Help. My car needs a Hondadoc! fast!

[zcmadman]

Ok...all you peeps dig into your head for the answer to my cars symptoms...
ok well every now and then, while my car would idle it would cut off, not an often occurence. all the gauges were normal and all that..then it wouldnt start for like 5 min or so then it would finally start up and run fine. i have an 88 dx hatch w/170k on it! yeah its high. ok so the other day i hop in to go or whatever and after ive pulled out i stop at a light and i notice its blippin tryin to stay on so i gave a little gas to her and then went down the road and the hesitation, like the same way when your really low on gas or water in your dist. cap, like that and so since it wasnt gettin any better, i pulled off the main road and then the car cut off and would not start back up. the motor sounds fine, and i can smell gas thats in the t/b area, and i can hear the fuel pump turn on when i turn on my car. ok right now its at my local performance shop, gettin diagnosed b/c thell find it for me for little money w/out fixin it w/out my approval, besides they wouldnt b/c they know that im really broke all the time. Has anyone had or seen this happen b4?
-andy donnan

[Kunundrum]

sounds like a fuel problem.

Pull your spark plugs are they white ? if yes it indicates a lean fuel mixture


Replace the fuel filter (10$), and see if that changes anything, if it still acts up you will want to check the fuel pressure if it's low or unstaple it indicates a bad fuel pump (you can pickup a walbro 255gp/h for like 100$) if the fuel pressure is good i would be checking your injectors.

On the other hand if the plugs are black it indicates a spark problem change the plugs (NGK 6$pair) and the spark plug wires. if the problem persists check your distributor cap, rotor button, or entire distributor assembly.

[zcmadman]

yeah i thought the filter too b/c its prob never been done b4 so i bought one today, but im lettin that place fig. it out for me since i already towed my car there. yeah it could be plugs too b/c ive never replaced any dist, ign. coil, wires, or plugs b4. i tried that lill method of pullin the wires up a tiny bit to make more of a spark get to the plugs but it didnt help any, so... ok well ill check it tomorrow if i can check it myself while its there b/c hey i can use that 40 bucks for somethin else. thanks man.
-andy

[BullShifter]

not enough info to diag.

[zcmadman]

Ok you know how when youd wash your engine off w/out leaving it running while you did it, then when you went to leave it sputter and hesitate and give you crappy performance? well thats b/c you get moisture down in your dist. cap, so you take it off and dry it out then your car runs fine. right ok. well thats what my car was doing b4 it cut off, but i KNOW it wasnt moisture.
the motor is the 1.5 if that matters and i live in ga where it gets really hot. everything worked fine when i drove it to my school, its just that when i left is when it was acting up.
while i was sittin at the light after i pulled out of my school it started to have the rev's start droppin like it was about to cut off, so i gave it some gas. it still was kinda hesitatin, but when i took off from the light it kept on so i knew to pull over and when i pulled off the motor cut off,it would not start back up or even sound like it was about to. it was kinda low on gas, but not enough to where it was empty, i wish that was the prob. but i guess checkin the plugs would be the 1st thing to do and as soon as i leave here i will.
I am somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to my car, but ive never seen or helped on a fuel prob. so im clueless on it. I know that its very rare for a fuel pump to go on my car, and that when you turn the key into the on position you can hear the fuel pump kick on, and that when you take the intake tube off, you can smell that theres gas inside the intake manifold thing.

ok i hope this helped...im gonna try new plugs first.

[jeef]

you need to have a compression test done too... it could be that the head gasket is shot or the head could be warped... its just a possibility

[CRXkid]

wow. the same thing happened to me today. Im really curious as to what the problem is with your car because it could be the same reason for mine. I drove around during the day and it was fine. I went to McDonalds, when i was leaving, I came up on a stop sign, my rpms dropped really low, i revved it up a little then it died. I tried to get it to start a couple times and it cranked but wouldnt turn over. Then me and my friend pushed it backwards towards the parking lot, while it was rolling I tried to start it and it caught, then seconds later died again. so we pushed it all the way back into the mcdonalds parking lot and while it was rolling back i put it in reverse and let out the clutch. It started, so I drove it around the parking lot for 5 minutes to make sure it wasnt gonna die. Then drove it home no problem. I'm just worried its gonna happen again and I'd like to be able to fix it before I get stuck somewhere. Please let me know what it ends up being. Thanks a lot, and good luck with it.

[zcmadman]

i never tried the pust start method, mainly b/c i was the only one, and that there wasnt much room to, but its already at the place and will be checked out mon. and hopefully theyll find out whats wrong and ill let all yall know when i get a chance

[slammedcivicdx]

sounds to me like its your injectors, when the problem happens pull up your carpet were you computer is and look to see how many time the light blinks, if it blinks 16 times than it is you injectors.

[zcmadman]

65 bucks later and nothing done. they told me that my whole dist assembly was fried, and needed to be replaced but didnt know it that was the only prob or not. im gonna go find a used one or somethin, to get it back on the road, but if i can get help from my mom $$ to lend me some money im just gonna put a new motor in it. like 4g si motor or single vtec or possibly b16. depends on how much she lets me use. but if anyone has a dist assembly sittin around that will go in my 1.5l let me know and ill come to ur house if it aint that far! im in augusta,ga just let me know by email or somthin b/c school starts up next week and i need my car soo much!
is 3k a decent price for a b16a installed and all?

[jusg19]

AHHH I wish i checked the forums more often than once a week.

I just had the same problem on my way to maine. it's been doing it for like 3-4 months. i'd come to a light and it would idle then die. finally i stopped for coffee on my trip, and when i came out the car would wind but not start. turns out the coil was bad. i got it fixed myself, even though i was in the middle of nowhere. I called napa and they delivered to me on the side of the road, that's service! so anyways, about 1000 miles later it's running sweet.

Later~
Jus

[zcmadman]

well it turned out to be the distribuitor, so i went to my local u pull it and got oone for 30 bucks! great thing is that they warranty the part for 30 days. also got a rex fog light switch! pretty rare!...i guess
i havent timed my car yet but hey it runs fine so oh well

[Chhuong]

Hey that sounds like a ignitor problem to me!!! It usually is the ignitor and sometimes it'll throw a code and sometimes it'll work good enough to the point where the code never comes up. And if it's not fixed for a long time it takes a toll on the coil!!