The94delslow

Im trying to get some input of all possible causes of my stalling problem. Im not mechanically inclined and I want to make sure im not getting screwed by the mechanic. I see some resolutions of the problem online but its mostly for automatic cars and newer models. Ill put the short version in bullet points for the people who don't want to read it all. the in depth problem/story of my issue is below.

Car - 94 Honda Del Sol Si (manual)

Issue - Intermittent stalling while driving, low rpm, and when the car stalls, it has a hard time starting back up. There is no check engine light on and no issues/codes on the ECU. I can be going 30 mph and it will stall on me. the RPM's aren't so low that it stalls.

Fixes that have already been done - New IACV, Water Pump (RPM needle was jumping)

In depth problem/story:

When I bought the car in December 2018 i noticed that the RPM's always was low. I never driven stick or had this old of a car so I thought it was normal. Recently while driving, I noticed that my RPM needle would jump every now and then but I just thought I might of been shifting funny (self taught how to drive stick). I brought it to a tuner shop that works on old cars and on the way there, the car shut off on me twice. Both times it stalled, I had an issue starting it back up. They replaced the IACV, Water pump because it had a lot of moister on it and to fix the jumpy needle I was told. When I drove it back from the shop, the car still had a little bit of a low idle issue and at a red light it shut off again. A day later I drove it less than a mile up the street to get gas and on the way back going downhill, it shut off on me. I brought it to a different mechanic for a second opinion. He told me that he couldn't replicate the issue, scanned the ECU and didn't find anything and gave it back to me. About a mile down the road the car stalled in the middle of traffic and again and wouldn't start back up for a good 5 minutes.

Any possible causes that you guys can think of would be appreciated. I have researched the causes for days and so far I got that it could be a bad fuel pump or throttle body. Last question. Where should the mechanic start with instead of going after the most expensive thing like the fuel pump and this issue not being resolved? Again I just don't want to be screwed over.

The94delslow

I have an update. If this bumps it so people can see it, sweet.

The shop told me it wasn't the fuel pump and it was the distributor. My only problem is that I wasn't getting a check engine light on after it would shut off on me. It would come on for a split second before it shut off though. They told me it wasn't the fuel pump and when they tested it it put out 3 psi or something like that. Can anyone confirm this? I was kinda in a rush to get ready for work so I didn't get a chance when they said it all in detail.

DCFIVER

On a vehicle that old,there is no data stream available, so it cannot be diagnosed with a scan tool. The tech needs a scope, a meter, and troubleshooting experience to figure it out. With that said, a distributor is a good a guess as any.



I can tell you from my experience that Honda fuel pump failures are so rare as to be non-existent. What I have been seeing more and more of,in the last 5 years or so, are ECM failures. Seems like the time is up for those bad boys. However 3 psi isn't nearly enough fuel pressure,so either you heard the tech wrong,or the pump is bad....

DCFIVER

Try searching "iATN shop finder" and the first link should be the right one.

The shops that are members of iATN are typically good shops.

The94delslow

Thank you, I appreciate it. Yeah he said 30 psi when I called him back.