s13hero

So lately, my 95 hatch hasn't been running well. The tach jumps around and it runs roughly. A few months ago the car stopped starting entirely due to a bad ICM/igniter so I replaced that, well yesterday the igniter tested bad again so I replaced it again, but the problem persists. The coil tests good. Anyone have any ideas of what could be wrong? or know of anything that could make the ICM go bad prematurely?

motegicivic

Is your distributor oem or aftermarket?

Have you cleaned your IACV?

s13hero

Distributor is original OEM, I have not cleaned the IACV.

s13hero

No CEL either.

element600rr

check your ignition grounds .. will cause these issues to a T ..

s13hero

I'll check tomorrow the revs dropped to 0 and the car died while driving tonight, had to give it a ton of gas after starting to get it to go. I don't think the ignition ground would cause a faulty ICM though

s13hero

Bump, grounds are good.

94preludeguy

What igniter are you using? I've had nothing but excellent luck using the brown NEC ones. Any of the Hitatchi/off brand ones I've had bad luck with. You can pull the NEC ones out of any 90-93 Accord and they work just fine in Civic distributors.

s13hero

I'm using an autozone one :/ maybe I'll see if I can pull one from the junk yard.

motegicivic

See what the warranty is on it, I would exchange it.

s13hero

I can't take the one I just put in back I had it tested and it tests good

s13hero

put back in the igniter and everything was ok for a while drove about 10 miles parked for a while then when I started the car again, happened again.

motegicivic

In your case I would not be surprised if the whole distributor needs to be replaced.

94preludeguy

I had the same exact problem, ended up being a bad/shorted wire on the igniter because the igniter tested good. You could give that a shot. Those 10 miles you drove, was the car running just fine? Have you reset your ignition timing since you've been taking the dizzy on and off? Have you tried a different coil even though it tested good? When was the last time you replaced cap/rotor/plugs/wires?

s13hero

Changed the dizzy today still happening. Haven't taken the dizzy off until today, marked it when I did it, and put the new one on the same way. Cap and rotor and wires were replaced within the past year, plugs within the past 4 months.

s13hero

So, it turns out even thought the dizzy was a reman, the ICM might be original, but this problem was still occurring when my ICM was testing good, so I'm at a loss as to what could be causing this.

s13hero

Anyone else?

motegicivic

A new one you mean another dizzy? if you take off the original and mark it put another on, marking is not going to do any good unless the rotor is exactly the same as the original, or you will have to re time the engine.

s13hero

ok I'll check the engine timing, but that still shouldn't cause a problem with the tach should it?

motegicivic

I would think it would, idling is rpms.

s13hero

Yes, I was thinking it might cause a problem with the idle, but my main problem is the tach needle jumps, and when that happens the tach isn't accurate, I'm not actually at the RPM the tach states while its jumping.

s13hero

Never messed with timing before and I don't have a light so my neighbor helped me, evidentally it was at 10 which is still within spec but was advanced to 12 and the car seems much better. Is this just coinincidence or is it plausible 2 degrees could provide a significant difference?

maglites94

but if you fix the idel then youll fix the tach so your main problem should be the idel. also no rpm guage is accurate if you want accurate rpms a good scanner like the snap on modis will be closer than a car guage. just sayin.

s13hero

I don't mind minor inaccuracies but when the problem was occurring the needle would sweep higher, and be off by as much as 5,000 RPMs at times. The needle on the tach would jump but the engine speed wouldn't actually change.