Long Story Short, Just sold a high mileage 94 del sol w/ a DOHC vtec engine to a guy. Was running fine while I had it and ran fine the day he bought it, driving to his credit union and back to his house.

After I got home, got the call that it would not start again. I'm not out to stick the guy so I go over today (sold the car on Thursday) to start troubleshooting. He had already tried the following, swapped distributors, changed plugs and tried a different (though not oem) ECU. Would occasionally start but run for only a short bit and stop. He said he checked codes with an OBD I reader and got nothing.

During my troubleshooting today, ruled out ignition source (it does fire the plugs), ruled out fuel source (it definately gets fuel) and after checking several other things have come to the conclusion that there is a timing issue between when the plugs fire and when the fuel injects.

With timing retarded as far as it will go, you can get it to idle for the most part but nothing else. Rotate the distributor to a more normal position and it simply floods the plugs with fuel. Pulling the plugs (obvious gas on the ends) and putting dry ones in and it can be started again but only with the timing turned all the way back.

Ruled out fuel regulator (tried a known good one) thinking pressure was too high. Could not rule out throttle position sensor as could not figure out where to take reading from on meter.

Buyer says it started this problem when he went to back it up his driveway (a bit steep) and stalled the engine. My guess is it jerked the car some and has loosened or broken something that affects when the fuel injects relative to the spark timing.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I really don't want to buy the car back and I'm just not the type of person to screw someone.

Thanks..... Doug

 

betting my bottom dollar on a bad ground

 

A bad ground on ........... ??????

 

The rest of the story.....

After more troubleshooting and three distributors by the buyer, I consulted with a local Honda guru. I was skeptical about his advice but it turned out to be valid.

He said that aftermarket components in the distributor, mainly the coil and ICM, will often work intermitently or not at all. While I had put over a 100 miles on the car with an Autozone coil and ICM, turns out putting OEM parts in fixed the problerm completely.

Who would have thought. Guess the guy knows his Honda stuff. While I would guess that not all aftermarket stuff is bad for the cars, some of it is apparently borderline and some just won't cut it.

Bottom line, the car runs with just this fix.

If this info helps anyone else, then great.

Doug