I used to do this same trick with my old Rambler. I would put it in neutral, start “peddling” with my left leg out the door, then use my right foot to depress the clutch and put it in gear. I found that the Rambler would go faster by peddling than using the engine. This saved gas, so I didn’t have to buy Pulsar spark plugs or buy gizmos that would let the car burn water instead of gasoline.
I don’t see how push starting would cause this, unless you forget to turn the key to “run”.
Well, you certainly can with some modern fuel injection setups. My BMW motorcycle has electronic fuel injection with an electric fuel pump. A few months ago my starter motor was not working 100% of the time. I roll started it a few times with no problems, but note that my battery was not dead. I’ve never tried it with a dead or weak battery. I don’t know what would happen if I tried it with a weak/dead battery.
I replaced the brushes in my starter and if the new ones last as long as the old ones, I shouldn’t have a starter problem again until about 2020.
Just a side note: The 1939 Chevrolet that my Dad owned when I was in elementary school had an emergency crank. I’ve seen him “twist its tail” several times when the battery was low. When he bought a newer car, I remember being worried that it didn’t have an emergency crank and didn’t have a hand choke. Even as a kid, I didn’t see this as progress–how on earth did you start a car with a low battery? In those days, jumper cables weren’t commonly used. Later, I remember seeing, in the J.C. Whitney catalog, a kit that could be fitted to a VW Beetle that allowed it to be started with a rope if the battery was low.
Beetles up until the early-50’s actually came from the factory with a little hole in the back that you could insert a crank into to crank-start it in a pinch. I’ve always imagined if they had kept this feature, most Beetles would probably spend a lot of their lives driving around with broken starter motors!
I did it a number of times with my Sunbeam Imp. On a flat parking lot, I could open the driver door, put it in reverse, turn on the ignition, push the car backwards with my left foot out the door. It worked every time until I got a new battery.
Any wimp can turn a key to activate the starter motor. It takes a person with guts to turn the motor with a crank. Actually, the crank was useful for turning the engine when adjusting valves or setting ignition points.
My manual 1998 Civic DX will not push start with a dead battery. I had to buy jumper cables.
Old tractors sometimes were designed to start by hand cranking. My dad’s farm would have been a great museum of old tractors, but they were what we used for farm work. We were taught to always keep the thumb on the same side of the crank handle, in case the motor kicked back, to keep from hurting your arm. A neighbor had once broken his arm by holding his thumb around the crank handle.
The International Harvester Farmall F-12 started this way. It had a magneto igniton. There was no battery to go down.
I used to have a Mazda B truck, which is a Ford Ranger in disguise. Used to roll-start it all the time, whenever I could, cause I just liked to. Never had a prob with it.
Don’t ever get up to 20 mph with the engine not running especially if the vehicle has power brakes. You can’t stop if for some reason the engine doesn’t fire.
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We recently bought an Infiniti coupe. The manual explicitly says not to push start. Their explanation is that it may damage the catalytic converters. Since your Civic manual does not discuss push starting, it is probably safe. However, to be sure, I would contact your dealer and/or Honda customer service.
I had a '94 F150 small V8 manual that had a loose ground wire on the starter motor. I had to push start all the time until I found the loose wire. One of those things that most days it worked and then it wouldn’t and then no problems for a few days and on and on… Of course battery was always fully charged.