allan1058

1992 Honda Prelude SI, 160,000 miles

I will try to make this short but I want to give you alot of details to consider. Last week my car was missing really bad, so i got a tuneup and everything was fine for a day. The next day I was at a traffic light and my car just cut out, no sputtering or anything. Anyways that happened a few times, it would also take a couple minutes of cranking to start back up. Then yesterday it cut off while I was driving, it started back off after 15 mins of cranking it. Last night on the way home it did it again and it wont start back up now, just cranks and cranks. I had to get it towed home. What could this possibly be, I just got a full tuneup, i can hear my fuel pump turn on when i turn the key on so that isnt it. My mechanic thinks I have I spark problem cause he pulled the wire and there was no spark at the bottom. I have a valve cover gasket leak and he said the oil could be dripping back on the crank sensor and messing with the crank sensor. make sense? He def thinks its electrical but Im just looking for some help cause I dont have the money to dump and dump trying to pinpoint the problem. Also, my check engine light isnt on, if i take it to Honda will they be able to hook it up to a computer and tell me the problem?? What do you guys think? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

sherwood

no cel?

allan1058

is that a question? what is cel?

sherwood

check engine light

allan1058

nope no check engine light

augy

Well, fix the things he mentioned. Your valve cover gaskets should run you about thirty bucks, and no matter how car-stupid you are you can do that yourself. Replace the plugs after the gasket, and see if that helps.
Did you get the problems after the tune-up? Take it to that shop and tell them that, and get them to look it over.

allan1058

The plugs are brand new but I guess I can try the valve cover, and yes all this started after the tune-up

augy

Pull your plug caps off and look on the rubber hose that leads down to your spark plugs. If you can see oil on them (or if you see it anywhere in the spark plug hole), you definately need to replace the gaskets on your valve cover. But that wouldn't cause your car to die like that. No spark, however, would. Have you taken off your dizzy cap? Take it off and check for obvious problems.

allan1058

No oil on the tube that goes down to my spark plug. What is my dizzy cap? sorry im so car technical. thanks

augy

Dizzy is the collective car-guy pet name for the distributor. The cap is the plastic part from which the spark plug wires run to the tube that you pulled out.