My Wagon Drives Fine But Shuts Off Every Now and Then...

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Comments

  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    One more suggestion, if a new main relay doesn't solve it...

    It could be a problem with the ignitor, also known as the Ignition Control Module (ICM). I've had a few bad ones in my old EF hatch. And again in my del Sol. The typical symptoms would be that the car would start and run fine normally, but then once it gets nice and hot, it will shut off randomly and not crank back up. just turn over but not fire. If i let the car set and cool for a while (about 15 to 30 minutes usually), then it would start right back up, no problems.

    The issue is that the ICM will sometimes start to go bad, and when its relatively cool it operates fine, but once it gets too hot, something in it shorts out or something, and you won't get a good spark. Sometimes there will be no spark at all, and other times it's just a weak sporadic spark. This really threw me off because when I checked for spark it LOOKED like i was getting spark on all 4 cylinders!

    Anyway, I wish you luck. My advice would be try to find a friend close by with the same engine as you so you can borrow parts to troubleshoot it. Much cheaper than buying all new parts one at a time. I have a buddy near me and sometimes we'll just switch distributors or whatever part is in question, and then play the game "who breaks down first?"

    Okay, I see. I re-soldered my main relay joints but it could have been that my job was not that good. If the main relay is not the problem, I will go for the ICM.
    Anyway, I wish you luck. My advice would be try to find a friend close by with the same engine as you so you can borrow parts to troubleshoot it. Much cheaper than buying all new parts one at a time. I have a buddy near me and sometimes we'll just switch distributors or whatever part is in question, and then play the game "who breaks down first?"


    LOL!!
  • I re-soldered my joints in a main relay once, years ago. I figured taht was the problem, because I could see little hairline craks in the joints. I totally sucked at soldering too, but as long as you keep in mind to be careful and just heat them up til they liquify then let them cool real fast, you'll be alright. After i soldered mine, it still didn't wanna start, and that was when i did the ICM and the coil. That fixed it, and it ran fine after that, so apparently my soldering job was good enough!

    That was one of the first times I ever soldered anything, and i didn't screw it up. So if you have any experience, you should be fine. I suppose there is the possibility that a bad solder job could have messed up the relay, and if that wasn't the prob to start with, then you would now have 2 issues combined.

    Unfortunately it seems the only way to know for sure is to start buying and replacing parts until you get it tracked down.
  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    I re-soldered my joints in a main relay once, years ago. I figured taht was the problem, because I could see little hairline craks in the joints. I totally sucked at soldering too, but as long as you keep in mind to be careful and just heat them up til they liquify then let them cool real fast, you'll be alright. After i soldered mine, it still didn't wanna start, and that was when i did the ICM and the coil. That fixed it, and it ran fine after that, so apparently my soldering job was good enough!

    That was one of the first times I ever soldered anything, and i didn't screw it up. So if you have any experience, you should be fine. I suppose there is the possibility that a bad solder job could have messed up the relay, and if that wasn't the prob to start with, then you would now have 2 issues combined.

    Unfortunately it seems the only way to know for sure is to start buying and replacing parts until you get it tracked down.


    You have a point right there.... I will double check the joints in my main relay before purcharsing the new main relay... Just to play safe!
  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    Update 06/23/2012: I installed a new main relay. However, the car died on me while I was doing 55 mph in the highway. I checked the distributor and there was NOT spark.... After waiting half hour, the wagon started normally... this is crazy!!!
  • mtbikerTimtbikerTi Band Wagon
    Change your ignitor with a new Honda part.
  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    mtbikerTi wrote: »
    Change your ignitor with a new Honda part.

    A neighbor who is also a professional mechanic asked me to change the distributor module instead of the ignitor. He pointed to me that when the ignitor goes bad, no matter how long you wait, the wagon does not start again. In the other hand, when the distributor module is beginning to go bad, the wagon will shut down and after sitting for a while it could start again... This I found it kind of what is happening to my wagon… I am a little confused now !#@#$%^$%&;%^I*
  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    I think that I showld just buy a brand new distributor....
  • mtbikerTimtbikerTi Band Wagon
    My wagon would restart after it cooled down, I had replaced the distributor with a reman (I think I was on the 3rd at the time...), I replaced the ignitor and it's been fine for 4 years and ~55,000 miles now. But I wouldn't trust a non OEM Honda ignitor.
  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    mtbikerTi wrote: »
    My wagon would restart after it cooled down, I had replaced the distributor with a reman (I think I was on the 3rd at the time...), I replaced the ignitor and it's been fine for 4 years and ~55,000 miles now. But I wouldn't trust a non OEM Honda ignitor.

    Okay, so did you buy a genuine OEM ignitor or not?
  • have you tried taken your ignition switch apart and checking if the connection are clean and making contact . mine died just crusin around town i thought it was the dizzy at first but i have a back up one that i tested it with and it did same thing .so after some research i found out about the ignition switch cleaning process and it was exactly that faulty connection in the switch hope this helps .
  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    have you tried taken your ignition switch apart and checking if the connection are clean and making contact . mine died just crusin around town i thought it was the dizzy at first but i have a back up one that i tested it with and it did same thing .so after some research i found out about the ignition switch cleaning process and it was exactly that faulty connection in the switch hope this helps .

    Yes, thank you for your suggestion. I actually did open the ignition. Everything was normal. I cleaned all the connection and added new electrical grease. The problem is still happening even after cleaning the ignition switch....
  • mtbikerTimtbikerTi Band Wagon
    I purchased a genuine Honda ignitor. That is after 3 remanufactured distributors that all failed the same way, so I don't trust aftermarket ignitors.

    Also, I had my car die because of the ignition switch as well, the original looked fine, but even after cleaning it was just worn to the point that it needed to be replaced.

    Do you have a multimeter? If you do you can check a lot of this stuff the next time it dies instead of just throwing parts at it. If you don't have one it might be a good investment.
  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    mtbikerTi wrote: »
    I purchased a genuine Honda ignitor. That is after 3 remanufactured distributors that all failed the same way, so I don't trust aftermarket ignitors.

    Also, I had my car die because of the ignition switch as well, the original looked fine, but even after cleaning it was just worn to the point that it needed to be replaced.

    Do you have a multimeter? If you do you can check a lot of this stuff the next time it dies instead of just throwing parts at it. If you don't have one it might be a good investment.

    Wow! That is crazy... Now that you mentioned that even after cleaning the ignition switch it was giving you problems, I noticed that whenever the wagon shuts off the warning lights (oil, battery, etc) in the dash also go off. They turn back on when I close and re-open the switch... Hummmm...... Anyways... So did you replace the ignition switch with an original or aftermarket one? I will have to double check on that too.... Though I am more concern about the distributor itself because of the lack of spark when the problem happened....
  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    I installed a new distributor. I am going to drive it and see what happends!
  • ReaccionReaccion Senior Wagonist
    Update 07/08/2012: I have driven a lot of miles now and the wagon has NOT shut down anymore after changing the dristributor for a new one! :-)
  • Reaccion,

    Can I have the link where you got ur distributor from? Thanks
  • 473.jpg

    Does it look bad?
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