intermediate spark

[Daniel Buttars]

I have an intermediate spark issue.I have a 91 Honda accord, I drove my car to work park it for 8hr’s and when I went to go home it wouldn’t start. I have gone through all the ignition checks, checked the distributer and all its parts, replaced the igniter, replace cap and rotor,and continued with every other check all the way to the ECU, still nothing, so I replaced the ECU with a used one and still have the same problem! The car cranks and starts for about 5 secs. then quits, cranks a couple of times then nothing, the car loses all spark after this, if I let it sit for a while and try again it does the same thing. Any suggestions on what I can do next?

Topic

[george gonzalez]

Ignition switch.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Replacing parts is not the best way to go about a diagnosis. I’ll add that aftermarket ignition parts don’t always work out so well on Hondas. That said, I cover a lot about no starts and Honda no starts in this article. There may be some useful information in here for you.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-no-start-problems

Good luck and keep us posted.

[JD]

Do you smell gas when trying to start (ie. is it flooding)? If not, may be a fuel issue.

[Daniel Buttars]

thanks for your comments on my issues. I have not been able to work on the car a few days that’s why i have not reply. ok when the car first would not start I had power at the coil and using a test light to check igniter the test light would flash, but no spark from coil. replace coil thinking it was bad. check spark and now I have spark with all plug wires off at the time. thinking my car will start and run put all plug wires on and crank engine. car started in crank mode, key to on position and car die. crank again and would not fire. check spark and once again I have no spark. disconnect battery for a while and i have spark again. this time I put a node light the injector plug. when the car as spark the node light will flash. no spark no node light flash. hook up the battery and again i have spark but now it intermediate I will have one or two sparks for several engine turns. after many hours and volts checks lead me to the ECU was not working place it and still have the same problem. I think I have a grounding problem somewhere. check all grounds and they look good. i am going to add some grounding wires and see if that works. I am really at a lost to why the would spark and stop sparking. very time I disconnect the battery i get spark again. if I stay in cranking for like 20 sec. sometimes i get node light flashing and spark at the same time. other time I get spark only or node light flash only.

[Daniel Buttars]

got a whole used distributer with factory honda parts put it on and does the same thing as the one i have. I did this thinking pickup coil or sensor in dist. was not working right.

[Trent “Teddy” Martin]

Check your fuses buddy

[Tom]

I am very skeptical of the likelihood of a fuse being that intermittent. In my experience, intermittent failures in the ignition system are generally caused by one of three things.

1) Ignition Switch. This is a fairly common problem on the Accords
2) Ignition Coil. They will often die a slow death like this.
3) Wiring issues. A bare, or lose connection somewhere.

I would do a quick once over of the wiring, and if I didn’t see anything obvious, I would troubleshoot the ignition switch, and coil thoroughly.

Since you replaced the ignitor, and then replaced the entire distributor, I am going to say that it is pretty unlikely that the ignitor is your problem, though they will also sometimes fail in this manner.

[Trent “Teddy” Martin]

I had a corolla not long ago where the Ign A fuse was dodgy. You could give it a wiggle and hey presto the car ran ! Then that afternoon it stopped working again so I told the customer to replace the fuse see what happens and they haven’t had issues since. You’d be surprised wha a fuse can tell you especially when it blows

[Daniel Buttars]

bad Ignition switch, I have spark now but the car will still not run I can get it to run if i hold my foot on the gas like almost to the floor and if will barely run and very bad. I did replace timing belt because it was over due. i made sure timing was line up many times. I have good compression. I going to a fuel gauge and see how much fuel psi i have. is there any thing more i should look at

[Paul]

The engine might be flooded. Try cranking it for a while. But checking your fuel pressure is a great idea.

[EricTheCarGuy]

You might want to check for this.

[Daniel Buttars]

91 Honda accord still does not run. I got other car and have not work on it. going to try again, I am at this point where take my losses and take it to the junk yard. it seem to be flooding will fire and try to run and quit. crank again and it will not fire. it will only run a 80% gas pedal down any more or less will not start. dose the fuel injector mod. very go bad on these car?

[Daniel Buttars]

fuel pressure is 38 psi

[EricTheCarGuy]

I would go back and check your timing on the timing belt. I’d then check to see if you got the timing on the distributor correct when you installed it. That fuel psi sounds low but I don’t remember the spec. It’s not common for Hondas to have fuel delivery issues though. Still, it’s not a bad idea to replace the fuel filter just for good measure. Personally, I think your issue is with timing by the sound of it. Double check your timing marks and check the ignition timing and let us know what you find.

Keep us posted.

[Author]

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