Civic EG

car starts fine if allowed to sit for 30min-1hour also found out yesterday if the car is allowed to sit in an open parkinglot in the heat it will have the same reaction I had to open the windows and doors and let the inside cool before it would start. I heard someone mention possibly a main relay issue but wanted to check opinions here first before I go to replace it.

main relay

If it is in fact the MFR, then I'd suggest finding and calling a local tuner shop to see if they can resolder the busted solder joints for ya.

If nothing local, hit up a junkyard!

I might try to do that later today. Now that I'm working again I need to catch up on some maint issues as well as "unrig" a few things.

I've replaced the main relay and its still having the same issue.

other things also going on:
running hotter then normal (the hose going from the thermostat housing to the intake had busted and I thought I had blead it enough but will try again after I get out of work)
at idle the rpms are extreemly low

I had replaced the alternator/starter/mastercylinder/plugs and wires/ac converted to r134 all within the last 6 months. its an automatic. 93 civic 4d 1.5 If theres any other info that might help someone have an idea let me know.

any CELs?

nope which with hows its acting I would have thought it should have thrown atleast one.

While I'm trying to be optomistic I found that if the issues are:
Low rough idle
Feels like its under a load at times it shouldn't

it can be a dead cylinder/injector might not be firing/bad plug/wire

then add in its been running hot since this started

it might be the headgasket is blown and one of the coolant ports was affected

that would explain why after I've blead the coolant system several times theres still a loss of coolant somewhere (not big but still there) running hotter then normal, getting rough/low idle, non optimal gas miliage, and I think something else that escapes me at the moment

then again I might be panicing like someone who tries to self diagnose something on webmd and turning the symptoms of a cold into brain cancer then becomes to paniced to realize anything else

Well try to calm down and breathe

I suggest a compression test to start.

I've heard of ignition coils not working when the engine is hot, but I have not seen this happen on our motors.

When it doesn't start, does it crank or not turn over at all? If it does crank, did you try checking for spark?

i have this problem every now and them, i just cycle my key until my fuel pump decides to prime lol. Hardly ever happens though

it does crank over and every once in a while it will sound like it tried to start.

I am going to ask a friend to run the compression test as he has the tools but I think he won't be back in town for a week.

I'm going to check spark and some other stuff tomorrow morning since when I get off work and get home it will be late and we don't have good enough lighting outside.

I'll check to see if the fuel pump is priming when hot I just never though to listen for that before. In my head even if it hesitated at the time I probably would have blamed the main relay lol.

Thank everyone who has submited input I have calmed down some and have some stuff to do before I go and try and pull the head off in a panic

I have heard of other cars coils being intermittent but haven't run into any info on civic's coils doing that. not sure when its been changed and thats fairly inexpensive if I remember so I might change out just to be safe

radiator cap was dumping all the water into the overflow. replaced

all cylinders are firing.

started running fine. drove it around the block a few times parked it then tried to start it again and it started rough then died, then tried to start again and it just turns over but you can smell fuel.

Figures it acts up right when I'm trying to put money away to move in a month

well it sounds like you arent getting a strong if any spark. I saw your other post, and if your CYP sensor is melted then you do need to get another distributor, as this part is not sold seperately. I suggest snagging one from another distributor, just keep in mind that this part has to match vtec to vtec, non-vtec to non-vtec.