I'm up in binghamton for school and yesterday im driving my car (its freezing outside) and I put it into second and the car just shuts off... I tried to start the car back up and the car is turning like it wants to start but it just wont... think its the distributor cap? Because right now I really have no idea what the problem is....

 

so it started up fine, and you were driving in first gear- went to shift to second- and it just shut off? now won't turn over? if this is the case it doesn't really sound like the distibutor cap. i know it's cold there, and all water is probably ice... but by chance were there any puddles around? possibly could have sucked some water in and hydrolocked. a bad ditributor cap/rotor will cause a continuing loss of power, not just shut the car off like that. were you driving the car hard?

 

nah I wasnt driving the car hard but I didnt really let it warm up before I moved it because I had to catch a bus. There werent any puddles around but there was snow on the ground... so what do you think it coud be? how would I know if it hydrolocked...

 

if there were no puddles around you didn't hydrolock... if it was it wouldn't even be turning over. possibly something came loose? nothing sounded like it broke when it turned off (like something exploded)?

 

not that I remember... its weird, I popped the hood and looked around, nothing looked wrong at all.. the car just shut down. This is my first time having my car in such a cold place, you think its the cold affecting it? I think I should have it towed to a mechanic but I really don't want to do that lol

 

ive had my car for a whole maine winter (very cold)... so it's not that, unless it was like -30. i'm not too sure about this one

 

any suggestions? im pretty sure a mechanic is gonna be rediculous

 

first check if you're getting fuel, when you turn the key to ACC. can you hear the fuel pump whistle or whine? If it does, then move on to the distributor. Find a buddy w/ the same motor/year integra and swap distributors. If it fires up then your coil took a ****. And another simple thing that some people overlook, do you have gas? maybe your gas gauge isn't working and you just ran out of gas. sounds stupid, but it happens to some people.

 

if the problem was the distributor, would it even let the engine turn over? Also, i tried to pop start it and the car just stopped

 

Could also be your timing belt broke.

 

how would i know if my timing belt broke

 

I'm just going to get it towed to a mechanic because it's like 10 degreese outside and feels like 0; it's too cold to try to figure it out. Thanks for all the suggestions, though .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by all-mtr-teg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Could also be your timing belt broke.</TD></TR></TABLE>

ah i forgot about the timing belt. take off the valve cover and maybe the top cam gear cover and see if its still there

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jweezy225 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
if the problem was the distributor, would it even let the engine turn over? Also, i tried to pop start it and the car just stopped</TD></TR></TABLE>

you're thinking of the starter, the starter turns the motor.