I have a 1990 honda accord and it died 3 to 4 days ago and its been really cold here in iowa. Okay well theres a few things that just went bad the first day it stopped. Well the rotorbroke so i bought a new rotor and got a new distributor cap and seal.... Then also the battery decided to be junk later that day after installing those new parts.... Since its been so cold i made sure i had atleast a half a tank of gas and put some heet in the gas tank also..... So after it sitting for a few days since its been cold i went and bought starter fluid yesterday and me and a friend sprayed it in the throttle body when trying to start it we got it started after about 20 mineuts of this and went inside to warm up.... well the car stayed running for 5 mineuts then died and tried all day again today and it cranks and for a second the engine wants to start but wont..... I need help i dont know what else i should check i really need to get my car running so please anyone help me. thanks

 

May be a broken wire at the ignition coil or a bad coil/

Worn , fauilty or incorrectly gapped spark plugs

Fuel injecters leaking, fauilty fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator or
that fuel is not getting thru the fuel rail.

There's a few thing to check for youself..good hunting my fello member!

WheelBrokerAng

 

thank you for your help i will start to check all that out tommorw and its sapost to be wamer then the negatives and in the higher 20's lol

 

How can i tell if its the fuel injectors or fuel rail is bad, leaking etc.......

 

If your car is due for a tune-up, change the spark plugs and air filter. Inspect the spark plug wires for damage. Also verify that all ends of both battery cables have clean and tight connections.

I would also check if any engine codes are stored on the ECU. On the 1990 accord, I believe you just turn the key to the II position, then count the flashes on the LED of the ECU under the driver's seat. Go to the tegger [dot] com, and go to the FAX. There is a pdf on how to check for error codes for each accord under the OBD diagnostics.

You need to determine if the problem is with spark or fuel. Try starting with a timing light on one wire at a time. There should be enough spark to flash the timing light on each wire.

Fuel is a bit trickier without a fuel pressure gauge. You should turn the key to the II position and listen for the fuel pump to turn on for ~2 seconds. It is a faint buzz or hum sound that comes from the back seat.

 

Hard starting in a lot of cases is the spark plugs being fouled and if the reason isn’t corrected new ones will quickly do the same. Why did the rotor break? Did it hit the dist. cap?

 

I think it did hit the cap. Yesterday finaly when it was warm i tried to start my car again and again it wont start it cranks and makes the eh whineing sound but it wount crank all the way. Well i had bought a new cap and rotor the other day well yesterday i took of the cap and the cap was already done the contact points were already shaved off.... the rotor also broke wtf they were only a day old well i got those parts again didnt have to pay thank god... I also found oil in the other cap and when trying to start i found oil on the ground i took off the cap and there was some oil......(i dont think thats sapost to happen).... (right???).... so i talked to some one and they said i will need a new seal...... I checked my spark plugs they are fine..... Theres is also fuel going through the fuel rail...... I talked to the same guy and he said it might be my coil or ignitor packs..... well how do i check to see if those are working........

 

Coil or ignitor CANNOT make the rotor hit the cap. Somethings really screwy about that. Parts store have their part numbers screwed up??

If the oil is INSIDE the distributor, that's a leaky seal on the distributor shaft. Normal answer is you gotta buy a new distributor. Some people around here have replaced that seal, search for threads if you wanna try that. The trick is removing the CKP, CYP & TDC sensors from inside the distributor, without damaging them.

 

Is removing the sensors pretty hard... Okay well my buddy who has been helping me out just noticed that the shaft that the rotor goes on has alot of sideways play to it and the metal ring piece in the rotor that slides on to that shaft well i guess that somehow split so now the distributor has destroyed 3 rotors. Could it be the sideways play in that shaft not getting my car to start???????

 

If i go to a salvage yard or a parts store to get a new or used distributor can i just bolt that new or used one right up to where it goes or is there steps to make sure it get put in right