hello,

i recently purchased a 97 ex manual transmission 160000km, everything seems prefect and the cars runs great, however Ive noticed that the ignition is slightly sluggish at times, however its always starts, just wondering if it could be something simple "plugs, battery" or maybe something possibly "dying" like alternator, starter.

any ideas would help greatly thanks

 

Check your dizzy. it might be on it's way out. My dizzy housing is missing a bolt ( somebody snapped it off in the housing ) and the moisture gives me the exact same problem. I'd start with the distributor and go from there

 

what do you mean by sluggish? cranking slowly.

 

yeah, and does it sputter when taking off? and how quickly does it crank? if its getting enough power, it should crank very fast. these starters out of the box rock your socks off.

 

its not really that much of a problem, however it may take 3 4 seconds to start the car at times, however its winter where i am, but its a mild one at that. when it starts it runs fine. the only problem is that sometimes it hesitant to start.

 

yes it cranks over slowly, takes a couple seconds at times, however once it starts the car runs fine

 

i'd try the battery, it's probably worn out and since it's winter time, the battery is probably not putting out enough CCA's

 

well i suppose i should wait until w.e the problem is worsen or breaks. but ill check the juice in the battery, and let ya know. thanks buddy

 

do you have a battery tester to check amps? cause just checking the voltage won't tell you much

but also if you do check the voltage it should be a little over 12 volts with the car NOT running and with it it running voltage should go up to around 13.8 to 14.4 volts any more or less with the car RUNNING would mean the alternator is bad or going bad

checking for correct amps depends on what your battery says it puts out, but i'm guessing for a factory or factory replacement battery, CCA's should be around 500, but I could be wrong

 

Well i just have an analog multimeter. I've check the the voltages of the battery when the car was on and off, the readings u gave me seem to match exactly 11-12 volts when off, and 13-15 volts when running. I decided to changed my spark plugs, and seen that out of the 4 plugs Ive replaced, 3 seem very good condition but one however looked slightly rougher then the rest. I then added a smaller bottle of Pennzoil fuel cleaner, which states it assists in "cold starts." so far not problems, then again its only been a day lol. however ill post an update if the problem persists.

thanks again for your time, and knowledge

Steve.

 

yep, i hope you got the problem solved