Hi,

I am really at a loss as to what is wrong with my Honda so I hope someone can help. I know its long but I want to be as specific as possible.

I have a 1991 Accord, EX Automatic.

Initial problem, and this literally happened overnight! Got into the car and went to start it. It started and was running kinda rough, the whole car was vibrating. This has happened before on a start and if I turn the car off and start it again its fine. So I did that. No change. I started it again and got the same rough idle. So I restarted once more, same thing. When I put the car into reverse it got three times worse, both the idle and the vibration. I figured I would take it around the block and when I put it into drive the car just idled even worse (I felt like I was driving a hit and miss tractor!). When I accelerated, it putt-putted down the road. I didn’t go very fast with it, 20mph tops. At the stop sign it felt like it wanted to die but just stayed at a very low rough idle.

Current problem: My dad came over and did the run through, new plugs, rotor, cap, and even swapped ignitors with our warranty at autozone. NOW OUR CAR WON’T START! It just cranks. When checking the ECU the check engine light stays on (is that code for a bad ECU??). My dad ohm metered the coil and it was at 13 ohms, so not sure if it’s the coil (book says should be between 13-19 ohms). But remember it was starting fine until we changed the rotor and cap. And the old rotor and cap won’t work either even though it was working before we removed it :thinking:.We pulled a plug to see if we were getting a spark and it had a very weak spark. The plug next to it wasn’t sparking but maybe we it wasn’t grounded. We skipped plugs 3 and 4. After 7 hours we were ready to call it a day. If the other 3 plugs are sparking just as weak as plug one, would it be a bad coil? We checked the plugs gapped at 39 and 43. The plug wires are good.

Would a bad ECU not let the car start even if there is a weak spark? We’ve reset the ECU at least 5 times and keep getting the same code, no blinking check light, it just stays on. With the jumper out we are not getting the check engine light to come on.

We think it’s an ignition problem. There was some greenish liquid coming out of the tailpipe before it died on us but we have no white oil, no smoke of any kind, and the compression test checked out okay.

Recap:
- Car was starting but running very rough, (WE DID NOT GET THE STEADY CHECK ENGINE LIGHT WHEN IT WAS IN RUNNING MODE. This only happened after the car wouldn’t start)
- Changed rotor, cap and plugs – no start.
- New ignitor – no start
- We are getting a weak spark with at least plug #1, we haven’t checked the others.
- ECU check engine light on steady, no blinking (only when we jump it, not when the car is just on cranking with jumper out). We were getting a code 6 (coolant sensor) before the car died but it went away when we reset the ECU.

Could it be the coil even though we got a reading on the low end with 13 ohms? Could it be the stator/pick-up relay? Could it be a bad ECU preventing the car from starting and would it just go bad like that? :thinking:

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance! Sorry if I confused you, let me know if you need further detail with anything. I’ll do my best to describe. Thanks again!

Danielle

 

Is the battery good?

 

i was thinking the same thing. it could be a bad alternator too.

 

The car was running. After replacing the rotor, cap, plugs and ignitor it won't start. Battery is at 12.5 volts, it's good. Plug wires are good.

 

mines only two years old... 02 4cyl
but often the engine starts with 2nd try... whenever its "kinda" cold...

its MD here.. it shouldnt be that cold..
well maybe something is wrong with ma car...

 

when you replaced cap did you put the wires on in the right firing order? just a thought

 

on the 4th gen Accords, a common cause for this problem was the main relay. When this is the problem it's because some or one of the solder connections on the relay were bad. In which case you either replace it, or resolder all the connections and go on about your business.

 

Problem fixed!!! :thumbup: It was the coil. Thanks to all who posted with ideas. I am so happy my car runs! :blue:

Danielle