Woke up this morning, feeling groggy cause I caught a cold, and I tried to start my car without pressing the clutch, then when I realised it I pressed in the clutch, but no start. (I was holding it in the "Start" key position when I put in the clutch)

Anyway, didn't start up, I thought crap, ok try again. But this time it just cranked but it didn't fire. Lovely. Just what I needed while feeling like complete ***.

I popped the hood and pulled the negative terminal to reset the ECU, no dice.
I pulled the positive as well, cover my bases, no dice.
I pulled a plug and, as best I could solo, cranked it while the spark was close to the valve cover, no ignition. Odd. It has been starting like a champ lately.

I checked the spark, white with a little carbon, but it smelled like fuel. So it definitely has fuel.

Then I pulled the cap and rotor, it looked a little black, but if it started yesterday fine.... so I pulled the fuses thinking maybe I blew one, no dice.

So I figure it's the dizzy, so I order some new wires/cap/rotor.

After this I am told it may be the coil, as they tend to give out, so I grab a donor distributer and yank out the coil and igniter (ICM) and give it a go. Nothing. Same as before, cranks until the cows come home, but no explosion, no spark.

Any other suggestions?

<u>CLIFF NOTES:</u>
car cranks
Has fuel, has air, no spark
changed wires, no change
changed coil and igniter, no change.

 

I had an accord do the same thing once. Ended up being the sensor inside the distributor. Trying swapping in your whole donor distributor.

 

can you swap the sensor out?

Or have you given me an ultimatum?

Also, if it was a failed sensor, would I not get a CEL?

I should mention my car is OBD-1 and the new distributer is OBD-II, from a 97 LS/RS.


Modified by spada at 6:06 PM 6/28/2007

 

ya you can swap the sensor, but its 10 times easier to swap out the dizzy, unless the doner dizzy is bad, just swap it out and test it.
Once you determined indeed you have a functional dizzy on the car and it still doesn't start i'd move on to swaping out the ECU

double check your grounds
check the main relay, even tho it gets fuel just check it, you never know 1 wire could be loose or something

bout all i can think of right now

 

Ultimatum, lol.
I wasn't getting a CEL on mine, because the sensor wasn't completely gone. As far as I know the sensors are not designed to be removed from the distributor housing. And somehow I doubt that the OBD1 and 2 distributors are exactly the same. Maybe someone else can elaborate on that ... ?

 

I will note that this was completely sudden, no slow dying what so ever. Which is what led to people saying the coil.

It started perfectly yesterday when I took it home from work.

 

My accord died in a freakin' intersection. No warning, no CEL's. I feel your pain. I started with the ignitor, then started ohm'ing everything. Got funky readings on the coil, swapped it with still no luck. I went out of town, and when I came back my brother had put a new distributor in it and the F'r started right up.

 

Sucks dude.

I guess my next question is, can I swap out the guts from the new dizzy to the old one?

New is a 97
Old is a 94

 

bump any more opinions?

 

I swapped the distributer, the new one, with the old guts in it, but no change so I think its no longer the coil. That or both coils were ****, I will swap the coil and icm back just in case.

I also have an alarm with ignition kill, could there be a blown fuse from that?

I don't know what else to do, I have checked the grounds, swapped the dizzy, swapped the guts, changed my wires....

 

Pulled the ECU, figure I may as well, and still no change.

Should I change back the coil and ICM for ***** and giggles? I anticipate a large waste of time.