so last year i did a tune-up to pass emissions. that thread here:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1677187

afterwards my car started making some strange noises. that thread here:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1733886

since i had another car to drive, and fearing some major expense, i retired my rex for the last 12+ months. recently my sister wrecked her car so i gave her my 1991 crx hf 5 speed, even though it was still running and sounding funny.


long story short, i figured out what was wrong with the car and im stupid for not having figured it out earlier: the COIL was bad. but the car had run for about 4 days and close to 50 miles on a real shitty coil (the part where the cap hooks into it was rotted out).

so anyway, even though i replaced the coil, the engine still sounds fucked up. so what im wondering is, do i need to reset the ecu? is it possible that the ecu tried to compensate for the lack of a spark by making adjustments? so should i re-set it? will unplugging the battery re-set it? or do i need to get to the actual ECU and push a paper clip in the re-set button?

and one last question: how much damage can you do if you drive a car with a bad coil? is it possible that in the less than 50 miles it was driven, that some major **** got broken?

tonite my sis called me and the car had overheated. my guess is the thermostat got stuck cuz the car had been sitting for a year, and because today was the first time the car was driven in NON-wintery weather (it was finally spring-like warm). but is it possible that replacing the coil could cause the car to overheat?

thanx in advance for any help.
peace.

 

Replacing the coil has nothing to do with the overheating problem. You don't need to reset the ECU.

 

You dont need to reset the ecu, but you can by taking the neg. battery cable off for a bit. Usually with coils they either work or they dont,but the coil wouldnt affect your overheating problem..how is the car running strange? what does it sound like,feel like, ect. let me know, Cal

 

thanks for the info. i guess my post was a bit confusing, i didnt mean to say that the coil would cuz the car to overheat, i know the possible (usual) causes of overheating.

what i needed to find out is how much damage can you do if you drive a car with a bad coil? the coil was shot and not making any contact with the male end on the cap. so what can 50 or so miles of driving it like that do to the engine?

the reason i didnt pinpoint the coil was cuz when i first did the tune-up it wasnt that bad. car seemed to run fine. once i did the tune-up, a week went by with minimal noise, and then bam **** started getting loud, and it started making banging/rattling noises (like loose valves?). but it got worse and worse over the course of 2-3 weeks, making strange knocking sounds. when the sound became constant/loud enough i stopped driving it (for like a year).

anyway, after putting in the new coil, i had expected to hear an improvement in the sound and running of the engine, but i didnt. it still sounded like ****. the tach seemed to read steady at 1100 rpms when idling (with new coil), but under the hood there is all this noise. i cant describe the sound, but before i ever did anything to do this car (the tuneup was the first thing i touched) it idled fine and sounded pretty quiet.

i'll try to get some audio/video tomorrow when i finally get to take a look at it.


but again my question: what could get messed up if you drive a car that aint getting a spark at the right time or consistently enough, due to a bad coil connection? would it mess the timing up in a way that could cause serious damage? like to the valves or something?




Modified by D15B666 at 2:51 AM 4/27/2007

 

ok so here is some video of my car:

the problem the car is having (now) is that even though i floor it, it wont rev past what you see in the video. after 3 or 4 thousand rpm the engine wont go any higher and just drops down considerably.

but what i should mention is i found the car is leaking radiator fluid. when i came to work on the car i didnt have the keys, so while i waited i went ahead and changed the thermostat just to be safe.



but when i finally got the keys and ran the engine, i saw that coolant was leaking from the drivers' side (this is after i moved it away from its original puddle so i could see how much of a leak i was dealing with):



problem is i cant see where its coming from. i tried to find pics of that side of the engine but no luck. what are the possible sources on that side of the car? i noticed that wherever the leak is coming from, its managing to get on the belt and spray a clear trace all over the underneath of the hood, but only directly overhead of where the belts are. my camera was out of memory so no pic of that.

anyway, it went from cold to superhot almost instantly. what i mean is the temp. gauge registered nothing for about 10 minutes (i let it sit idleing), and then when it did register, i headed on to the road for a quick spin to see how it would run, BUT it went hot in less than 2 minutes. i ran the fan and only cold air was blowing. i made it 3 blocks and had to turn around and bring the car back.

so i have a coolant leak back there. any ideas or a pic or a diagram of that side would be much appreciated. i checked but couldnt find any useful pics that would isolate water sources on that side of the engine.

btw- i had a 87 accord with carb and on that car there was leak on the backside. i painstakingly replaced this aluminum tube which was located dead center of the engine and conneced to the back of the waterpump. it was a nightmare putting it in, cut my hands to shreds. in the end it turned out that a freeze plug had popped out when the car had overheated and that i did all that **** for nothing. some jb-weld and the freeze plug was back in. but that one gushed water majorly where as my crx is losing liquid much slower.

so what can leak on that side of the engine? i cant actually see any freeze plugs, but im sure the 91 1.5 engine has them right?


one last note:
i checked the ecu thru-out the 12 minutes (when engine was on) and it never flashed and i never got the check engine light. can someone please refresh my memory on the correct way to check for codes? do you do it with the car off but the key turned to the middle position?

thanks

Modified by D15B666 at 3:30 AM 4/27/2007


Modified by D15B666 at 3:31 AM 4/27/2007

 

With car being overheated and lack of power might be headgasket blown. Check compression will tell you right away. Coolant could be from water pump, has wipe hole that will leak antifreeze in that area when they go bad, or head gasket in that area. Remove top timing cover and check to see if belt is okay and timing is ok, had a car once belt started to seperate and was hiting cover, what a noise.
good luck