Hi, (Sorry this is so long...)
I have a '94 Accord LX with ~152K miles that the kids drive. The other day, it was cold, so the car was started and was let run for ~10 minutes to warm up before being driven to school. When they went out to drive to school, they started to drive away and the car stalled. I went out and tried to restart and had no luck so we parked it for later. After work the car started fine, I drove it around the neighborhood with no issues, so I told them to try it again. They drove it for a couple of days complaining once of a stumble, but no other issues. Today, they started it to warm it up and when went out after 10 minutes, and it had stalled. I could not get it restarted. After work it would not start as well.

My first thought was the fuel pump because I couldn't hear it very well. Measuring the fuel pressure at the rail, it is about 45-50 PSI while cranking so I think the pump is ok. So now I'm headed to the ignition system. (To my knowledge, no ignition components have been replaced.) I have a timing light that I was going to use on the plug wires to see if there is spark. What will that tell me about the ignition system? What ignition parts need to be replaced as ordinary maintenance? And finally, anyone have any thoughts what this could be?

Thanks!

 

http://redirectingat.com/?id=42X203&...elaydefine.php

once you open the link, click on the tab ( troubleshoot) scroll all the way to the top, left upper corner ,( repair guide) click on ignition problem,,
it sounds like a bad ignitor..

also make sure that engine is not overheating when you let warm up unattended

 

Are the maintenance items up to date (spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor)? Check that all ends of both battery cables are clean and secure.

If the timing light does not flash, then there is no or a weak spark.

The first thing I would check is that the blk/yel wire that leads to the coil has 12V when the key is in the II position. If no voltage, then the electrical portion of the ignition switch is bad.

That site desert put up has a pretty good set of instructions.

The ignitor would throw an ECU code. Use a thin paperclip to short the service connector. You can find instructions from the link in thread called ACC 5th gen.... in the DIY forum.

 

not necessarily true,,(,trust me on this one.. 99% of the time a bad ignitor WILL NOT throw a code ..).....as a matter of fact i just had a 1996 in the shop dying at times .we had it in the shop 2 times drove it all over and never died .never acted up at all.....we had to do a low amp test to finally diagnose it ..

 

I didn't realize that was the case. How did you test it and figure it out?

 

It's kinda the other way around. If it DOES throw code 15, it will likely be the ignitor (or the circuit from the ECU). If it doesn't throw a code, that does NOT prove the ignitor is good.

The ECU sends its signal to the ignitor, not directly to the coil. The ignitor is like an isolation amplifier to prevent spikes from the coil from getting back to fry the ECU. The input side of the ignitor failing would trigger a code, but the output side of the ignitor would not.

 

just went through that, my car showed NO Codes, had weak spark would not start, i replaced the ignitor and it took right off
Frank Allen

 

Hi, thanks for all the response, I thought I would give you an update on today's troubleshooting.

Got the timing light out and verified it worked on another car. Checked the plug wires on the Honda and.... nothing. Checked the wire going from the coil to the distributor and.... nothing. I pulled the plugs (which are probably a year old) and all tubes were FULL of oil... so I need at some point I need to replace those gaskets. After I got everything dried off, the plugs looked ok. For grins, I tried to start again after getting back together and again it would not start. I flashed out the codes and there were none.

At this point, using the link provided, I plan to start looking at the coil... Can I wait until it warms up to replace the spark plug tube gaskets or do you think this had anything to do with my problem?

Thanks!

 

For the tube gaskets, that oil just confuses the situation & might send you on wild goose chases. But if it takes a week or 2 before the plugs get oily, then maybe you can just keep cleaning them?? But it's really pretty easy to replace the upper tube gaskets.

For not much money, I'd try new plugs. Having the spark shorting through the oil may have messed up their insulators without causing any obvious visible damage.

 

I agree with you... I can see how when they were full of oil, they might short the cylinder out, but I didn't think that is part of this problem now that I cleaned out the tubes.

One question, is the ignitor the same thing as the ignition control module?