'92 Stalls at idle
 

Hi,

OK, a bit of background: new coil, ignitor, cap, rotor, fuel pump relay (all Honda parts) about a year ago. 140k miles.

Just drove from Maine to Missouri w/o problems...might have detected a high-speed very minor hard-to-detect miss once or twice on the trip (could have also just been a bump in road).

After the long trip, I fired it up, drove down long 15-mph hill into town (coasting in low gear for some of it). It stalled out at 5 mph in town. It restarted but ran poorly; with a lot of throttle, I was able to limp it 5 blocks to where it is now. No abnormal CEL.

Now: no abnormal CEL, it always cranks normally, sometimes it will not start, other times it starts perfectly and idles perfectly for 30 seconds and then stalls. The fuel pump comes on and stays on correctly (I have an indicator light wired in from the time I had the problem with the relay). I tried jiggling the key and the shifter. For a while, I thought it had something to do with the shifter, but now I am not sure that makes sense (I think the interlock only deals with cranking).

It "feels" like a fuel problem...but, could, of course, be spark.

Help, please. Thanks,

Roy

I'm with spark....but that is a guess, so testing is needed.

Check for codes, just for the heck of it.

Have a spark tester?

Some good reading here: Honda Acura ignition (no spark) troubleshooting tutorial - How to

Thanks Poor,

That's a good link.

Update: the CEL stays on when pulling codes; I assume that means "no codes."

When I pull the cap, there were white/sliver flecks of corrosion from the contacts; I cleaned up the contacts and the rotor. Also, the rotor had been hitting the cap up by the contacts in a minor way. No change with the cleaned contacts.

When I did the spark-plug-wire-and-screw-driver spark test: no spark.

It now feels like a coil or ignitor problem. Both are OEM and have few miles on them.

I get a yellow spark when I do the coil test.

Solid CEL when you jumper the SCS connector means "no errors".

Pretty sure a yellow spark is kinda weak, you want it to be blue.

Seems like coil. Ignitor is more of an isolation amplifier, just used as a switch to prevent spikes from the coil from going back & frying the ECM. But I'd do the testing to see coil vs. ignitor.

Thanks Jim,

Right: "blue."

Is there a definitive test for the coil? The material Poorman linked me to kind of guides me to "likely bad coil," and not "totally bad coil."

Roy

There are some resistance tests that can be done.

Thanks Poor,

I apologize for my long response time...I am living without regular internet access.

OK, get this: I finally got back to the car--it is not parked where I live--yanked the coil...and guess what..3" long crack.

I am about to put a new one on.

Is there anything I need to worry about which causes 1 year old Honda coils to crack? Or, did I just get a bad one?

Roy

New coil installed...still no start.

OK, here is the post-coil-replacement deal.

1. Replaced cracked coil

2. No start; messed around a bit with the engine testing this and that (nothing which could have fixed anything)

3. Then, with throttle (so it would start at 3k rpm) it would start and idle anywhere I put it from 3k to 2k rpm; then, would re-start with no throttle and idle fine.

4. After a while, would start with no throttle and idle.

5. After another wait, would not start with no throttle; then, would start with 3k throttle; maintaining throttle, it would fluctuate between 2k and 2,500 rpm (with constant throttle). Then, upon restart, would start and idle normally; I drove it slowly around the parking lot and that felt normal.

I have no explanation for #2, #3, #5.