I have an '89 civic ef hatch with a '99-2000 b16a motor. I know I might need a new starter but I'm my car is also dying while running. I can't narrow down the problem. If anyone has any ideas or diagnosis that can help I would really appreciate it. Either respond on here or you can email me at christopherjackclark@gmail.com

 

Can you offer up some more background info?

Was the swap running fine previously?

Are there any CEL codes?

Is it running like normal or is it rough? Does this happen when warm or cold ect?

Is you battery healthy? load test it if you haven't checked.

Pull the distribitor cap off, make sure the rotor is still fastened in place.

Remove and inspect the spark plugs. What color are they, are they dry?

listen for the main relays click and the hum of the fuel pump (it will stop after a few seconds) when you turn the ignition to the on position (not cranking it).

 

The swap was done well.
When the car starts it run great. No knocks or misses or anything. I have check the battery and the battery cables. However it has be repositioned into the trunk of the car so there may be an outage of some kind in the cables running to the battery. I haven't pulled the cables out yet but I can pull em and check em out right now.
And when I'm checking out the starter I see that where the big cable is connected to the starter it's a little chewed up.
I'm still a little confused about what may be causing the car to just die out of nowhere when I'm driving even though it was just running fine.
Ill check those spark plugs and get back go you.

 

You should wrap up the chewed up wire with some electrical tape just to be safe, I doubt thats your issue though.

It sounds like you might have 2 seperate issues as you pointed out.

I was just pointing you toward some basic checks.
So is your check engine light coming on? Does the light work?

check fuses and your grounds too.

 

Everything looks fine with the distributor. And yes the light works. It comes on when the car dies but stays off when it's running.

 

And fuel pump is fine. I've already checked that

 

Had this issue it was the coil, finally stop altogether

 

Mine did that finally just stopped altogether, it was a bad coil

 

sounds like it could be a coil, they tend to work when cold then stop when they get hot.

 

I got my car running great right now! But I will definitely look into that cuz it makes a lot of sense. Thanks