97 accord 102,000 miles

my tach is having issues. It bounces and rarely seems to read the truth. My "maintence required" light is on so not sure if it has something to do with that. My cruise control still works, but the tach bounces and sometimes stays at 0 rpm even if Im going 80. I've been reading about the 105k service and I'm planning that soon.

This problem has been getting slowly worse and it seems to be affecting the engine slightly. The issue has been going for about 6 months or 3000 miles, but my engine seems to be effected more recently like the past 300 miles. It doesn't effect the engine too much, it seems to jerk like Im stepping on the gas pedal.

Any ideas or suggestions are much appreciated

 

The maintenance lamp isa coincidence- it's only based on how many miles since the last time it was reset.

4-cyl or V-6? The tachometer signal comes from the coil on a V-6.

Fora 4-cyl I'm not sure. Earlier years it comes from the ignitor.By 1998 it comes from the ECU but I don't know if 1998 was the first year for that.

In any case, rule out any loose/dirty wiring behind the cluster. Then lastlythe tach itself may be flaky.

 

If it is a V6, it is definitely the ignition coil. An easy job that will only take you about an hour to DIY and costs about $75. Do a search on the site and see my "RPM Fluctuations" thread. I finally solved my problem with the help of the members here on the forum.

 

If your car is a 4 cylinder, then the ignition control module (ICM) is what sends the tach info to the ECU. There is a thread in the DIY Section titled acc 5th gen info and has a link to a site with the 94 shop manual. There are some electrical tests that can be done to test the ICM. Make sure the connections are secure on the ICM.

 

v6

so ill check diy and see what I can do

 

It's the coil. Easy to DIY if you have the right tools. Let me know if you need me to explain how to do it fo you

 

00AccordLX5spd

IF you wouldn't mind an explanation would be great.

Thanks

 

The coil is located directly below the distributor. the distributor is the cylinder shaped thing that has the wires clustered around it and running to the spark plugs. To remove the old coil, I would first remove the distributor cap to help in access. Here's a step by step:
1) Remove the negative battery cable from the battery.
2) Label the spark plug wires with tape (numbered 1 through 6) so you know the correct order when hooking them back up to the distributor cap. the numbers are marked on the distributor cap.
3) Disconnect the spark plug wires from the distributor cap.
4) Disconnect the high tension lead from the distributor cap to the ignition coil. It is a short rubber wire running out of the dist cap and connecting to the coil on the front side of it, closest to the front of the car. Remove the bolts holding the distributor cap on (you can use a screwdriver or finda socket that fits). Then remove the cap.Now you should be looking at a capless distributor with no spark plug wires or high tension lead in you way.
5) There is a wiring connection on the back of the coil pointed towards the firewall. You have to disconnect this. There is a clip on the bottom side that you cannot see. This clip must be pressed in to disconnect the wiring connector. Disconnect it.
6) There are 3 10mm bolts holding the coil to the mount. These are hard to access. I had to use a flexible head 10mm closed end wrench on two of them. On the third I had to wedge a 10mm socket on it and got it off that way. After you get the nuts out (do NOT drop them or you are in for a headache trying to extract them from wherever you dropped them) the coul comes right out. Put the new coil in, and hook up all of the connections you took off in reverse order from where you started in step 1.

If I need to clarify any of these let me know.