Well ive been trying to find out whats wrong with my car for some time now and i cant figure it out. the car is a 1994 honda accord ex. when i turn on the car, it idles very rough and shakes for a couple seconds then stops and the check engine light comes on.

If i turn the a/c on it seems to get worse. It idles very low, around 200-300rpms. When you let off the brake and hit the gas you get a second of hesitation. But when your driving down it rides fine. Its when you give it gas from a stop or when you start the car is when the problems come. Also if i drive the car for 10 minutes and it heats up, it will not start till i let it cool down for at least 20 minutes

Ive taken the car to the dealership to see what the problem is since the car is a 1994 and does not have OBD2. They told me to start by replacing the fuel filter, distributor rotor, spark plugs, spark plug wires, and distributor cap. I replaced all of that and still nothing.

Next they told me the engine code was reading to replace the distributor housing so they recommended replacing the ignition coil, distributor housing and the main relay. I replaced those as well and still nothing.

Getting pretty pissed seeing how i spent all this money to have no effect on the car. any help would be appreciated. thanks alot

 

Go to the Common DIY thread on top of the gen tech help forum and open the link on how to check engine codes. Count the codes from the check engine light and post them on here. That dealership should know exactly how to check engine codes on your car, if it is a honda dealership.

 

yeah it was a honda dealership and they said the codes were pointing to the distributor housing. going to take it back tomorrow and see what the hell its reading now

 

All you need is a thin paperclip to short the connector and do the test yourself. It is pretty simple to do.

 

I kind of regret that you didn't post about this earlier before spending all of that money. Granted if you haven't replaced those things in a while it would be warranted but...

No, I think as PAHonda said you should fetch the codes yourself. Don't waste another cent until you get an opinion from the people here and until you've come up with a logical reason as to why this might be happening. Throwing money at the problem is probably not going to work as you've witnessed firsthand.

 

Ok i just did the blink test. Check engine light blinked fast 9 times, looked it up and says the problem is no. 1 cylinder position, and so what does that mean?

 

That is a code for the cylinder position sensor, which is located in the ECU. You said that you already replaced the distributor housing.

The way to diagnose the wiring is to test the resistance at the electrical connector to the distributor. Then test those two wires at the ECU. They should give you the same reading. That common diy thread I mentioned earler has a link for online shop manuals, where you can download a 94 accord manual that will help a lot.

 

also forgot to mention, the car has a hard time starting on a hot start. say i drive it for ten or 20 minutes, shut it off, then try to start it 5 minutes later, the engine will just keep turning over and never start.

i heard the main relay could cause this so i replaced that and still having the same issue. any other thing it could possibly be?

 

You have thrown a lot of parts at your car to fix it, so I think that you should do some electrical tests.

If you have a volt meter, you can unplug the electrical connector to the distributor and measure the resistance across the proper pins for the cylinder position sensor. That would be between pins 4 and 8. Plug in the distributor, then unplug the B connector on the ECU and measure the resistance between pins B11 and B12. Make sure you inspect the pins of these plugs as well.

If the resistance is the same when reading at the distributor and then the ECU, then I would suspect a bad ECU.

Download the 94 shop manual to get that information.

ECUs rarely fail, but they occasionally do. If you look at a site like car-part.com, you can search for an engine computer through local junk yards by distance or price.

 

Possible that oil is leaking into the tubes that go to/from the spark plugs. My car did this and I had two tubes with oil in it. Both were replaced and the cars runs fine now. Cost about $300.00 total.