Honda Repair: wont start, timing belts, spark tester

Question
QUESTION: Hi Steve, I have a 1998 civic that was sitting for a month and now it wont start a friend said that my timing belt is no good because the car won't turn on with starting fluid ,is he right the car has 93,000 miles.

ANSWER: First of all I'm assuming that your car ran fine before you parked it. That being said, it is highly unlikely that your timing belt is bad. Timing belts don't generally go bad just from sitting. All that it shows when your car won't start with starting fluid is that for some reason you are not getting spark.
I'm assuming that your car turns over fine, but I would still have the battery load tested just to be sure that it is good. After that you need to start looking at your ignition system. I'd start by checking to see if the spark plugs are getting spark. You can buy a cheap spark tester at any auto parts store. If there is spark to the plugs then you might try changing the spark plugs.
Sometimes when a vehicle sits for a while the cylinders inside the engine lose all the oil on them and that creates low compression. You can check the compression with a gauge. If it is low then just put a squirt of oil in each one and that should take care of it.
I hope this helps.

P.S. I wouldn't take your friends advice too seriously.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks steve for the  advice, as it turns out the car did not have spark so i decided to change the plugs,wires, distributor cap and rotor and still would not start I then change the ignition coil but it would'nt start finally after a little research in the internet i was advice to change the ignition module which finally  she turned on. Now my question is do you think i should return the ignition coil and put the original back on or is best to leave it alone.

Answer
If the old one was working then it would probably work for a while. There is no telling for how long though. If it were me I would probably just leave the new one on. Sometimes if you have a problem with the ignition module it is best to change the coil too. I've done that on these cars before...they seem to be pretty sensitive.
I'm glad you were able to figure it out.