My son 92 accord exr will start fine in the morning but after a long drive the car stalls and difficult to restart.As time goes by, the driving distance is getting shorter and more difficult to restart.Since the problem is intermittent and i am not there most of the time when this happen,there's what i know:
-new fuel filter installed 4 months prior to the problem
-when car "begin" to stall,rpm "flickers"and drops down to 0.At the same time all the lights are working fine and the "mil" light does not come on.
-after he pulls over, he can hear noise from fuel pump when turning the key one notch, plus i had one chance to crack bleeding bolt at fuel rail while starting.There was a lot of pressure and after tighten down the bolt and tried again the car started.???Also i had another chance to check for spark so i pulled a wire going to spark plug at the top of dist.cap.No spark at the time but again the car started shortly after(15min.).???
-it does not matter what the temperature is , it can happen 70f or -40f.
-my son lives away from us(350m.)and my only chances ,as described above,are when he breaks down on his way to visit us.He finally parked the car in my garage after driving like that for 4 months and i forgot to check if there was any ecu code before disconnecting the battery.
-checked ohm on coil(external type)secondary winding: within range,primary winding: between 0 and 1.I have 2 meters,digital+analog,both cannot read precisely(between 0 and 1).I would appreciate if someone could tell a brand of meter that would do it.
-BUT THERE'S a KICKER in all that:the problem started right after i installed a aftermarket rotor and dist. cap.(yes i know,but that was his choice not mine and try to tell a teenager what is best,not cheaper...).Anyway the car refused to start so i re-install the old D.C. and voila, it started but with difficulty.For good measure i also re-install the old rotor.After 2 weeks,the problems were ongoing so i sent him a genuine rotor and d.b. Even after he installed the new parts,the problems did not get any better but worsen.
My bottom line questions are:Could the aftermarket parts caused damages? If so,what kind of damages and how do you go about fixing it when the problems are intermittent?
Thanks,

 

If the tachometer drops out when it begins to stall, that sounds like it could be the ignitor. (Ignitor = ignition control module inside the distributor.)

Search for a thread about telling the difference between a bad coil vs. a bad ignitor. But I think a bad coil would not cause the tachometer to drop out.

 

I did find the thread about bad ignitor vs. bad coil on this site and other sites like techauto and tegger.com.The sites does mentionned when rpm drops means bad ignitor.
But to be sure you have to do some test but since the problem is intermittent.....
Since my son left the car at my place(december) ,i could bring some tools and go for a long drive to make the problem happen but i lived in the north and testing the car
on the side of the road at this time of the year is borderline suicide.
Right now my 2 choices are spray and pray or wait for spring to come unless there are other options in the mean time.
thanks Jim
andre
prince george,b.c.
canada

 

You will have to diagnose the problem when the car isn't starting.

You may have to run the car in the driveway and allow it to stall. No spark can come from several different sources (ignition switch, ignitor, coil, dirty/poor connections, and ECU).

Make sure that all ends of the battery cables are clean and secure. I would also check the ground that is under the distributor. Check that the connections to the ignitor are clean and not loose.

You can test the ignition switch by checking for 12V at the blk/yel wire in the connector that leads to the coil. If you do not have 12V, then the electrical portion of the ignition switch should be replaced.

If you have 12V, that does not rule out the ignition switch. I would backprobe that blk/yel connector and hook a 12V LED light to a grounding point. If the light goes out when the car stalls, that verifies the ignition switch is the problem.

What I have found best for backprobing, is to buy some mini-clip jumper wires from radio shack. The copper is thin and sturdy. Just bend the hook straight and remove the spring-loaded plastic cover. Cut the wire in the middle, strip some of the plastic, and wire one end of the test light there. Ground the other side of the light to the engine block with alligator clips.

The ignitor can be tested by hooking up the test light across the connector that goes to the coil. Basically have the light wired in place of the coil. You can backprobe those two wires at the connector try this with the car running. The light should flash at a constant rate.

Coils can read proper resistance and still be bad. You can try the DIY test for ignitor vs coil. A bad ignitor should cause the check engine light to come one and give a code for ignition output signal.

 

HI Pahonda,
AS far as i know the car never stalled at idle in park.The first stall usually occurs at high speed(50mph+).Further stalls will lower the speed of the car stalls at.
I checked and cleaned battery conn.,coil ground,ecu ground and ignitor conn.
I should mention that the coil is external and the car cranks over just as normal but will not starts right away after stalling.The more stalls you have the longer the waiting time before it starts.
I will check the ignition as you prescribed whenever i have the chance to do so.
I will check for code(15?) right after next stall.
You said the check engine light comes on if i have a bad igniter.When?It does not come on when the car is stalling and yes the light is operational.
Also the wire conn. at the coil has 3 wires going to it:black/yellow,yellow and black/white.
Which ones i should be concerned with when testing the ignitor?
The test to check the ignitor when the car is running would it tell you that the ignitor has an intermittent problem?
Thanks

 

I bought my Canadian 1992 Honda Accord Coupe in March 2009 for $450.
Anyway, the car has been doing fine. i even took a few road trips accros florida. Then one day I was in stop and go traffic and the car cut out as i was accelerating to 45 mph. I put in nutral and restarted the car and thought... that was weird. weeks wen by and no stalling. then it happened again. i had enough time to coast to the road side and after a moment it restarted and i made it home. another couple weeks go by no stallling. then i dove two hours south of home in 95 degree heat and after i reached my destination the car sat for 30 minutes before i strarted driving home. i made it about 20 minutes in traffic and the car died again. this time i saw the tach drop the moment the car died. so i put in nutral and restarted it. clearly the heat is not helping. The car quit on me 4 times on the way home. the longest time between restarts was 45 minutes. I read this post and replaced the Ignition control module, spark plugs, distributer cap and rotor button. Replacing the ignition control module was really easy. By the way. the new 'icm' came with heat sink grease and the old one had none on it at all. maybe that's why it burned out -- poor heat disapation. any way thanks again for the great easy to find honda tech. I am posting a pic of my ICM