Ok, I have a 96 Integra LS and it died tonight. I was driving home from work and the battery light came on, naturally I turn off all lights and accorsies to try and make it home thinking its on battery power and the alternator is bad.

I drove a good 3-4 miles and the car was running great, no stuttering, bogging or anything, than suddenly it died. Pull over. All the lights were bright and I was able to still crank the car like nothing ever happen. So it had me puzzled because I thought the alternator was shot and the battery drained. AAA towed me back to my work were I was able to work on it..

Put some gas in it thinking it was out, nothing. Check sparked, its got spark. Pulled the timing cover to see if the cams still lined up (thinking timing issue), both cams were still pointed together the right direction. The weird part in ONLY sometimes during cranking it sounds like half the motor is spinning do to a broken timing belt, than if I stop and start again, it sounds like the whole motor is spinning again. The timing belt and cams were always spinning during all this. I took the intake hose off and sprayed starting fluid in there and I didn't get a response at all.

Now today, my CEL was on for code 54. I did the bypass trick exactly like the way your suppose to and the light was out and car was running fine. So I don't know if maybe it's possible my ECU went bad.

I'm really stumped, the only thing I didn't try yet was test for fuel because I had to come home, so tomorrow I'm going to unbolt the fuel line and see if it shoots out with the key on. I just want to see if there's anything else this can be because I really don't know why in the hell the battery light came on before all this. Any help like tonight I'd really appreicate

 

Just tested for fuel, it's getting fuel. The spark plugs are soaked with it when I pulled them. About to do compression test.

 

Compression is 150 all across. Now that I can see I feel like an idiot. The alt. & a/c belts are missing. I do have spare belts because I was going to change them. Now I can understand the battery light but what's with the car still dying?

 

At least it wasn't something too serious. What caused them to fall off?

 

If your alt. belt isn't on, you werent getting a good charge to your battery, so it probably didn't have enough juice to run the car properly.

That's where I'd start. It'll probbaly be a little rough to start at first due to all that fuel in the cylinders.

 

Well from what I saw, the idler pulley for the A/C was loose and must have caused the A/C to be thrown and it took out the alt. belt. I just put the alt. belt on for now and just left the a/c since it's winter anyway and still nothing. Just cranks and cranks. What else can I possible look at?? I checked all wiring near the belts thinking it hit or cut something but I don't see anything around there anyway.

 

Did you check your battery voltage?

 

My car just died the other day and is in the shop as we speak.

I thought it was my battery, spark plugs, fuel. All were good.
Then i thought to myself. My friends h22 distributor went up. I think thats is what is wrong with mine. maybe it will help you out?

 

definitely check this first.

just a thought but did you check to see if the bearing in your alternator is seized, thus causing your belt to break? does it spin freely/smoothly?

is it cranking strong?

 

The alt. is spinning freely. Now here's where I think my bad news is. I tired to turn the motor by the crank pulley bolt and it only turns so much and than it'll just stop. I try like hell to turn it by hand but nothing. The starter will turn the motor fully though. My feeling is something is binding up but I still have good compression. So what I'm thinking is when the motor sounds like a motor turning with a borken timing belt, the belt infact might be skipping on the crank pulley maybe but than might catch again which makes the motor spin fully again. Make sense? My thought is though what is causing the motor not to spin fully by hand if I still have good compression?

 

Is the car in gear? Auto trans in Park?

 

Wasn't in gear (5spd)

 

Sounds like a bad ignition switch to me.
At least try the electrical portion from another switch.

BTW, its not your alternator... If your car still has enough power to start the engine after it dies then obviously the battery not dead.

Also a code 54 (crank fluctuation sensor) would not cause your car to die or not start.

Another thing you could try is to pull the distributor cap off and look at the spark directly at the coil. It should be bright bluish purple. (I know you said you have spark, but if a coil is going bad you can get a random weak spark that many confuse for being fine.)

 

Easy check. Have someone crank the motor while you watch the crank pulley.

 

Well guys, here's the update. I pulled the motor last week for my GSR swap and I started stripping the motor just to find the broken alt. belt wrapped and jammed it self it between the crank pulley and timing cover. Eventually the broken timing cover pieces or alt belt pieces made the timing belt jump timing enough to shut the motor down. Thanks for the help anyway!