My car is stuck on some parking lot, what next?

[ozvena]

I have 93 Civic with 170k miles and is stuck on some parking lot.

I have changed spark plug wires (it doesn't mean that they are still good) when I purchased it at 160k and changed spark plugs twice (coz it cost $1 and not worth to put used one beck when checking them) already. It passed emission in January.

The car wouldn't start from time to time but eventually it would start. The engine was turned over by starter but it wouldn't catch.

The car performed like new with lot of torque and great acceleration (only issue with low idle RPM which dropped even lower when fans or AC was turned on).

Today it wouldn't start again. It sort of wanted to but it did not catch. I moved with all connectors, spark plug wires, removed the distributor cup and cleanup up some white powder from the contacts but the cup and rotor were in excellent shape. Still it wouldn't start.

Finally it started but with unnatural noise like running on 3 cylinders? I had a helper who kept his foot on the gas pedal so the engine wouldn't stall. I unplugged spark plug wires one by one but the engine kept going (with a foot on the gas pedal). Each spak plug wire sparked when removed from the distributor. Then the engine ran with no foot on the gas pedal but something was smelling like burning. The exhaust made some puf puf noise.

I decide to drive it home. The car did not have much torque on the 2nd gear so I had to drive for a minute or two on the 1st one to make it up the hill. Down the hill I used 2nd and even 3rd gear to accelerate. The engine stalled at the intersection.

The helper looked at the catalytic converter and it was glowing red so I left the car there.

1) Now, do I ditch the car? With this problem the car is worth $1000-$1500.

2) Do I take it to a dealer to find out if there is any other reason for the issue other than aged convert? It fixing it there would cost $1000 it is not worth fixing it, I think.

3) Do I take it to some other shop and take a chances that they do not know Hondas?

4) Do I get a new direct fit converter and swap it myself?

5) Do I remove the converter first and try to run it to see if the engine starts and works?

Now I am thinking that while I attempted to start the car some unburned fuel got to the converter and burned it. So originally there was no problem with the converter but with starting the car. Is this likely?

Please help, I need to tow the car somewhere ASAP.

Updates: 6/12

1) I have towed the car to my garage removed spark plugs and one was coated with oil...time to replace some gaskets. This can be it or one of more problems?

2) Gaskets are like new, now I remember that I changed them all when I got the car. The one around the oily spark plug had some more oil on it in comparison with the rest. It seems there the valve cover should have been tightened more for more pressure on the gaskets?

3) I have replaced all 4 spark plugs, started the car. It started but just like yesterday with unnatural noise and vibrations starting to pronounce from about 1200 RPM. There is no smoke from the muffler just unnatural puffing so I guess the cat. converter is not clogged and doesn't cause this issue? I am not sure what next at this point.

[kautyy]

Before ditching it, and since you have done some trouble shooting and it is sitting in the garage, i would check compression in each cylinder but first before doing this, i would check to see if the timing belt jumped a couple of teeth.

How did the car drive before the "occasional no start" problem?

[ozvena]

It was a while since I started this thread and now my car is fixed.

The fuel pump was replaced and I have not seen the car to hesitate starting. The performance is great as it always has been. The converter is not clogged.

When I was trying all possible to start the car back then I by mistake swapped two spark plug cables. A big big mistake. So the car worked on 2 cylinders and the converter burned fuel from the two not working corectly . It is amazing that it drove up a steep hill total of 1.2 miles. I am ashamed but the lesson has been learned; the hard way ($76 to tow it home).

I have tested the bad fuel pump and it works shooting water under a solid pressure...of well if it was some bad contact now it works with a new pump (kind of expensive part).

My battery light flashes sometimes and then stops on top of that when I turn on the lights and fan only the motor RPMs drops. I check the battery voltage with the engine on and off. I checked the power wire from the alternator to the battery and check the ground. All perfect. I was told that the alternator is bad so I am in the process of replacing it. I hope it will fix it.