I'm working on an 88 Accord 4 cyl, has about 350K miles or so, dont know if its the factory engine or not. Here is the problem. It has been running quite poorly the last few days (wont hold idle, misfiring) and now it will barely run at all. Cranks over and attempts to fire but it wont take off. Checked out the plugs and ive got a very weak spark on 1 and 3 and very strong spark on 2 and 4. Changed plugs and wires to no avail. Holding throttle open will get it to spin up and run at about 1000rpm if it starts at all. We have smoke coming from under the hood and a cherry red exhaust pipe when we can get it to run, so something is causing excessive heat (maybe unburned fuel). fuel doesnt seem to be an issue, we can smell it and we have black smoke out the tailpipe. It seems to be the lack of spark on 1 and 3 that is the problem.

 

Look for burns on the contacts inside the dizzy cap.

 

DX[manual windows]LX[ power windows]or LXi [sunroof]? does it have a carb or fuel injectors?

Sheesh, it's not as if weneed to know what color it is.

 

LX

 

X2 on the suggestion to replace distributor cap and rotor. Replace the maintenance items first before testing some other items.

Is your check engine light on, and have you checked for any error codes?

 

no it isnt throwing a CEL, that is if the light even works. ill check out the cap. Thanks everyone keep em coming!

 

If you checked the spark by a good consistent method, same for all plugs, then you ALREADY KNOW its a spark problem in only 2 plugs.

New plugs & new wires, right? Any chance they are defective?

Any problem with the coil, ignitor, or anything upstream from there would screw up all 4 sparks. That pretty muchnarrows it down tothe cap & rotor...