i thought i had this thing fixed. i replaced the main relay in my gf's 1994 accord lx and its been driving fine for about a month. now all of a sudden, the car dies 4 or 5 times the other day while we were trying to drive to work. the car just instantly shuts off for no apparent reason. the brakes still work when it dies. it had almost a full tank of gas. we've replaced nearly the entire ignition system beside the distributor and the ignition switch. im thinking about changing the ignition switch, but i dont want to if it might be the igniter. anyone have any opinions?

 

so i guess nobody knows?

 

ignition switch...or ignitor if you have not replaced that...

 

i believe ive replaced the igniter. its the one in the dizzy right? i heard that if u have a bad ignition switch, if u jiggle the key, the car will shut off. this is not the case with this car. i can jiggle the key and nothing happens. can the ignition switch still be bad?

 

yes.

you might want to also check for loose grounds

 

will do. thanks for the help

 

My prelude used to die like that just all of a sudden because of two things. One was a loose battery connection, and the other was a vacuum hose had come off.

 

the same thing happened to my 95 accord, i eneded up replacing the entire dist. box and that solved it

 

Does it sputter or pop and then die or just cuts out like someone turned the key off?

 

no sputter, no pop, it just dies like i turned it off. i ordered an ignition switch so i hope that does it. the cars got over 2XX,XXX miles on it so im not surprised its doing this.

 

anyone else have any ideas?

 

An almost dead battery.

 

nope. had it tested. battery is fine. im thinking im gonna replace the cables though. theyre pretty corroded even after i cleaned them.

 

anyone else got any ideas?

 

Right now, when it dies, does the other electrical stuff go off, like the dashboard? If yes, then it probably is the ignition switch. I know you said you have a new ignition switch on order. Then try the new switch.

 

when it dies, the gauge cluster lights up and the check engine light stays on. i got the ignition switch today and im going to install it tomorrow. i really dont want to have to replace the distributor, but the car has over 2XX,XXX miles on it so im not surprised if its going out. this is so frustrating.

 

How many of these parts you've replace have you actually done a proper checking procedure on? I hope your not just throwing parts at the problem. There is a proper checking procedure for the ignition switch, I would go through that before replace it.

 

used to happen to my 94 accord. all of a sudden everything just dies...then starts up again.

for me it was the alternator.

 

well the ignition switch didnt do it, so i removed the cap and rotor to try and do a voltage test on the igniter. upon removing the rotor, i realized that one of the 3 connectors on the igniter was just laying on top of the terminal barely making any contact whatsoever. its no wonder why the damn thing is dying all the time. so i plugged it back in and reinstalled everything and the car started right up and has been running fine for awhile now. we'll see how long this lasts.