Ok, so my friend just bought a 98 cavalier Z24. We bought it knowing it had some problems, but he has deamed me with fixing it....so, one problem is the diagnostic port doesnt work, it has a code thrown but we cant read it because of that. The guy at autozone said it was a fuse.....doesnt anyone know if theres one to that, or where it is? Also, it has a bad miss to it, and sort of a knock/grinding sound, and has no power whatsoever....compression test shows good compression....we havent got into anything else yet, but maybe wondering if you guys know common problems that it may be? Thanks in advance!

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the obd 2 port will not work without a good horn fuse. check the coil pack housing and look for arcing and have the icm tested at autozone would be a good start.

btw, after i did my timing chain and water pump, it had a bad miss/ knock. New plugs and a breakdown and thorough check of the coil packs,housings,springs,and icm, it runs fine. I think the knock was just spark knock

Well, timing chain was done a year ago the person said that we bought it off of. We just changed plugs, literally 30 mins ago lol. As for the horn fuse, we cant find it? Im guessing its on the interior fuse door? We didnt see anything for it though....the horn doesnt work either lol. What did it end up being when you looked at all that??

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Just checked, the fuse door on the drivers side nor the under hood fuse box have anywhere for a horn fuse labeled. Looked online and saw where it is labeled on other doors and there is nothing there, not even wires to put a fuse in. Checked my other 98 cavalier which is a 2200SFI and it also has no labeling for the horn fuse and nowhere for a fuse to go for it like the other fuse door i saw online. Anyone know where this evasive fuse is? lol its killing me not having a diagnostic port...

"Hondas are like tampons, every pussy has one!!!"

Get a test light, and check all the fuses. IIRC its inside the car on the drivers side. If you cant find it, and I know there is one there, just get a test light, ground it, and touch all the little metal points at the tops of all the fuses. Should take like 5-10 mins to do this. The ones that are blown will have power on one point, and not at the other, and replace as needed. If ur horn dont work, then ur fuse is prolly blown, just gotta do it that way and call it a day. You should find what u need that way.

the wire that is behind the air bag could have came loose. you may have to remove the airbag to see if it is loose all you hae to do is push it in and turn so it will lock in place. i know this sounds weird but i just fixed my bothers horn on his sunfire this way. dont know how it came loose but it dod. Also the fuse is the fourth one over at the very top it should be a 15a fuse

The only thing I wonder is, will the diagnostic port work without the horn working? Like as long as the horn circuit has power, shouldnt it read? Or does it HAVE to completely work?

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I have a 98 z24 convertible, so you should have the same fuse panel as I do... My horn fuse is a 15 amp on the driver's side fuse block. I had a CEL and went to autozone and he said he couldnt read it and to check my fuse... The only fuse I was missing was my horn fuse, so I swapped a fuse and viola, it worked. You car HAS a horn fuse. It has to. How many miles is on the car? If you changed the spark plugs, I would inspect the coil housing... The springs going from the coils to the housing are known for arcing and losing contact over time. Pull the coils, stretch the springs a bit, inspect for arcing/burned marks, and replace as needed.

Ok, so found out there is no HORN fuse for some reason.....they incorporated like everything into the CIG fuse, the CIG fuse runs the cigarette lighter, horn, interior lamps, and who would have guessed, diagnostic port!!!! lol, weird that they would put all that on the one fuse and confuse the @!#$ out of people looking for a horn fuse lol :p

Anyway, need to get a starter issue fixed first, then testing coils and all that good stuff.....as far as those springs, where can we buy said springs? lol

Thanks again everyone!!

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Glad you found the fuse... yeah, I didnt understand why my obd2 was rigged to my horn fuse... That's GM for you. To answer your question about the springs, they come with a new coil pack housing and cannot be bought seperate. however, someone made an upgrade of the springs and were barillium (I think) and they sold them on eBay... this was a couple years ago though. He may still be selling them, but I doubt it. Take apart the Coil housing and your coils may be stuck to the gaskets, just gently pry up on them to pop them out and pull the springs out. Look down in the connection holes and look for melting or scorch marks. If all seems good, put it back together and I would take the IDI cover,housing and all and flip it, plug in the icm, and stick the spark plugs in the boots, then use jumper cables and ground the plugs and crank the motor to check for spark, this will tell you if you have a bum coil. There are also spring in the boots that you mash down on the plugs, sometimes they fall out or lose contact also. Good luck

Just to add, hyperblu is dead nuts right. Just to add tho, IF you end up needing coil packs, I have heard GREAT things about Autozones coils, saying that there stonger and work better then OEM or GM ones. Now this is what I have been told from a few people and they all say the same thing. I would go that route if you end up needing some coils, and dont cheap out, get the good set, if you dont, the saying U get what U pay for, will come to haunt u later on. Goodluck!

I have autozone coils and they've been very reliable... And David, When I first bought the car i had ignition problems for months... I never suspected the housing, so it took me 6 months of the misfires pissing me off to replace the entire ignition system... I replaced the cam and crank sensor,plugs,coils,boots, and ICM and it STILL did it. My housing was shot the entire time. Autozone can test your icm. Im not telling you to spend money, just inspect, test, and replace whats needed. If I know anything about the LD9, is the damn ignition. I was a headache for months.

Better yet, do the swap to coils and plug wires. Get rid of that garbage IDI system all together. Here's a thread on it.

2.4L Plug wire conversion

Hey Mini, has anyone actually done this and noticed any significant gains on them?? Like did gas mileage get better and so on. My coils are starting to go bad bc I can hear a "Puut" in the exhaust while idling on first start up, so Im going to replace them soon. I have also noticed my gas mileage SUCKS big donkey balls. So im wondering if it will help. Thanks for the info, and sorry to thread jack!

I did the neon coil swap with MSD wires.....maybe a slight increase in fuel mileage....would never even think about going back to the IDI setup

Slowzee wrote:I did the neon coil swap with MSD wires.....maybe a slight increase in fuel mileage....would never even think about going back to the IDI setup

Well, im sure anything would be better then whats on in my LD9. For some reason it has the crappiest gas mileage I have ever seen. I mean, im putting about 25-35 bucks in it every freakin week. And I only drive maybe 150 miles a week, and it keeps putting me down to less then a 1/4 of a tank, literally, I put 30 bucks in this past sunday, and it put me above 3/4's (closer to full) and now only tuesday im already below 3/4's and it just keeps dropping. This is why Im thinking my damn coils are bad, bc the thing has a fresh tune up on it, and a new fuel filter, and new air filter and it still gets the same crappy mileage. So im looking into this to see if it helps, especially since my girl now has a 00 vert with the LD9 in it also, and if she gets the same crappy mileage, I will do this to her car if it improves it too.

Ok, so checked everything out 2 of those little springs appearered to be bad, and a coil was down. We did the 2.2 coil conversion today and firing on all cylinders, however, still didnt start. Looked and the grey and red wires on the alternator plug are completely ripped out of the connector, so going to need a new connector there obviously, but, the thing thats weird is, unplugged the vacuume line from the fuel pressure regulator and fuel came out, i was like what the hell? Took the intake off, fuel in the TB and a PUDDLE of fuel sitting in the bottom of the intake manifold....im guessing fuel pressure regulator? Anyone else have any ideas?

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Yup your FPR is bad, replace it. If you ever pull a vacuum line off a FPR and fuel sprays out, its bad and replace it. Also clean out all the fuel as much as you can so not to have a intake backfire.

Ok, so this sucks......here is the story on the car so you can kind of get an idea maybe of whats going on.....

Bought it, lady it was bought off of said it had a cracked intake manifold. I could tell by the sound of the starter it was bad as well (Spins freely and seldom engaged the flywheel to start it but it WOULD start after so long of cranking)

Well, we changed the intake manifold right in the ladys drive way and drove it home. It had a miss to it pretty bad, other than that not bad. A few days went by then we changed the starter. After we changed the starter it would not start whatsoever. Flywheel teeth are fine, and it cranks strong.

Got into looking at it, alternator plug had the wires ripped out, fixed that. Next noticed a coil was down, so we did the 2200 coil conversion, still wouldnt start. Next noticed the fuel pressure regulator was dumping fuel out the vauccme port into the intake manifold. Changed that today and still will not start.

Has spark on all cylinders, checked at the coil packs, shot it with starting fluid to check if it was a fuel issue and no start still. Cranks strong, has spark, pump sounds strong, primes fine....not sure what it could be? Any suggestions???

"Hondas are like tampons, every pussy has one!!!"

Do you have any Check Engine Lights?? A bad crankshaft or camshaft sensor will cause a no start. Also, get into the car, and while cranking, and press the accelerator pedal while cranking. does the car start?? If so ur IAC is prolly bad. Try that and get back to us.

Gas pedal does nothing, we tried that.

CEL light was on before it wouldnt start again, but it would go off every so often and come back on.

As far as crank or cam position sensor, if one of those were bad i wouldnt think the ignition system would work???

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See if you can pull the codes. If so then see what they are/were. Also, you might watn to try and do a compression test, and see if you have compression. Also, on the shrader valve on the fuel line, press it and see if fuel sprays out, and if so, then good, it not, then could be the fuel pump isnt pushing hard enough.

Where Exactly is the shrader valve on this car? Looked everywhere up by the fuel rail and didnt see one.

We have no way to pull the codes, cause, too poor for a code reader lol.

I was thinking of doing a compression test, I think thats where its going to be headed soon.

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And again with crank position sensor, it wouldnt be firing if it was bad? Thats what I always knew anyway...

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