



If the starter turns vigorously, but the engine does not respond to attempts to start it, feel free to exclude from further considerations everything related to the battery. Blame the ignition or fuel supply system, you won't be mistaken. Diagnosis and treatment of each of them requires a systematic approach. It's better to start with the ignition - problems occur there more often. Especially in wet weather.

From a spark a fire will ignite...

So, we need to look for the spark. Your car can be equipped with a classic (the simplest) contact ignition system, a rather complex electronic contactless system, or some combination of the two. In any case, the system consists of three parts. Part one - low voltage (breaker contacts in a classic system or a special sensor in an electronic one, plus a box with electronic components that generates a spark). Part two is a step-up transformer, commonly known as an ignition coil. Part three - high voltage (mechanical or electronic distributor and wires through which high voltage current is supplied to the spark plugs). And of course, the candles themselves. The inspection of this entire system must be carried out in stages and it is better to start from the end.

Stage one. High voltage part of the system. Check if there is a spark on the center wire - this is the one that connects the coil to the distributor. The wire tip must be removed from the distributor cap and brought closer to any part that has good contact with the vehicle's ground (it doesn't matter whether it's painted or not), and secure it so that there is a gap of 5-7 mm between the tip and the selected part.



If your car has electronic ignition, you need to attach the wire especially securely - if it falls on the ground, the electronics will immediately give up their life. For the same reason, you cannot scratch the wire along the body. We also don't recommend holding it with your hand, not even your own – it will give you a serious electric shock.

Stage two. Turn the engine over with the starter. While doing this, watch what happens at the tip of the wire. There are two possible options. More favorable - there is a spark. Powerful, accompanied by a loud click. This significantly narrows the field of further searches.

The first thing you need to do is remove the distributor cap. It may be damp and dirty underneath. Through such a "conductor" the spark readily jumps anywhere, except where it should. Wipe, clean and dry. At the same time, it would be harmless to clean the distributor contacts, for example, with fine sandpaper. Inspect the so-called "runner". If you find a dark trace of electrical breakdown on it or on the distributor cap, the part will have to be replaced.

Check the wires from the distributor to the spark plugs very carefully. The wires and their tips must be dry and clean. If you think everything is OK with them, you can put the cover back in place, restore the connections and try to start the engine. If the fault was hidden under the cover, the engine will start or, in the worst case, will at least start sneezing. The symptom is also favorable - you are on the right track. True, you will have to unscrew, clean and dry the spark plugs - in an attempt to start the engine, you flooded them with gasoline. Even if the engine doesn't sneeze, the spark plugs will still have to be removed, cleaned and checked. It's easier if you have a spare set.



If you have already reached the stage of turning out candles, you can do it quite effectively (and spectacular) check the entire ignition system as a whole. Having connected the high-voltage wires to the unscrewed spark plugs, gather the spark plugs into a bundle, like carrots, and wrap them directly along their threaded part with bare soft wire. Make sure the wire makes contact with each spark plug but does not touch the center electrodes. Connect the free end of the wire to ground. Having placed the bunch of spark plugs in a place convenient for observation from the passenger compartment, turn the engine with the starter. In this case, between the spark plug electrodes in turn (in accordance with the order of cylinder firing) there should be some cheerful sparks flying. If this is the case, then the entire ignition system is in order. The sound of the engine will be very unusual - don't be alarmed, because it is spinning with the spark plugs removed. Don't twist for too long. It is worse if at the second stage of testing another option takes place: there is no spark between the central wire and the "body". This means that the problem is not in the high-voltage circuits. Further searches will be more difficult, evaluate your time and desire. If both are available, proceed to step three. Check if voltage is supplied to the ignition coil. This can be easily done with a tester, and if you don't have one, you can use an underhood light bulb. True, you will need a couple of wires to connect it to the coil. In a classic ignition system, the light bulb must be connected between the ground and the input of the primary winding.



At the third stage, as usual, there are also two possible options: voltage is either supplied to the coil or not. If it is supplied, the coil is to blame - a breakdown or short circuit, which, however, happens extremely rarely. The coil will have to be changed. Most often there is poor contact in the connection of the wires to the coil. Or the same wet mud, through which the spark flows away to who knows where. Sometimes the coil is polished to a shine, but underneath there remains an invisible, very narrow strip of dirt - a good conductor.

If at the third stage you are convinced that voltage is not supplied to the coil, the fault lies with the electronics or contacts and unreliable connections in the low-voltage part of the ignition system. With electronics (switch and, less commonly, a sensor in the distributor housing) you won't be able to handle them - you need special equipment to diagnose them. The only thing you can do is tug on the sensor connector on the distributor housing - maybe it will help. If you have a car with a classic contact ignition system, you can continue searching.

Remove the distributor cap and inspect the breaker contacts - they may be oxidized, especially if the car has been standing still for some time. The contacts need to be carefully cleaned with fine sandpaper or a special file.

Pull the cleaned contacts so that they close and then open. The voltage on them is only 12 volts, so you can pull them without fear. If cleaning does not help and voltage is still not supplied to the coil, we again advise you to temporarily stop trying to resuscitate the car, since difficulties will begin later.

If tension appears (when you pull the contacts the light blinks), restore everything that was unscrewed and disassembled, start the car and maybe it will still have time to go about its business. If it doesn't start, but at least sneezes, remove the spark plugs and... (see above).

Don't press to the floor - it won't help

It may also turn out that the entire ignition system has been checked, everything is in order, but the engine, no matter how hard you try, still won't start. This means that there are problems with another of the previously mentioned systems - the fuel system, i.e. the supply of fuel to the engine.

If you have a car with injection (injection supply system) fuel - do not touch it (the system). You can only come to the conclusion that it is the one that broke: there is a spark, the fuel is coming - that means it is the one. Treatment only in a hospital. It is useless and even harmful to repair it at home or by artisans.

In a conventional carburetor engine, the fuel system is simpler - a tank, a fuel pump, a set of pipelines and a carburetor. You can dig around here yourself. The first thing you need to do is make sure that gasoline is getting to the carburetor. Disconnect the hose from the carburetor and press the manual fuel priming lever. If a fairly powerful stream of gasoline is clogged, everything is fine, it's time to move on to the carburetor. It happens that gasoline is supplied to the carburetor properly, but for some reason it does not enter it. If you have the time and desire, remove the air filter and then ask someone to sharply press the accelerator pedal. Or you can sharply pull the throttle cable yourself. When doing this, look into the carburetor from above (the air damper is open, otherwise you won't see anything): if a stream of gasoline does not appear in the first diffuser, it means that there is none in the float chamber. It's not there because the valve needle is stuck or (it doesn't happen very often) the fuel filter in the carburetor is completely clogged - it is located in front of the float chamber. Or the jets are clogged. The filter is cleaned by blowing, but if you do not have the necessary skills, it is better not to mess with the carburetor insides at all, to deal with the sticking of the needle valve, clogged jets and other subtleties - let the specialists do it.

If there is a trickle in the diffuser, pay attention to the carburetor starting device - it breaks down quite often. On foreign cars, starting from about the 70s, automatic air damper control was adopted. The device, without your participation, depending on the engine temperature, closes or opens the valve as much as necessary, enriching the mixture when starting the engine. If this automation works, you can try manual manipulation of the air damper, but there are many options and no universal advice. Before starting any manipulations, connect and secure the previously disconnected fuel hose. There is no need to install the air filter yet. If it starts, let the engine warm up and God bless you (after having put the air filter back in place).. If, when checking the fuel supply with a fuel pump, it turns out that gasoline does not flow from the hose or the stream is very thin, the cause should be sought in clogged pipes, a fine fuel filter or the gas tank itself - you can easily demonstrate your skill by pumping the fuel line with a tire pump in the direction opposite to the movement of gasoline, i.e. from the carburetor to the tank. You should hear a booming, gurgling sound in the tank.

With a fine fuel filter, everything is simple. Although almost all modern models have a transparent case, the degree of contamination cannot be visually determined. A dirty filter will allow the engine to start, but will not allow it to drive normally. If it is completely clogged, you will not start the engine. The most effective test is to remove the filter and, if there is no new one, temporarily replace it with a suitable tube, for example, a ballpoint pen body, preferably transparent - you can see how the gasoline flows. Do not attempt to clean the filter - it is sealed (or sealed) the body cannot be disassembled.

If you come to the conclusion that your car's fuel pump is not working and you don't have a spare one at hand - "Take another car..."

We left the rare but most unpleasant diagnosis for last. If the starter works fine, you have already spent a lot of time and made sure that the ignition and power supply are in perfect order, but the car still does not start - it is worth inspecting the timing belt. However, decide for yourself, this check can be done at the beginning, especially if the engine has already covered more than 60 thousand. The difficulty is that you will have to remove or at least partially bend the upper part of the plastic cover covering the belt. Perhaps the teeth on the belt have worn down - belts, like people, lose teeth with age. In this case, the camshaft does not rotate and the engine will not run. It is clear that a toothless belt requires replacement (those who have a car with a chain drive of the camshaft are not threatened by this trouble). The procedure for replacing the belt is not complicated, but it is troublesome. It is carried out in a hospital. It would be good if everything was limited to replacing only the belt, and not the bent valves or the entire cylinder head - this also happens.

About the causes of atherosclerosis

Let's try to explain why the car's circulatory system is sometimes affected by "atherosclerosis". Gasoline is the blood of the car. And the blood must be clean and flow through clean vessels. And, as a rule, we ourselves are to blame for the fact that "cholesterol" accumulates in the vessels beyond the permissible limit. Do you often use a canister to top up your gas tank? If so, the chances of clogging the fuel line and filters are higher, especially if your funnel does not have a mesh. The canister usually accumulates debris, rust, sand, and if the canister is painted inside, then paint particles. It is clear that the smaller the amount of intermediate containers used on the way of gasoline from the pump to the tank, the better. Oddly enough, even at the most run-down gas station there is less dirt in the tanks in specific terms than in a "home" canister. The scourge of our gas stations is not so much dirt as water. But here we are powerless. In our memory, only one crook got caught diluting gasoline, and even then not with water, but with donkey urine, and not in life, but in the movies (see "Gentlemen of Fortune"). So we'll have to make peace. However, to avoid adding water to domestic diluted gasoline yourself, try to always keep the tank full. Condensation accumulates in an incomplete tank, especially in the off-season when there are sudden temperature changes.

Fewer freeloaders

It is worth saying a few words about the battery. Since it is maintenance-free on most modern cars, there is no point in providing operating instructions here. We will give just a few additional tips on how to keep your battery viable for longer. Don't get carried away with stuffing your car with additional energy consumers. The fact that the car's energy balance has a certain reserve that allows two or three "freeloaders" to be connected does not mean that you can hang six horns and ten fog lights on the car - have a sense of proportion. In addition, if you connect unintended trinkets yourself, there is a high probability of damaging the insulation. And in general, as practice shows, any, even the most qualified, operational intervention in the electrical wiring of a car sooner or later makes itself known. Troubles.

If your battery is on its last legs, try not to turn off the engine during countless stops in the city. Nothing strains a battery more than frequent use of the starter.

And the last thing (this applies not only to the battery, but to all electrical equipment in general). Remember: all terminals, contacts, wire tips must be dry and clean and fit well to their "destinations". Dirty, oily insulation will break through sooner or later, and burning and oxidation of any contact surface can serve as the only (and sufficient) cause of ignition system failure. Or a fire.

We can stop here. Meticulous car enthusiasts have undoubtedly noticed the somewhat superficial nature of our advice. We admit that we deliberately do not want to delve into the details. So as not to provoke you to self-medication - it does not lead to anything good. Understanding the nature of pain in the lower abdomen on the right does not mean that you should remove your own appendix. But you must describe the symptoms of appendicitis to the doctor accurately. It helps a lot with treatment.