Need some ideas here, car is acting up

[imm0rtal]

First off, the car is a 1993 del sol Si with a B18A1 w/B16 tranny. If any thieves see this, I will disembowel you if you try and steal it.

That having been said, I have been having some weird issues lately. It started when I left my house one night to go to my gf's and the voltage light was on. I was able to drive just fine, just the lights got a little dim when I was idling, no big deal right? Well I got off the freeway and everything came on bright like normal, so I figured it was just a problem due to the cold. To be safe, I replaced the alternator with a known-good unit for the time being so I could get the original one remanufactured. The symptoms after this alternator issue were that the engine would idle a little low at around 750rpm and the lights would dim when at idle. The known-good alternator resolved the dim lights issue, but the idle remained a little low.

Fastfoward to tonight. I'm driving home like normal, and while the idle is a little low when stopped, the motor is running fine. As I was going over the last speed bump into my gf's place, the car died with a sound similar to the sound you get when you stall your car. I had the clutch pedal depressed and my foot lightly on the brake coming off the speed bump when it died. I coasted it to park and tried starting it again. The motor cranks just fine, so I know there is power to the starter. I checked all my ground wires and they are connected securely, as well as the alternator plugs.

I'm thinking maybe my fuel filter is clogged which would cause a low idle if partially clogged and no fuel to reach the motor now maybe, or possibly bad spark plugs. I'm at a loss for this could really be since I have no tools available to me here so I can't pull an injector to see if fuel is getting that far. Anyone have any ideas?

Cliffs:
93 del sol si with B18a1
idled low around 750 rpm and had dim lights
replaced failing alternator with known-good unit
lights are bright, but still idles around 750rpm compared to the 900 before
pulled into parking lot and motor dies, cranks over to try and start but will not start

[Dead Bird]

glad you ditched the single cam when it locked up.

:)


but do the normal check for spark/fuel all the way to combustion chambers.
Possible something was getting read to go and it finally did.
I know its hard to do everything you need to with no tools,
but hopefully someone can come save you and bring a few?

If your plugs look fine and are getting spark, and you end up getting fuel to the injectors,
time to do a compression test to see if something major failed. :(

good luck. know its not much help if you dont have the tools though



p.s. any check engine lights?

[imm0rtal]

i'm kinda regretting it at the moment. Never had a single problem with the sohc but then I locked it up and my car hasn't been as reliable since. I just need some ideas because I searched and can't find anything similar.

Forgot to mention: timing belt did not snap, and has proper tension to it.

[gunsup0331]

so the car will not start at all right now?

[imm0rtal]

the car will crank all day but it will not start. The car was throwing no codes at all, and with the key in the on position the only lights on in the cluster are the battery light and the ebrake light.

[*inFamous*]

Fuel pump primes?
Spray starting fluid to see if its getting fuel?

Verify spark?

[gunsup0331]

did you check your entire ignition circuit?
when it was having idle probs was it stumbling/rough or just lower than usual?

[hondawill]

the car will crank all day but it will not start. The car was throwing no codes at all, and with the key in the on position the only lights on in the cluster are the battery light and the ebrake light.
Check your coil inside the dizzy. Common problem with civics.

[gunsup0331]

Check your coil inside the dizzy. Common problem with civics.
ie get hold of digital multimeter

[BigCountry]

Yeah... My igniter in mine went bad but it had a lot of symptoms. That would be one of the easiest things to check out. Have some one crank it while you have a plug wire pulled and see if you can get a spark that way.

[MannyaK]

Sad to see a Fellow Del Sol acting up

pm me if u need any help

[92BlackEgMTX]

did u check the flux capacitor?

[imm0rtal]

Have it narrowed down to something in the dizzy/plug wires/plugs, so I went home and grabbed my tools and will be getting it sorted out this evening. I refuse to let this car win lol

And yes, I checked the flux capacitor. It is producing 88jiggawatts, so I'm good for time travel :thumbsup:

[imm0rtal]

to answer the questions in here: the fuel pump does prime, but without tools I could not put a multimeter to a spark plug wire to see if it was getting spark. When I get to the car, I am gonna pull the plugs to check their condition, put them back in and put a multimeter to the plug wires. Hopefully the dizzy isn't producing spark or the wires are bad so I can stop there, but if it is not that I will pop the intake off and spray some starting fluid in the throttle body and see if it fires. Meanwhile, I will pull the injectors to make sure they are not fouled, but I am mostly leaning towards an ignition problem because of the damage from the alternator acting up before.

[*inFamous*]

Sounds like an ICM or Coil.

Just pull a wire off, stick a screwdriver in it and put it near a ground and see if she sparks :)

Just verify power on the distributor Yellow/black wire

and if you can get a hold of anotehr dizzy im sure you'll find the issue there. Failure rate is so high :(

[imm0rtal]

Yeah, screw honda distributors man. I got a hold of an uber expensive and highly accurate industrial (digital) multimeter from work today, so I am going to check things out when I get home.

The thought occured to me that maybe the alternator is still bad even after being replaced with one that checked out, though the battery is fully charged so that doesn't make any sense to me.

Basically you're saying put a screwdriver to the contact in the end of the plug wire and put it near something else metal to see if it arcs between the wire and the metal thing?

I have a feeling it is a combination of dizzy and plug wires, but I need to verify before I go spend a ton of money. This car keeps draining my paychecks :(

[*inFamous*]

PM'd you via AIM

If your battery is showing a 12.6+ charge, then your alternator IS charging it. They dont charge themselves magically :) You coudl still have a bad regulator or something on the alternator thats causing a lack of charge occasionally and make sure the belt is tight and not slipping.

[2fnfast]

check the 7.5 amp fuze under your hood

[*inFamous*]

check the 7.5 amp fuze under your hood

His fuel pump is priming, that and the backup one next to it are ok :) They control ECU function so car wont prime if they are blown, nor will the CEL come on and off.

[imm0rtal]

Good stuff there Ravi thanks! I guess I am trying to post up as much as possible in this thread so it can be used as a reference later for others. I hate how the tech threads here are absolutely useless for actually working on your car lol

[xracerx]

i say it's the igniter in the dizzy. like big country said. i had that problem 2.

[*inFamous*]

You know me. Process of SENSIBLE elimination :)

Im taking a nap so just hit me up on AIM if u need me.

[Agent Smith]

i say it's the igniter in the dizzy. like big country said. i had that problem 2.
x3 I've had the same problem before.

pull the dizzy check the rotor & igniter.

obviously I'd pull the spark plugs & make sure they are not fouled too. it's easy enough.

[gunsup0331]

dont need a screwdriver to check for spark..you should be able to pull the boot off the spark plug and it should jump at least a half inch fro, the end of the boot
or you could stick the plug back in and touch the threads to ground, watching the spark jump the gap

if you dont have spark ohm your wires, should have roughly 3k ohm per foot

if THAT doid within spec move to your cap and rotor, check for cracks, excessive oxidation, etc..then pull your coil and check for low resistance primary and 6-12k ohm secondary

[imm0rtal]

grabbed a different multimeter (old school from the 60s, shit still work perfect). Battery is producing 12v, and the distributor is getting power through the black/yellow wire. the plug wires have no power to them, so the problem is in the dizzy somewhere. It's fucking cold out, so I am warming up before I take it apart. Big :thumbsup: to Ravi for walking me through the electronics part...fuck wiring lol

[*inFamous*]

YW sir.

Just like the good ol days of Shift Fast where everyone and anyone had my # and i got no sleep :)

lol

[ewok]

well i was gonna say check the map sensor to make sure its not to far away from a vaccum source. my da did the same thing but if your waires aren't gettin any feed than i would say yes to the dizzy

[*inFamous*]

Hurry up and fix it lane. lol

[gunsup0331]

batt should be more than 12v lol. Dont know how many times youve kicked it over by now....one problem at a time lol keep us updated

[*inFamous*]

batt should be more than 12v lol. Dont know how many times youve kicked it over by now....one problem at a time lol keep us updated

Hehe he was using that as a testing voltage only :) he had like 12.5 :) we get lazy when we type lol:this-guy_2:

[Agent Smith]

done yet?

[EgDuStIn1011]

timing belt???

[imm0rtal]

like stated before, timing belt was fine.

I replaced the dizzy and the problem was alleviated. I had the problem narrowed down to the coil, so since it is a daily driver I replaced it with a dizzy from BAP and am in the process of rebuilding the OEM one :thumbsup:

[Agent Smith]

out of curiosity, what did the dizzy from BAP run you?

[*inFamous*]

3.2 million yen!

[The Guido]

So you actually checked for spark or just checked for power at the Dist.?

[*inFamous*]

He checked for spark, then checked for power at dizzy :)

[imm0rtal]

ravi's got it, checked for power at the dizzy, and then checked for power output from the spark plug wires and got none.

The dizzy from BAP was like $228 out the door :thumbsup:

[Agent Smith]

ouch!

[imm0rtal]

yeah, it sucks but I needed my car running asap and some people who had the parts I needed to rebuild the other locally weren't replying so I had to bite the bullet. It's not like I didn't have it I would have rather spent it on hookers and blow though lol

[*inFamous*]

yeah, it sucks but I needed my car running asap and some people who had the parts I needed to rebuild the other locally weren't replying so I had to bite the bullet. It's not like I didn't have it I would have rather spent it on hookers and blow though lol

I want some blow. wtf man
:eatup:

[markiemarkY8]

I know that I'm not in the right model forum but I like helpin people. Have you checked the Ignition coil fuze under the dash? I had the same problem and I replaced the Dizzy, cap and rotor and still got no spark. I checked the ignition coil fuze and it was blown and kept on blowing them time and time again. I found out that I had a wire grounding out on the frame of the car and it was blowing the ignition coil fuze.