I'm guessing(hoping) that TX GreaseMonkey will chime in here cause my issue seems similar to many others on here, but I wanted to add a couple of details.

2001 CR-V with 130K miles was intermittently slow to start for a couple of months. Sometimes it'd fire right up, sometimes I thought it never would but it always caught - until one day a couple weeks ago it just wouldn't fire. When the key was turned it was turning over but it just never fired up. After letting it sit overnight I tried again and the same result - no firing. Then I pumped the gas pedal and tried cranking at the same time and it almost fired. So I tried again and just kept pumping the gas and finally it fired up and I drove it to my mechanic.

Of course, when they went to start it the next day it worked fine and gave them no issues. They checked fuel pressure which was fine and I ended up getting them to replace plugs, wires, dist. cap, rotor, & fuel filter cause it was due. Ran fine for a week, though once or twice it seemed to take a little longer to fire up when cranking. Then yesterday my wife left for work only to get a quarter mile from the house and have it die at a stop sign. This time it won't fire up at all. No codes thrown, CEL goes off after 2 sec. in ON position. The battery light is the only one that stays on when trying to start it - does that indicate something?

Does this sound like ICM or coil failure to you? I've read through your suggestions for testing and it seems like I can do those before paying for a tow and a shop's diagnostics, but I'm not much of a mechanic. So I want to make sure I get the sparkplug testing right - when I pull it and connect it to the wire, do I touch the threads or the actual gapped end to the grounded surface? Thanks in advance!

Yes, replacing the Ignition Control Module and coil should solve the problem:

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cars-t...tml#post265896

I recommend replacing these problematic components every 120,000 miles or 10 years, whichever comes first. The battery light is not a problem--it will stay on until the engine starts.

You were right! I did the tests and since everything else checked out I replaced the ICM and the coil and it fired right up. When I replaced the coil, the replacement seemed to come out at a slight angle which made getting the dist. cap back on kind of tough and I had to apply some force to align the screw on the opposite side. Should I just take it back apart and get the shop to give me another coil that hopefully doesn't have that angle to it or do you think it's fine? I just worry that it's putting unnecessary stress on the coil and cap.

Thanks for your reply, that saved me a good chunk of change!

I would return it--everything should fit naturally. Otherwise, it will fail on you at an inopportune time. Good job.

Did you apply the heat transfer compound to the back of the ICM?

I did put the compound on. It actually came with a little packet of some, so I didn't have to go search any out. The original one came out dry as a bone with no evidence of ever having any on it. Aside from the coil being misshapen, the only issue I ran into was the screws attaching the ICM heat sink stripping out. Luckily local hardware store had a match. I'll pull the coil and take it back tomorrow. Need to get a code read now anyway. CEL came on when doing the 3000rpm rev up to get the fan to come on to reset the idle (from the repair guide on Autozone.com)

I would disregard reving the engine to 3,000 rpm to set the idle. The engine only needs to be at normal operating temperature. Let me know what code came up.

Well, I pulled the coil that I suspected of making the cap not fit right, and it was indeed off kilter. I disconnected the battery when replacing it and since then I've had no CEL show up. I didn't get it read beforehand since I didn't want to make a trip to the shop to read it and then back to exchange my part. Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it.