I was on my way to an interview this morning and about 5 minutes into my drive i felt the car start sputtering and felt like I was running out of gas. I pulled into a neighborhood (drove about 1/3-1/2 mile sputtering), parked it and popped the hood to find one of my spark plug wires was disconnected at the distributor. I guess this must have happened while driving otherwise i would have noticed it upon initial start up, correct? I plugged the cable back in, tried to start the car and it just cranks but wont turn over. Its as if it wont spark or its not getting any fuel. My question is could something in my ignition system have been damaged or would it be something fuel related? Could it be something as simple as a fuse blew? I had to abandon her in the neighborhood to make to said interview (which I didnt end up making it to because of further complications) so I wont be able to go diagnose it further for an hour or so.

Any thoughts on what could have happened?

b20b, p75 ECU/fuel/ignition system all stock if that makes any difference.

 

Your spark plug wire should not just fall off if put on correctly.

There is one very easy way to check for spark. Pull the plug, ground it, and crank.

Good luck

 

Hmmm, sputtering would be fuel related.

But having a spark plug wire unplugged would make the car run like ****.

Have you checked for spark yet?

 

I would guess fuel, [car start sputtering and felt like I was running out of gas. an unplugged spark plug lead would result in a loss of power.

Can you hear the fuel pump prime when you turn the ign. switch to run, [not start], you should be able to hear the "hum" if the fuel pump for a few seconds once you turn ign. switch on.

Another possibility is ign. spark if the ICM goes out while driving it can go both ways, instantly, [like turning off the ign.] or sputtering till it stalls and then not start.

The first thing I would do is see if I can hear the fuel pump prime, if you can then I would check for spark, plug a spark plug into one of the leads, ground the plug and have someone crank the engine, if no spark check for power to the distributor assembly when ign. on, [black/yellow lead] if you have power check the ICM. 94

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AWD Terror &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Your spark plug wire should not just fall off if put on correctly.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I agree, I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. Plugging in wires isnt rocket science .

When i opened the dizzy the screw holding the rotor had come off an was laying in cap. Screwed it back on, tried to fire it up - nothing. Tested for spark (at the wires, dizzy cap and coil), nothing. All the fusees are still intact, nothing blown. Today I'm going to take a multimeter to it and see if i can find where the current is being lost. My *best guess* right now is that when the screw came lose on the rotor it bridged some contact points on the ignitor and fried it... Oh, and fuel pump kicks on and you can smell the fuel, so its definitely getting fuel.

 

The ICM can also be tested with a meter, if you have power at the black/yellow it is most likely the ICM.

What is the MM&Y of the car? 94

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fcm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The ICM can also be tested with a meter, if you have power at the black/yellow it is most likely the ICM.

What is the MM&Y of the car? 94</TD></TR></TABLE>

I will test that at well... I just saw that ODB2 and ODB1 use the same ICM and Coil, maybe that will save me some money if it ends up being one of those things.

This is all in a 1994 Integra LS with a 98 ODB2 b20b. I reused all of my original ODB1 parts on the new engine.

 

yes check your coil pack. if youve checked everything else and that sounds like a good thing to me. also does your car crank.

 

Take the intake boot off and spray inside it with starting fluid with the throttle open and see if it starts.

 

Fixed the problem this afternoon. I tested the coil and ICM with a volt meter and everything was getting current with the ignition on. I had an extra coil so I decided to try swapping it out anyway to start eliminating variables. Turns out even though it was reading good with a volt meter it was still the cause of problem. After swapping this it fired up on the first try.

Guess even though the coil was getting current it wasn't enough to get the car to turn over.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

Just because the coil is getting power, [current] does not mean the coil is good, but then obviously you now know this.
Did you say you had a spare coil? 94

 

You have to test the resistance, measured in ohms, between "terminal a" and "terminal b" of the coil. It should be in between the range of .6-.8

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fcm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just because the coil is getting power, [current] does not mean the coil is good, but then obviously you now know this.
Did you say you had a spare coil? 94</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I actually had 2 spare coils from vtec dizzy's so I just swapped one of those in.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by lmike6453 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You have to test the resistance, measured in ohms, between "terminal a" and "terminal b" of the coil. It should be in between the range of .6-.8</TD></TR></TABLE>

Good info for the future.

Thanks again for the help. I hope this thread helps someone in the future with a similar problem.