I am a mechanic at an independent garage. I was doing a tune up on a 1990 accord. I replaced plug wires, cap, rotor. All bought at NAPA. I also replaced plugs with ngk platium.The car started up fine then it shut off and I got a code 15 so I replaced the distributor also bought at NAPA. Now the car will start some time and run for a little while then die. But other times it wont start at all. I have checked the black&yellow wire from the ignition and it is fine. I also have researched this alot but no one has been able the give me a good answer on how to fix it. Has anyone fixed this before or know how to fix this problem. I would really appreciate the help. It would help alot if it was possibe to call me. (864) 207-0234.

Thanks,
TJ

 

Was the car fine prior to the tune up?

First, reset the ECM.

Now you say you have voltage between the black and yellow wires and ground.

You should now look at the ECM connector then.
Measure voltage between pin a21 and a26
If there is some, then replace ECM with a known good one. If this fixes the problem = bad ECM

If there is no voltage, repair open wire between ignition control module and ecm.

It is also possible that you may have unplugged something while working on the car.. Double check your work.

fs

 

How long after the tuneup did the problem start? Did you reuse the coil and ignitor from the old distributor?
If the answer is yes, here is what's going on, even though I know some people will disagree, but I am talking from experience. TRUST ME.
It seems that aftermarket plug wires can sometimes kill the ignitor. Doing research on this problem, I've spoken to a couple of engineers at Honda who said that if the aftermarket wires have too much resistance, this causes an increase in the current demands in the coil to fire the plugs. This electrical load is transferred to the ignitor who's job is to fire the coil. This increased current load causes the ignitior to operate much hotter than designed and as a result, sooner or later will fail. At first, I did not believe this. My first experience with this was a little over a year ago. Car came in to the dealership with a dead ignitor. Although sometimes it would start, other times it would not. No problem. New coil and ignitor. A week later, car was towed in again. No start. Diagnosis... dead ignitor. No problem..... defective ignitor, replaced it under warranty. Two weeks later, customer call on the phone very irritated. Car died on the highway. Towed back in. Diagnosis.... you guessed it... dead ignitor. Called Honda Techline and explained the problem. First question they asked....... aftermarket plug wires? Yes they were. Techline told me to replace them with OEM. Asked them for explanation of problem. They gave me the above stated answer. YEAH RIGHT... I thought to myself. Well, very skeptically I explained to customer about wires and told him that we would install another ignitor, but would not offer warranty unless he replaced wires with OEM. Customer agreed. Guess what, it's been over a year and no more problems!!!! Coincidence? No, two other techs had the same problem, and OEM wires fixed those comeback as well.
You'll need to replace the ignitor, and those aftermarket plug wires.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by filthy_shovel &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You should now look at the ECM connector then.
Measure voltage between pin a21 and a26
If there is some, then replace ECM with a known good one. If this fixes the problem = bad ECM
</TD></TR></TABLE>NO, read it again...

If there's battery voltage between A21 & A26, then try a new ICM. IGNITION control module, aka ignitor.

Maybe that fits with the business about wrong-resistance plug wires? I dunno...

 

The distributor had all new coil and ignitor. This is what happend I tuned the car up and after I tuned it up the car warmed up and died. I had no spark. Got on alldata and found a recall on the distributor. So I replaced it with a reman from Napa, coil and ignitor came with it. The car runs fine when it starts up but it only runs for like 5min then shuts off. Then if u let it cool off it will start agian.


Thanks,
TJ

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dviperbigt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... The car runs fine when it starts up but it only runs for like 5min then shuts off. Then if u let it cool off it will start agian.</TD></TR></TABLE>That still sounds sorta classic for solid-state electronics going flaky when it gets hot. I don't have the book with me right now, but I imagine there's a test for the ignitor. Just have to test it when it's hot.

 

Very easy to test ignitor.
Remove distributor cap, rotor, and dust shield. On the coil, you'll find two terminals. One is marked + and the other is marked -
Disconnect the negative wire from the coil. Connect a test light to the battery positive terminal. Connect the other end of the test light to the negative wire you disconnected from the coil. Have an assistant crank the engine (don't worry you won't get shocked) and observe the test light. If the ignitor is good, the test light will blink. If the light stays on steady, or doesn't come on at all while cranking, the ignitor is probably bad.
If it does turn out to be bad, remember what I said about those plug wires.

 

Thank I will try that. Thanks for all the help (cmrvi1) I really appreciate it.


Thanks,
TJ

 

I got it fixed today I went to Napa and got a new distributor and it fixed it. Thanks every one for the help!