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So I just purchased a 1993 Honda Prelude Si, 2.3L DOHC, 149,000 miles, for $700, got it home, got a battery, new gas, and…no fire. Checked the normal stuff, the fuel pump is working, gas is going to the injectors, etc. Went to spark. Well, sometimes there’s spark to the plugs, most times there’s not. So I thought I may need a new distributor. No. This thing has to be nearly new, buuuut, there is nothing holding the rotor or plastic cover on, except the outside body. I believe that the rotor is slipping back and forth when it turns and that is the reason for the occasional spark, but no start. But there is no screw hole in the rotor to have it attach to the shaft. So, anyone know about this?
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Its a little hard to tell from the picture angle but I believe that is a D shaped shaft and the button is D shaped internally as well. In that case you wouldn’t need the screw. Distributor looks new, how’s the coil?
I did a spark plug test to see if I was even getting current to the plugs, and most of the time I wasn’t, but I did get spark a couple of times. My battery is dead now, so I’m waiting on my jumper box to recharge and try again. You’re right, the distributor does appear to be new, it is a d-type, but it all just seemed loose. I was hoping that was the reason I wasn’t getting spark every time. This is really kicking my butt, specially now with a dead battery.
I did get it to start once. The idle went all the way to 5,000rpm ( the fella I bought it from said that he thought it needed an idle control valve) and I shut the car off. Since then I haven’t gotten it to crank.Newish distributor and ignition problems… sounds a little fishy. But nothing a little diagnostics can’t sort out.
Typically when I see something like this I always start with the ignition coil and work my way back to the distributor. Even though you get occasional spark at the plugs, you really want to go back to the source (coil) and confirm that is good. If that checks out then either you have a distributor problem, or the distributor isn’t being triggered.Thanks you! I happen to have an oem distributor waiting on me at the parts store, I was able to talk them down to $100. The ignition coil was going to cost me $54. In your opinion, do you think it would be cost effective to just pick up the whole thing?
If you’ve got the money and don’t mind rolling the dice a bit, then yeah, that’s a decent price for OEM. Just be prepared for the possibility that this may not fix your problem.
Yeah, that’s why I hadn’t picked it up yet. I figured if the one on the car was nearly new, maybe they didn’t put it on right, or there isn’t power getting to the distributor every time? I’m not exactly sure how I would check that, and I only have a few cranks to get it right lol, before I have to recharge my jump box again.
If you want to learn, you can go pick up a cheap multimeter and try to figure it out. I can try to guide you through the process but honestly there are probably 50 YouTube videos out there for your car and i think Eric has even posted one on this site.
On the other hand, replacing the coil and distributor is only 50% likely to fix your problem. It may be a more expensive approach but you’ll have to weigh that against your time invested and how confident you feel about taking on the challenge, with help of course.Yeah, I’ve been watching everything I could from Eric on youtube since I got this car (that’s actually how I discovered his channel and website). Not sure what happened to my personal, easy to use multi-meter, so I guess I’ll blow the dust off my dad’s 35 year old analog one lol. Wish he was still here to explain that thing to me, found 1 youtube video on it lol. Ok, so I should see if I have power getting to the distributor? Well I know that it’s spinning when I try to crank, but could it still not have enough voltage to reach the coil?
For checking basic power, analog should be ok. However, you should never use an analog meter to test ECU related wiring. They’ve been known to overload the sensitive circuitry inside computers and sensors. In fact, I’d recommend going to Harbor Freight and grabbing a $10 digital meter beforehand to be on the safe side.
But yes, you should have ~12V DC constant power to both the distributor and the coil when the key is on (check engine light on) through at least one wire. There are several wires on the distributor but the coil should only have two wires, one of which should be hot.
A simple test you can try is to jam a spark plug into the coil wire and crank the motor over. You should see a lot of sparking on the plug. Remember to make sure the side of the plug is laying against a metal part of the motor when you do this or nothing will happen.Ok, so I haven’t picked up the multi meter yet, but i just tested the coil by attaching a spark plug, and, it did what I was getting from the distributor. It sparked once when she turned the key, and then nothing. Had her do it 4 more times after the first spark and nothing. So, it’s either the coil, or?? Idk. but now I know that the coil isn’t sending power every time.
Actually this tells me a lot. One, your coil is fine. If something were wrong with it you wouldn’t have even seen the first spark. However, seeing only one spark tells me that the coil isn’t being triggered by either your distributor or the computer. You’ll need a digital multimeter to go any further here.
Ok, so off to get a multimeter! I just attached these photos of what I did in case i misunderstood (since for awhile before I got here I thought I would have an ignition coil inside the distributor, man do I feel dumb). The spark plug is good, just a spare I had. The distributor kept turning even when it wasn’t sparking, but yes, only sparks one time then nothing
Ok, so an update. I haven’t been able to go out and pick up the multimeter yet since I’ve only got one car now and my girl has needed it for work and stuff. But I do have a test light and after charging the battery some I checked the 3 wires going into my external coil for current. The yellow, blue, and black wire all have positive current going to be them when the key is turned over but not being cranked, and when the car is being cranked. And, going off of ”the brighter the light, the more current” the current seems damn strong for all three wires the whole time. So I also checked the current going out of my coil. When I turned the car over, it arched towards my test light once, and then stopped, and wouldn’t do it again. But being there is current from all three wires the whole time doesn’t seem right. Shouldn’t one of them be a ground or control? Could this be shorting out my coil and causing it to stop sending a current after the first spark? or is the coil bad and causing some type of current feedback loop?
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