So i was driving along and all of a sudden my car shuddered and the lights flashed and then the motor cut off, so i replaced the distributor cap, plugs and wires thinking that was the problem. Well i had the car towed home and now i have no idea where to go from here. Im thinking it may have jumped a tooth on the timing belt, but i have no freaking clue how that could happen on a stock motor. Could somewone give me a list to check through ( i know this has been asked before but oddly enough i could never find a straight answer) of things that are crucial to the motor running. Any help is better than where i am now

 

Bump i need help

 

Bump again i need to get this fixed tonight

 

when it happened to me i skipped teeth, so i reset it and tried it again, and teeth on the timing belt just stripeed off. after i got a new timing belt it was fine though. when is the last time you had the hood popped? something could have got into the t belt cover also..

 

also does your battery have a breaker switch?

 

ive had the hood open on and off for a few days, so your saying that checking the timing should be the first thing to check? it looked ok from what i could see and i didnt hear anything in the cover when it was cranking, it seemed like it was really chugging when i was cranking

 

i would have no clue where to look for that, my starter is getting power and ive even hooked it up to another car and it just keeps cranking and cranking

 

hmm a couple other things i could think of would be the rotor (check the little bolt on it see if its ok) and maybe pop your valve cover off real quick and see what your cams look like such as any unusual wear.

you would know if you had a breaker switch, its like a flip switch on your positive wire the previous owner may have installed. anything else turn on like the lights or stereo?

 

All of my electrical is working ( i think) my stereo, lights, cluster, fuel pump, but i dont know how to check if im getting spark or not

 

bump for a dead civic

 

HELP ME

 

This happened to one of my friends about a month ago. She was driving to work and the car shut off right when she was pulling into the parking lot, after i looked at it for about 2 hours i was testing the ignition coil and it was shot. So i went to autozone and picked one up for $70 i think and it started right up.(ignition coil is located inside of the distributor) but its not that hard to replace if you have already changed the distributor rotor. Its only a couple of screws.

 

****, i didnt even think of that, what is the best way to test it to see if its shot?

 

my car did this to me awhile ago timing belt skipped some teeth replaced that and my water pump = fixed

 

when cranking the ignition unplug a spark plug wire just a little and you'll see the spark or at least hear the snap check each one.

 

ill be doing this very early tomorrow morning give its 2am now, thanks for the input everyone

 

maybe a weak spark ! test the spark lick it see if it hurts LOL no just kidding but when i think a coil is bad i put my finger on the spark plug to see if it has good spark but this may result in a little discomfort! i dont recomend it but thats what i do LMAO are you getting any check ingine lights? do you have fuel pressure at the injectors?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by youdontneed2cams &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So i was driving along and all of a sudden my car shuddered and the lights flashed and then the motor cut off, so i replaced the distributor cap, plugs and wires thinking that was the problem. Well i had the car towed home and now i have no idea where to go from here. Im thinking it may have jumped a tooth on the timing belt, but i have no freaking clue how that could happen on a stock motor. Could somewone give me a list to check through ( i know this has been asked before but oddly enough i could never find a straight answer) of things that are crucial to the motor running. Any help is better than where i am now </TD></TR></TABLE>

Lights flashing?

Sounds dead on like your alternator too a ****... ??

Check your ignition coil tomorrow, but I def. think that's the alternator, only the alternator would cause your lights to flash like that. Or maybe you mean something else and are just really bad at explaining it.

EDIT:
About the mid-term - call a taxi or throw a friend 20 bucks.

 

same thing happened to me... still had a spark but it was a weak spark.

it was the ignition coil... got that replaced and the car started up.

if you can jus get a whole new distributor, instead of replacing just the ignition coil.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by actek23 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">same thing happened to me... still had a spark but it was a weak spark.

it was the ignition coil... got that replaced and the car started up.

if you can jus get a whole new distributor, instead of replacing just the ignition coil.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yea you could if you like to throw money away. THe coil costs maybe $70 from autozone, compared to a whole NEW distributor which costs $330?? New and about $200 remanufactured.

 

yep it was the coil, 80 bucks and it starts right up, thanks for all the help