so yesterday as i was driving home from work i notice my tach needle starts bouncing from 3000-4000 (like flickering) maybe like 3 or 4 times. i made it home. today i was driving home from work and my car throws a CEL and dies off. any idea what might have happened? was the tach bouncing a sign of something bad to happen? maybe a bad dizzy? ill be towing the car home later tonight and try reading the CEL code via jumping the service plug with a paper clip. if anyone had a problem like this please share. lol!

 

Could be anything, figure out what the CEL error code is and go from there.

 

last night went to tow the car. i figure i try starting it. and of course it started. drove it home which is about 5 miles, drove 4 miles than the rpm started to stutter a little bit. i made it home wiithout the car dieing out. does this sound like a bad distributor? think ill be looking for a brand new oem one.

 

Like I said figure out what the CEL is. Also check the ground on your thermostat.

 

the car starts without throwing a CEL. should i just run the car around the block a couple times see if if dies out (CEL).

 

So it did not show a CEL when you were driving the car home?

 

The symptoms you describe are usually caused by a bad ignition control module (ICM) within the distributor. The ICM will overheat after driving a while and will cause your engine to lose power/stall and the tach may bounce around wildly. If you take someone with you on a test ride as soon as the engine stalls pop the hood and check for spark while your partner cranks the motor. There probably won't be any spark but after it sits for a while and cools it will temporarily work again. The ICM is ~$50 at Vatozone.

 

yeah, i went ahead and purchased an oem one for $200. figure an oem one should last the rest of the life of the car. also bought a coil, cap and rotor, and a main relay. hopefully these solve the problem.

and no it did not show a cel when i drove the car home.

 

well that's an expensive solution to an otherwise simple problem, make sure you get the new dizzy timed correctly with a timing gun.

 

Don't you just make reference marks on the dizzy before I pull it off than line it up when reinstalling?

 

oh, somehow I misunderstood what you wrote and thought that you bought a new dizzy. Making alignment marks on the head and dizzy will work fine when reusing the same distributor

 

i installed the new components and the car starts up fine. didnt get a chance to drive it around the block though. another thing i noticed is that the main relay doesnt always click and turn on the fuel pump before starting up the car. i have a new (oem) part on its way so i hope this solves that problem. does the main relay have anything to do with the car dying out while driving?

 

Typical problems with the main relay are bad/cold solder joints that cause the car to not want to restart after it has been driven around a while and warmed up. You can usually fix them by re-soldering all the solder joints. Sometimes they do prevent a car from starting in very hot weather. Does the car start up every time?

 

Car doesn't start all the time. Relay doesn't click and turn on the fuel pump that's why.