tmcd35 (3rd July 2009)
Just got my first car yesterday - Honda Civic 1.4i 1996
Freedom![]()
Nice, enjoy it!![]()

Nice, I had a '96 Dommani which is kind of like a 1.6L SOHC Civic with a differnt body on it which was very hardy and took all the punishment that I dished out to it requireing very little mantinence. They are good cars.
ok tried to go home yesterday afternoon around 5pm started my car which started fine and tried to reverse and it cut out, started it up again and though ok maybe not enough revs so gave it more revs when reversing and within 5 seconds or so it cut out and after that would not start after that.
The recovery guy reckoned it would be the fuel pump, the fuel line or the distributor ( really narrows it down - NOT ! )
The battery aint run out and I didnt leave lights on ( with it being the middle of summer and all ) and I only used it at lunch time to wind the windows down ( electric windows ) and turned it off straight away ) and the same again to wind them back up and turned the car off and locked it after lunch )
Just wondering if one of you guys could try and help me out with figuring out what it is.
Been running really nice before it broke down so not really making sense.

Reminds me of trouble we had once upon a time in an Audi 80 (I think I was about 9, that's how long ago!) where the filter on the fuel line clogged and blocked up all the fuel. The recovery guy just pulled the filter off and blew it out himself, so maybe that's something easy you can try to start off with.
(disclaimer: I'm not a mechanic and I was very young, so I don't know if he isolated the fuel first)
Very odd indeed. Does your car whine when you first start it? Like the fuel pumps turning on but doing nothing? Does the car move and drive in first gear? Can you turn it on an it stays on just idling? Reversing straight or turning when reversing? (Power steering pumps tend to nick all power when doing low-speed manoeuvres)
On a side note, my car ran out of petrol the other day, 400yards infront of a garage as well, was not impressed either, was trying to get home and had sat in Glastonbury traffic for almost two hours. One of the hardships of working less than a mile away from Glastonbury, and having to drive through it all![]()
I don't hear a whining
No to the engine idling or being able to drive in first gear
Can't reverse or make the car move at all.
Have a quarter of a tank left of petrol so there is petrol in there
Ive never heard a fuel pump working and so not sure about the whining sound you are reffering to - are there any other tests I could do to make sure the fuel pump is or is not the issue ?
the fuel pump in a carwould the whining sound or sound that its not working be audiable and noticable
to me it just sounds like its trying to turn over but cant get any further then that

Other idea - my first car, Citroen AX, went through a stage of stalling unless it was choked and revved high - turned out to be the ignition amplifier, whatever that is. Garage job though![]()
Reminds me of a very similar problem I had with my Civic. I bought in Manchester and drove it back to Norwich. Fine all the way until the first of the Thetford roundabouts (on the A11 a few miles south of Norwich - so almost home!) and it just cut out.
Finally got it going, I think it cut out once more before I got home. It then happened regularly for a few weeks - usually on roundabouts
The problem suddenly went away and the car was pretty much fine until someone totaled it
It seemed to clear up just after I discovered the manual chock and how to use it properly
You don't, by any chance, have a manual chock that you are not using correctly?

do you mean a manual choke?
tmcd35 (3rd July 2009)
what do you mean manual choke ?

you will have a small handle that you can pull out somewhere in the vicinity of the driving position most likely under the steering column. This lets more fuel into the engine for when the engine is cold after the engine has heated up you would push this handle back in. Otherwise the car might stall as the fuel floods the carburettor.
Does it have a warrenty?
Was it used daily before you bought it?
Have you let the petrol run right down?
My son's fiesta had similar symptoms, he'd run the car on empty and dirt from the fuel tank clogged up the filter, my husband was on constant call out to rescue him by cleaning out the filter for about a month. (Then it got stolen and torched, so the problem ended)
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