headrec*

Hey

My car randomly cutout and died on the freeway. I can hear the fuel pump prime but went to check for spark and nothing. The cam is still turning over so the timing belt is good. What are some things I can check? Distributor? I can hear the ecu click on as well but it could be that as well. Thanks in advance.

civic_driver

Check the ignitor. Same thing happened to me years ago and it was my ignitor going bad.

MonkeyMagic

what motor?

did the screw come out of the rotor in the distributor?
(if its still a b7 this can't happen)

ignitor and coil are common problems.
coil is not to bad, but ignitors are expensive, usually cheaper to get an aftermarket dizzy.

civic_driver

Btw, if the timing went bad, you'd usually hear some type of sound either from the valves crashing or the timing belt getting mangled in there. Silent power outages are usually due to the distributor going bad.

civicsmoke

I just had this happen on sunday. Tried replacing the dizzy, i still had no spark, then i checked the timing belt bingo. i never heard anything. pull the valve cover off and have a look.

headrec*

Its a d15b non vtec. That makes sense about the ignitor or coil. I have heard they tend to go out. Is the ignitor and the coil inside the distributor? Is there a way to test it?

I verified the cam was turning over by pulling the distributor cap so I know the rotor is still connected and turning.

headrec*

I verified the timing belt was still turning over the cam so the timing belt is good. I replaced it along with all the components about 20k miles ago. That was my first thought. Scared me haha.

Former User

The coil and igniter are inside the distributor. An auto parts store will usually be able to test both for you.

headrec*

Well I pulled the distributor and the connections looked very corroded in places. I went to unscrew them to clean it all off and instantly the screws stripped. So I decided to say forget it and have a new distributor on the way pulled from a running car so if that is the problem it should be good to go. If not at least I have a distributor that isn't covered in corrosion and rust on some of the screws. And it will help narrow it down. Best case scenario it'll be fixed. I will keep everyone posted.

TravisCadello

ya, Sounds like a bad Coil.

UPYOURZ

Try checking the rotor, I went to a show and was driving back. All a sudden my car cut off. I open my distributor cap and my rotor was in three pieces.

headrec*

Rotor is fine as stated.

headrec*

Got a new distributor from DUHC. Put it in and it fired right up!

civic_driver

Excellent