And how can I test to see if the parts are still good. I have been having this problem under 3000 rpm the engine noticably hesitates and/or misses. The car is a 97 ex with around 71,000 miles.

it was giving me this problem since I got it and it only had 35,000 miles. I have changed the plugs, wires, fuel filter, checked timing, and I only run premium.

I looked at cap and rotor and it looked fine to me. Somebody give me some insight on this.

TIA

 

your stock coil is bad. which causes hestiation now and then. ez to replace.

 

Or it could be the ignitor. They go bad all the time on Honda's. Symptoms include hesitation, wild tachometer needle, fever and persistant cough (just kidding about the last 2 ). Is it throwing a check engine light yet?

 

no check engine light.
I'll just change the coil first, and if it continues i'll change the ignitor.

 

I'm having the same problem! Gonna do new distributor cap/rotor/ignition coil tomorrow. Hopefully it solves this. If you figure out what it is, please let me know

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rodrez &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Or it could be the ignitor. They go bad all the time on Honda's. Symptoms include hesitation, wild tachometer needle, fever and persistant cough (just kidding about the last 2 ). Is it throwing a check engine light yet?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, usually (from my own experience with distributors) those symptoms are from an ignitor going bad. When a coil goes bad, it goes bad just like that.... not subtle symptoms leading to a dead engine, but it just "pops" and goes and that's it. Rarely does the coil go out, but the ignitor goes out quite often.

BTW, since you have a 97 EX distributor, the electronics are the same between OBD-1 and OBD-2 (just plugs are different) so you can find any 92-00 Civic distributor and swap out the internals and see if that fixes your problem, at least until you want to buy a brand new ignitor and/or coil.

 

check and make sure that your plugs are gapped right. If that doesn't do it then its parbably your coil. Best bet is to get an MSD distributor cap conversion and a blaster 2 coil, that should help the week spark.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by insane900rr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">check and make sure that your plugs are gapped right. If that doesn't do it then its parbably your coil. Best bet is to get an MSD distributor cap conversion and a blaster 2 coil, that should help the week spark.</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's really not necessary. The MSD can sometimes add more problems than it will cure. Honda ignition systems can handle a lot of power and upgrades before needing a boost. (unless FI or nitrous)

 

Thanks guys Should I stick with only an OEM coil from the dealer, or will anything suffice?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Goldfingiz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks guys Should I stick with only an OEM coil from the dealer, or will anything suffice?</TD></TR></TABLE>

OEM

 

thanks for the info
off to the junk yard

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Goldfingiz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm having the same problem! Gonna do new distributor cap/rotor/ignition coil tomorrow. Hopefully it solves this. If you figure out what it is, please let me know </TD></TR></TABLE>

did u ever fix your problem?

 

Heyyyyy check this out

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=520214

Same gaynesss

 

Hey this might be a dumb question but where's the ignitor? The coil is that small rectangular thing with the little spring at the top of the distributor (well, at least on Integras), but where is the ignitor? Does it have any other names? I think in my Helm's they call it an Ignition Control Module (ICM) but I'm not sure. How do you test it? I'm having symptoms of a bad distributor but I changed the cap, rotor, plugs, and wires, and I tested the coil and ICM according to the Helm's and they were fine, except one of the three wires for the ICM only put out 4.9V while the others had 12V, is that normal? Last, can either the coil or ignitor go bad without affecting the tachometer? Sorry for all the questions.