well seeing as many things could be the problem, the best thing for him to do is crack open the repair manual and do some checks?

 

hence why I would be happy to do a proper run down.

the logic behind statements like "my tach isnt working I should replace my coil" or "just replace the entire dizzy" make me fear for a new generation of owners who dont know how to pick up a haynes and a DVOM and do some actualy diagnosis, not just play "replace and pray"

 

I really appreciate everyone's input on this issue and in hindsight I should have been more specific. My tach doesn't really jump around, a few times it has read wrong, maybe 500-800rpm off and when it did this it also seemed sluggish or a little jittery.

Anyway, for the moment it's working normal for the most part and the car is not only running fine, as it always has been, but starts better since I replaced the fuel filter. My point is because the weather sucks and I don't have the money for any new parts (not that I'm convinced I need new parts)at the moment I'm going to put it off until the ambient is 50 or above.

 

Civic2Scooby, I appreciate the offer and I may take you up on that at some point in the future, unless you've posted some sort of diy by then.
Keep in mind that I dont have a volt meter or anything so I'm not sure how much I can actually diagnose.

 

Could the process of changing the ignitor on a civic really be that different from a 'teg? I'd be really pissed if I had to do the same, since that should've been replaced when the dizzy was, especially considering what she paid. It was only a couple years ago I think.

 

Yeah, from what I've found the distributor itself should be no more than $484 and only $52 for labor. I had heard from someone who knew the previous owner that they thought she had the ECU ($588) replaced, common on that year, at the same time which would explain the $1,100 but she told me she thought it was just the dizzy.

 

Look, the car won't run if the ignitor is bad...

Most likely it is a LOOSE connection... The only way to find out is to test it... Or just buy a new one like an idiot, and when you go to put it on, maybe you would realize its just a loose connection, or something else MINOR not requiring you to buy a re-built distributor...

You definitely have a loose/corroded connection in the ignition system, especially if the problem is unable to be reliably produced (aka only happens once in awhile)...

 

Actually the swap is exactly the same...just different motor. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying swap out the whole distributor because i'm lazy, i'm simply saying, for about the same price you can purchase an ignitor, you can find a distributor from here or maybe even cheaper at a junk yard. I'm all about budget build and getting more for your money. And yes if the distributor actually was replaced then yes it should be all new parts on the current dizzy. Besides, to replace an ignitor, you have to take the whole distributor out anyway so why not just go with a whole new one? And as mberndt said, the first thing you should do is check all your connections and grounds, can be the cheapest fix you ever make...

 

Believe me guys, as much as I care about my car, I don't want to spend money on it that I don't have to. At first I was leaning heavily towards buying a new coil and putting it in there cause I thought it would help the car start more reg and cause I read of others having success with this. Thanks to your input and the fact that the car starts and runs perfect with the new fuel filter, I'm no longer gonna do that.

mberndt, my plan for the near future is to first check all the connections under the cap (when searching for the jumpy tach post and reading the related ones I found that someone fixed a similar problem by tightening the connections on the coil, if I member correct) and then when I remove the gauge cluster, which was gonna do anyway at some point, I'll make sure that's all good. The 3 main grounds are better than new and all nice and tight.

I know what you're saying proj hatch, if this car didn't have a relatively new dizzy in it already and I ended up finding out I needed to remove it to replace some parts, I would just replace the whole thing. That's very sound advice.

Once again, I sincerely appreciate all the input and advice.

 

Hey man,

I had a similiar problem... I have a turbo kit, so I thought maybe something with the ECU tuning was making the tach jump...

After I had replaced Coil, wires, plugs, rotor, cap, swapped in a working Dizzy, and I still had the same problem...

You need to check all of the grounds in your car, not just the connections at, near, or in the Dizzy.

My prob was a loose engine ground near the tranny ground point... It was loose and created a 2 month headache...

Start the car and have someone look under the open hood, (at night) to see any kind of sparking... that's how we found my problem...

Good luck!