gear

okay my old distributor died, so i thougth instead of dealing with a used one that dies after 6 months, id go ahead and buy another one that lasts me the rest of the cars life most likely. I also bought a new cap and rotor as well as new NGK plug wires. I thought i had all basses covered...i installed everything and the car ran like a champ. I go to start it this morning and it just turns and turns for about 5 sec then finally sparks and it starts up. i didnt think much of it...and headed to work. I got off work and tried to drive home, it just turns and turns and turns and now i get a CEL. Here's my question. When i installed the distributor cap, it didnt sit quite perfect because of a small rubber grommet protecting the sensor wires...i think that maybe humidity/moisture got into the cap and is making the car hard to start. I checked the cap and there was white residue on the cap terminals...im getting fed up with this f'ing car. thanks for the help...


ps (no i didnt check to see what CEL was being thrown BUT i did do the scredriver in the plug wire to see if I had had spark, which i did not)

HatefulMechanic

reman dist? or an actual NEW one? being as you have a civic....i assume that is the one?

more then likely its a def. reman unit, a problem in the ignitor or the pickup coil.....

get another one...and get used to swapping reman units out. we have had one car ( a probe 2.2l) that we have installed eight reman units on and every one fails in a week.

and yes, i have scoped every input to the dist, and ran voltage drop tests on all circuits to it also. we installed a new unit from the dealer, and it hasnt come back yet.

gear

i bought a new one, from bap geon. it was 250 bucks.

HatefulMechanic

its possible, but not likely that crossfiring is the problem....but i am relitively confident that its not the problem. i dont see how that would cause a CEL on an OBDI car....


more then likely its a problem internal to it, at least thats what it sounds like to me without looking at it, its hard to tell.


or i could be an internet diag tech! like everyone else on here....

gear

i found the problem...stupid ass relay. all i had to do was bang on the lower left side of the dash...she started right up

HatefulMechanic

ahhh...the EFI main relay! gotta love them! it gets fun diaging them sometimes, they have two seperate power feeds off of them that go to the fuel pump and dist....one will get power and the other doesnt...gets to be fun sometimes!

i would look into getting another one though......once the contacts start getting damaged like that...it is only a matter of time!

gear

LOL thanks dude. bangin does me right....for now