There has been a huge cold snap of -20 to -30(C) for about two weeks. My civic started fine until the last few days of it. It appears that my block heater is not working, although I have been pluggin it in religiously. Anyway, I expected the car to start again fine after said cold snap; but we're now back to around -5 or 5 deg Celsius, and it's still not starting. During all the cold weather we tried to start it a lot of times, hoping that it might just work all of a sudden.

Go to position 2 - engine light, fuel pump all seem fine.

Try to start, starter is spinning fine (it also has a new battery in it), the engine even seems to be turning over (at least sometimes), but it's not starting.

Anyway, what do you think I have screwed up by trying to start it so many times when it was so cold?

By reading the FAQ's on here, it looks like I am on to the part where I pull out the fuel injectors and see if they're squirting gas and test the spark plugs. Unfortunately I don't have any tools because I just moved, so I'm going to take the bus :( to get some tools to test these two things out.

I don't think you have hurt anything, yet. I would focus on the distributor igniter and possibly the coil. Make sure your spark plugs do not have more than 24,000 miles on them. Only use NGK plugs in Civics. Where you live, I would definitely be using synthetic engine oil. Here's what the igniter looks like:

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductL...Control%20Unit

Remove the coil before working on the igniter--it gives you more room. Remember to coat the back of the igniter with silicone grease before reinstallation.