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

 

Has anything changed with your situation?

 

It wouldn't be the first time that an ignitor failed out of the box. There are a couple of different tests to do on the coil. I don't know for sure what the exact procedure on an accord is but on my integra you have to check the primary and secondary windings one should have a low resistence one should have a high resistance. Check a chiltons or haynes and find out what points to check. If the check engine light is on when you put the jumper there that means there are no codes stored. You also have to remember that there are three other sensors in the distributor which contribute to the ignition signal. I think there is a TDC sensor a piston position sensor and one other that I can't think of right now but they are just an inductive pickup type sensor and you can check the resistance of all of those coils. The ignitor gets its signal from the ecu which uses those three different sensors in the distributor to fire the ignitor. So if you are getting weak spark I would tend to think that your coil might not be working properly because the ignitor is either going to work or it won't because it is basically a fast switching transistor that is turned off and on by the pulse from the ecu and a semicondutor switch like that doesn't wear out over time it works or it doesn't. So check all the voltages in your distributor you should have 12VDC going to your coil if it is not 12VDC then you have to find out where the voltage drop is. If you are getting all the right voltages in your distributor and all the resistances check out I would recommend finding a good used one that is working and try that. Try car-parts.com and do a search in fact I would probably try that first and then if runs figure out what was wrong with the old one and use it for a spare or sell it. Hope this helps

 

Did you check to make sure your getting fuel? I just had a problem with my integra somewhat similiar to yours. It cranked strong but wouldnt always start. When it did start ran fine. After a week of sporadic starting, i pulled the cap, and checked the primary coil (zero ohms). Put cap back on and car refused to start. You may have damaged the coil further, or initially if you cranked with the cap off due to what ive read. Ive also heard people recommend changing the ignitor and coil together since a new one may blow the other due to the increase of efficiency. Listen to Worleybot too, there are crankshaft angle sensors etc that cant be replaced individually. If you still suspect the distributor, I would just replace the whole distributor for around 220 with a total brand new unit like i just did yesterday(esp if you have high miles). If you need any help just ask. Ive had to research this problem for the last week and im sure our cars are very similiar. Everyone just told me it was the MFR although I told them it definitely was not that.
---Oh wait a minute, just reread your post. Sounds like your problem could be caused by the coolant reaching the cylinders. If thats mixing with the combustion, well its gonna run like sh** and probably not that long. I would get your head gasket etc checked out asap.

 

My cousin had the same prob with her Cavilier... It'll go only like 5-10 mph and putt. We took out the spark plugs they were so fouled up with oil and if i remember i think one plugs was sorta melted (symptoms of detonation). The boot on a plug wire was melted off. The engine bay was caked with oil, couldn't find the cause of that. After changing the plugs and wires it wouldnt even start anymore. We gave up on that point and sold the car as-is. Just had to give you a horror story... A lot of luck to you!

 

Well.. what temperature was the check of 13 ohms at? Resistance checks on the ignition coil should be conducted at 70°, and I believe colder temperatures will cause the Ohm reading to artificially rise...

Also, what I just found out myself is that if you have an old ignition coil on a Honda, and you crank the engine repeatedly with the dist rotor not making any electrical contact (eg you're cranking your engine to get the rotor in the right position to take it out), your coil can very easily burn out.

But getting a very weak spark and having such a borderline acceptable Ohm reading might be indicative of a toasted coil...