Hi all,
I am an almost 64 yo female with a Civic SI purchased new in 2000. About 123K miles and essentially, gently driven for the most part.

Now here's the problem. Last week, stopped at stop sign and suddenly car just died. It would turn over, but it was like it just wasn't getting "fire" or something. (forgive me - I know so little about cars). Anyway...pushed it to a parking spot. Towing service was charging $100 plus to tow to shop less than 1/2 mile. Therefore, called an on-site mechanic. He replaced distributor cap. Didn't work. He thinks it is the distributor. Says he's pretty confident. In the meantime, the distributor costs almost $300 and if it isn't that, can only be returned for store credit.
I absolutely do not have the $$'s to waste right now. Therefore, I'd like to ask y'all if this distributor thing sounds right or should I investigate further.
Also...don't think it matters, but as I was coming home that day, it seemed the brakes were going bad - making a sound. I thought I was going to need to get them checked the next day. Is there any connection between an engine shutting down and brakes going bad?
Many, many, many thanks for any advice and/or assistance.

 

Yes, if it has no "spark" then it likely an issue with the distributor. I would bet that the coil has failed inside, its very common. If the mechanic was knowledgable he should be able to diagnose it. The coil is around 1/3 of the price. But most guys just want to change the whole thing and not bother with 5-10 minutes of disassembly work to swap the coil.

 

Thank you very much, Runnerdown. Someone else had mentioned the coil thing, but as you said, he just wants to install the new distributor. Unfortunately, I'm at his mercy but at least having your opinion that it probably is the distributor is definitely helpful. And actually, I found a place online that I can order a brand new distributor for about $160. Of course, I'll have to wait several days but if it saves me almost $150, it's worth it.

 

It may be either a no spark, or a no fuel issue, both of which you can check for yourself, no mechanical skill needed.

The first test is for no fuel, [PGM-FI Main Relay failure] sit in car, helps if it is quiet, turn off the radio and blower motor...

Turn the ign. switch on to run position, not all the way to start, the CEL will turn on, you should hear two "clicks" from the PGM-FI Main Relay under the dash, [may sound like one click as they are very close together] at the same time you should hear the fuel pump start priming, [run for a few sec.].

There will then be a 3rd "click" from the PGM-FI Main Relay, the fuel pump wi;ll stop priming and the CEL will turn off, engine should start.

If any of the above is not happening it is a fuel problem, PGM-FI Main Relay failure, fuel pump failure, wiring or fuse problem.

You can get an HEI spark tester at any car parts store for under $10...
http://tools.ntxtools.com/lisle-ignition-coil-tester and although you need a second person to crank the engine while you test for spark, it is easy enough to do, not sure why the mechanic did not try either of the above, "He thinks it is the distributor. Says he's pretty confident" he should know, you either have spark or you do not.

Please feel free to IM me if you have questions. 94

 

Hi there, fcm...and from one really "old fart" to another, my ongoing saga is continuing.

OK, so I called the online place to order the ignition distributor. Talked to this man regarding the "no return policy." During that discussion, he became totally convinced this was not necessarily a distributor issue. Said there would have been some symptoms prior to it just dying such as car running really rough and some other things I can't remember. He went on to say that it needed to be scanned with something called an OBD2. He was rather emphatic about that and even tho' it is his business, encouraged me not to spend the money on the distributor until other stuff had been looked at. So back to the drawing board.
I called another mechanic who is going to come out tomorrow. He said it could be any number of things - coil, roter (?) - he named several different things.
As for testing it as described, I can't do that right now because...OK...everyone get ready to laugh....when the car died, I turned on the flashers. Some men then helped me push it to a parking place. In the confusion, I left the flashers on. The next day I had a dead battery. The battery is only a couple of years old so that isn't a big concern. Also, 3 years ago and less than 30,000 miles ago, I had a new water pump, timing belt...all that done. Almost $1000 worth of "maintenance" type of stuff. So all of that should be in good shape.
I'll update tomorrow after the new mechanic looks at things.

 

The online guy is correct on both points, kind of, electronics are very seldom returnable and when they are it is only with out opened packaging, he is also correct about testing, tossing parts at a problem is an expensive way to troubleshoot a problem and only really works if the first part you replace is the problem, like the cap the mechanic replaced, hopefully he took that back.

He is not correct about, "there would have been some symptoms prior to it just dying such as car running really rough" both a failure of the coil or the ICM can result in instant stall, less likely with the coil as it normally does show symptoms first, the ICM on the other hand normally shows no symptoms, just fails resulting in instant stall.

An instant stall, "and suddenly car just died", points to ICM, [Ignition Control Module] resulting in no spark, however an instant stall will also result if the PGM-FI Main Relay fails, when the ICM fails you lose spark, when the PGM-FI Main Relay fails you lose fuel pump, fuel injectors and spark, [no power to IPG1 and IPG2 of the ECU/ECM].

That is why the first test/troubleshooting that needs to be done is to see if the PGM-FI Main Relay is working and it is one of the simplest tests to do, turn on the ign, and if you hear the fuel pump priming, it is a good bet the PGM-FI Main Relay is working properly, but still not for sure, testing for power at the injectors and IPG1&2 would still need to be done to confirm injector relays output.

Then test for spark, make sure the new mechanic does both before he starts installing new parts. 94

 

Alright. So I'm going to print this off and between now and the time he gets here and try to figure out a way to introduce this info without offending. People can become so easily offended. I'm a nurse and especially when I was a new nurse...as in the first 5-10 years...I thought I knew everything and nobody could tell me anything. Now, after 35 years of nursing, I'm always open to suggestions/advice and actually enjoy the round-table approach to patient care.

If I could afford it, fcm, I'd buy you a plane ticket to come down here to Texas and fix this car. LOL Might be cheaper in the long run.

 

Hopefully the new mechanic is not silly enough to get offended by hints of what to look for to make his job easier.

If he is offended and refuses to take the advice, then my guess is he wants to take advantage of you and pad his bill, besides being "silly".

I would tell him when you were on the computer Googling for a mobile mechanic to work on your Civic that stalled all of the sudden, you "stumbled" across HT and these common problems.

If he still bulks, you may want to remind him of a well known fact, "don't **** off a nurse, they are the ones with the sharp pointy things". 94

 

LOL about pissing off a nurse. Years and years ago, the cops used to treat nurses really well (in other words, warnings rather than tickets) because they knew they might end up in our trauma room one night.

Anyway, he came. I showed him the stuff I had printed off. He didn't say much. However, after working and working to get the rotor off, it broke. Things went on...he replaced the broken roter and then said it was the coil that had gone bad. Whatever. The car is running now, thank goodness! Ended up costing me $216 today and another $50 with the original guy. I guess that isn't horrible since it was going to cost about $100 just to tow it to a shop. And probably their labor may have been more. This man today said he was charging me $85.00 labor - the rest was parts.

So there we have it!

 

Well that's not too bad, coil price sounds about right, [aftermarket] stock is around $125.00 the same with labour.
Did he charge you for the rotor he broke, they can be a pain to remove.

I agree it was not "horrible" and you are at least $100 ahead. 94

 

I'm not sure if he charged me for the rotor he broke. It was a pain. He worked and worked trying to get it loose, and it finally broke. He said it was the original one and it should have been replaced long ago - maybe every 60K miles I think is what he said.

Bottom line...it's one of those things. Can't do without the vehicle so you have to pay whatever they charge to get it fixed. All in all, I think it was fair. He worked for quite a while.

I have another issue I'm going to start a new thread about tomorrow. This time, I'm going to get advice BEFORE I take off on a wild goose chase.

 

Either way, if he charged for it and that was in that parts price even a better deal, that is why I asked, $80 is a little high for an aftermarket coil, but not to the point I would call it gouging, add a rotor to the coil and it's closer to what we would charge in our shop for a coil and rotor, [aftermarket]. 94