I'm sorry, if this is an obvious problem, but I just got into hondas, and I'm need somebody to show me where to start. I tried searching but couldn't find the situation that my car is doing.

THis morning, my car (1990 LX with a 1.5)started stumbling when I accelerated. It would even out after I took my foot off the gas and reached the speed I was aiming for. When I was at a light, I could watch the tach move up and down and listen to the car battle to stay running. Eventually, it died, and wouldn't restart. It turns over, but it has no signs of ignition. I'm thinking coil, distributor, or a fuel pump, but I've new to hondas, and even fuel injected cars themselves, so could you give me some tips on the best way to check to see if I'm getting fuel from the pump, and how to continue to trouble shoot the problem?

There was no check engine light, do I still need to pull back the carpet to see if the light is flashing?

Thanks,
Mark



Modified by Mark Finley at 11:16 AM 11/23/2004

 

bump 4 u

 

Hey Mark,
Try this article:
http://autorepair.about.com/cs...a.htm

It has three pages of trouble-shooting a "No-Start" condition...

If you can't figure it out,I could probably help you out...
The ignitor is also a possiblity..I have have two fail on my 1.5

 

I checked the fuel pump first, and I'm getting lots of fuel out the Service bolt.
I take it that means the fuel pump, filter and relay are all good, so I guess the next step is to check for a spark. I can do that when my family comes home, I need somebody to turn the key while I'm looking at the spark, unless there is an easy way to jump it from the engine compartment.
If it's in the ignition, What's the best way to tell if the problem is from coil, ignitor, or the distributor cap/rotor?

Mark

 

try checking your main relay..

http://www.fourthgenhatch.com/mainrelay.html



and check your distributor cap and rotor too.. changing those can help fix startup problems

 

Unless I'm wrong, isn't the fuel pump working a sign that the relay is OK?

 

Problem solved, it was the coil/cap/rotor. I pulled them off and they all looked like death warmed over (the rotor was wobbling) and now it runs perfect, better than it did when I bought it, and I thought it sounded good then.

Thanks for your help,
Mark

 

If you do have any more problems with it,
That may be a sign that the distributor is failing..

If you see any signs of a red "dust-like" substance inside the cap,
or if the rotor or the contacts inside the distributor cap look wiped out;
that would indicate that the bearings in the distributor are going bad..

Glad you got it back on the road,and Welcome to Honda-Tech..

 

I'll keep that in mind, but it looked like the original cap/rotor/coil, and the car has 180,000 miles on it. Looked like extensive wear, but normal wear.