Hi all, i am just after buying a 93' honda prelude 2.2 vtec and i am having problems with the car not starting , or after driving it around for hour the radio will stop and then all the dash lights will fade and the car will die away and wont restart,its like it doesnt have the power to crank over till the next day starts fine, the person that sold it to me said if this happens just unplug the two grey plugs that come out of the distributor and reconect them then wait 5mins then it will start, does anyone have any ideas as to what it could be ?

ps i am new to this site so hope this post is in the right thread or something

 

if you unplug the two grey plugs, will it crank even after it dies?

sounds like your alternator is losing charging power. do you have a way of checking it?

 

it still cranks after i have unplug the two gray plugs for a bit then no power to crank but then when left a while it will then start, i took it to my local mechanic he hooked up computer to it and said all the problems were comming from the distributor so i went and got secondhand one from scrap yard and fitted it but battery was flat so will try it tomrro, any idea on how to testing the alternator ? i am thinking that putting a multmeter on the battery when car is running and it should tell if its charging,

ps i will post up results tomrro

 

Download the manual, have a friend or someone help you also. Someone to rev the engine at different rpms to test the load and output. Using a multimeter should be fine.

 

not sure how it is in ireland, but local auto parts stores have equipment to test battery and alternator. i'm surprised your mechanic didn't test it.

hopefully, it's just your distributor. did he tell you what was up with it? getting too hot or what?

 

ok fitted other distributor and car started fine so i ran it for a while then started it again everthing fine, till i went to start it later and i stalled it and she wouldnt restart it would just crank very fast but no fire up, left it for 30mins and then she started again....this has my head wrecked as to what it could be, i tested the battary when car was runing it was putting out 14.71 volts.........ok so its not the distributor so what next ?

 

Try your main relay I had an integra that did the same thing. After 3 250 dollar distribs it was a50 dollar main relay

 

^^ yes

 

agreed you should also check and make sure there are no lose or corroded grounds I had that problem after an engine swap and it was a lose ground on my tranny.

 

ok i took off the main relay and looked for ware but everthing looked good but thats not to say its working properly so i think i will buy a new relay to be safe, and tomrro i will check all the grounds as well, i will post up results later,
thanks guys