For the past 3 days it has been COLD - under 20° F. I have a 96 LS and the engine idles very rough at start up and the CEL came on yesterday. The engine runs pretty rough, and sputters a bit under acceleration until it warms up after about 5-6 min. After that, it runs more or less normal. I've changed the spark plugs and wires within the last year, but have had the car for over 2 yrs and never changed the dist. cap or rotor. Not sure if this makes a difference, but the CEL did blink one series of blinks after I was driving for a bout 2 min this morning, but has remained on without blinking since then.

I'm going to take get the CEL checked in a few hours, but was curious if anyone has had similar experiences?



Modified by Tim2179 at 4:20 PM 2/5/2007

 

CEL Codes:

P0301 - Cyl 1 Misfire
P0303 - Cyl 3 Misfire
P1300 - Manufacturer Control Ignition System or Misfire

 

Replaced the rotor and cap. Old rotor was HARD to get off. Had to persuade it with a hammer and a bit of WD-40. Car wont start. No spark.

Would the diz not work if I tapped it w/a happer or got WD-40 on anything inside?

 

Did you set everything to TDC before reinstalling the dizzy? Your rotor could be 180* off.

 

The tab in the distributor is off center, so really you can't put it on wrong unless you really try.

Besides, I never took the old distributor off - just the cap and rotor - until it broke, so I never messed with the timing.

Got a new diz on there. Car ran like ***. Checked the plugs and two of them were cracked. Replaced the worn out Iridium plugs with the OEM NGK P/N plugs, and put on OEM spark plug wires and car runs fine now.

The one good thing i learned in this mess is that your local Honda/Acura dealers will price match with online OEM dealer's pricing. I got my OEM wires for $43, when originally my local dealer wanted $80!

/thread

 

well..sad to say, this same thing happened to me.. did a complete tune up, went to turn car on, no spark.. didnt take the time to try and figure everything out, just borrowed another ls distributor, put it in, good to go..