Alright, on the way to school this morning doing the usual 4 grand slam on the interstate and all of the sudden I heard a subtle pop out of the exhaust and I lost all power. I coasted over to the side of the road and the car sputtered a couple of times and then died, I also smelled gas fumes in the cabin of the car. I'm not throwing any codes different than before (23 which is the knock sensor I believe). Anyways, I'm having a no start problem, the motor turns over fine and will even sputter a bit and then die again. I havent had a chance to look at it yet due to the fact that all of my good tools are at school. The first thing that came to mind for me was the distributor but I have nobody to sit in the car and turn it over to see if I have spark.

btw, it's an 89 si w/ an obdo b16a in it.

 

Anyone?

Not to be a big douche or anything but I kinda need help fast. Ive only given about a week's worth of absences from my Auto tech course and I really dont want to fail out of it!

Update from last post, the fuel pump's priming...I wish I had a ******* test light. I'm not sure about the injector's but they're most likely working. For some reason i'm really thinking that it's the dizzy. Anyone?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by c0d0r &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Anyone?

Not to be a big douche or anything but I kinda need help fast. Ive only given about a week's worth of absences from my Auto tech course and I really dont want to fail out of it!

Update from last post, the fuel pump's priming...I wish I had a ******* test light. I'm not sure about the injector's but they're most likely working. For some reason i'm really thinking that it's the dizzy. Anyone? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Grab the distributor off the car, take it to a local autoparts place and have them test it, see if it checks out okay. I'd tell you to pull the plugs and check them but that doesn't sound likely.

I'd get a friend and just do a diagnostic on the roadside.

 

Can parts stores really test distributor's? Wow...guess you learn something every day, I might do that. While i'm there i might pick up a light too. I'll keep you guy's posted. BTW, more advice is totally welcome.....

 

The dizzy would be the obvious, so I would go with that first. Let me just say this...if it turns out that the dizzy is bad...DONT RUN AND BY ANOTHER ONE RIGHT AWAY. Usually when the dizzy goes out, it's not the whole thing...just the coil. Go to your local auto store and just pick up the coil, aftermarket or oem. Both will run under $80 or so...give or a take a little. But that's better than buying a whole dizzy for lets say $150-$300. If the coil doesn't fix the problem, return it and buy a whole dizzy.

Got some extra wire in your car? Run a wire from the signal on your starter and jump it to crank the motor so you can tell if you have spark...it can all be done from under the hood...unless you have a relocated battery...

Just turn the key to the II position or "ON" position, and go under the hood, pull out the spark plug wires, and touch the wire that's connected to the signal on the starter to the pos(+) and see if you have spark. Do not connect it to the actual power source for the starter. You will kill your starter. You should be able to remove the starter signal wire by hand, by just pulling. It's just a regular male-female tap. The other wire is bolted to the starter, that's the wire you don't want to mess with. GL

Oh, and be careful about the gas fumes you said you smelled. Make sure it's not pouring gas out anywhere.

 

ive checked, no gas pouring anywhere. As far as getting a replacement coil/dizzy what should I buy it for? Seeing as it's an obdo would it be for a 90 integra? Anyways, pulled the plug wire out and while the motor is being turned over there is no spark jumping from the plug to ground. I"m going to check in the cap tomorrow to see if maybe the problem resides in there.. Thanks!

 

What your describing sounds a lot like the rotor in the distributor has had the screw back out, so it is not turning. I'd take the distributor cap off and see if the rotor isn't just spinning freely. If that seems to be Ok, use the jumper wire described above, and look to see if the distributor rotor is turning. Another possibility is a broken timing belt.

 

Belt's fine..that's the first thing I checked. I still need to know what dizzy to get. I know you can get a cap for a DA integra to work but I'm not sure about the actual dizzy itself. Would it be for a DA also?

 

ok, figured out the problem, the screw backed itself out. Is there a fairly decent fix for this? I just screwed it back in w/ a little bit of force.

 

Did you actually check the timing or just the belt?? Did you down shift or were you just cruisin?? Cause maybe you skipped a tooth

 

My car did the exact same thing. I took the distributor out and the bearings were shot.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by c0d0r &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok, figured out the problem, the screw backed itself out. Is there a fairly decent fix for this? I just screwed it back in w/ a little bit of force.</TD></TR></TABLE>

did you happen to notice any red dust inside the d. cap? because i think this might be the real root of the problem.<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xanonymousx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My car did the exact same thing. I took the distributor out and the bearings were shot.</TD></TR></TABLE>

if the d. is otherwise fine, loctite helps keep the screw in.