Hi,

I bought a 2002 honda accord with ~200k miles that worked until last week. I parked it at my apartment complex then when I tried to start it a few hours later the starter would crank but the engine would never fully start up.

I had noticed that the engine was very loud at idle, but seemed fine when I was driving which seemed to lineup with a sparkplug issue.

I replaced spark plugs but this did not fix the issue.

I noticed the overhead lights would dim to the point of almost being off when trying to crank the engine. I took the battery to autozone and it failed their battery test.

I replaced the battery but same issue, won't start.

I then bought an inline sparkplug light to test that the sparkplugs were firing correctly.

This thing:


I took videos of each of the 4x spark plugs and I noticed specifically #4 seems to be not firing well. Timing is off it looks like and sometimes the light fires up very dim.

These videos are in my engine compartment. There is no light because I'm in my apartment's garage. There is the device I linked on amazon in frame and it should light up each time the sparkplug gets voltage or whatever. You can see the flashing in the video.

The pattern of the flashing is just not there and the brightness is varying. I know the battery and spark plugs are good because I just replaced them. Is the distributor bad? Is there another way to test it to be sure?

Sparkplug 1 (someone else starts their car next to mine):


Sparkplug 2:


Sparkplug 3:


Sparkplug 4:


So does this mean my distributor is bad? These are new sparkplugs and I believe I installed them correctly. There isn't much to **** up.

One other thing is that when I turn the car on (one key position before starting the engine) I can hear the gas pump. I was going to loosen the screw on the fuel line and see if fuel comes out when I crank the engine just to see if I can rule that out too.

I also bought an OBD2 scanner on amazon (cheap bluetooth -> phone scanner) and it is not bringing up any codes.

 

Update 1:

Took off distributor cap and I think the distributor had been replaced somewhat recently? It looked very clean inside and the screws holding it on didn't look oem.

Here are pics of the distributor cap/rotor/etc:

https://imgur.com/a/n99LANq

After searching the part number on the distributor it looks like it's this aftermarket distributor....


I also remeasured 3/4 of the sparkplugs with the same light measurement from my post. One looks like it is missing some sparks, but they seem to be better timed than the first videos at least?

I hear the engine trying to crank at somewhat different speeds though. Maybe you notice it sounds like it's going faster a bit? Is it the distributor that could cause it to go faster or would it be something else?

Sparkplug 4 attempt 2:


Sparkplug 3 attempt 2:


Sparkplug 2 attempt 2:


I really have no clue if I'm onto something with the distributor or if I'm not even close?

 

Looks like you have a spark issue.

I'd say this is not a distributor sensor issue, because you currently have no codes.

Also, does your car have an external coil? I think it does based on your distributor cap.

I see oil on the distributor cap in your picture. Is there oil inside you distributor or a possible leak outside? This is likely not the starting issue.

 

I noticed oil on the inside too. There is a bit of oil under the car and the oil is low. It may have had an oil leak for a while, I'm not really sure. I just recently got the car.

But yeah, I'm not sure why there is oil in the distributor. It was missing one screw so it might've leaked in from a leak somewhere else or spilled oil during an oil change. I don't really see oil around the distributor so I'm not sure how it got in.The oil looks very clean so I would guess it got in during a change or something? It's clear rather than black.

I'm not sure exactly where the inition coil is. I've seen pictures of some cars where each spark plug cable has it's own coil right where it plugs into the engine. Mine is not like that. I think it's in the distributor but I might be wrong? I have little experience with this stuff.

 

For the oil leak, there is an o-ring that seals the distributor to the cylinder head. That would leak from the bottom of the distributor and might get on the outside of the distributor. Just wipe everything down and inspect once you get the car running. You can wipe it down and spray something like athlete's foot powder to try to locate leaks.

As for the coil. Your car has one coil and a distributor. Look at the spark plug wires from the distributor cap. 4 of the spark plug wires will go from the cap to each cylinder. If you have a 5th wire, then it should go from the center of the distributor cap to the coil. If you only have 4 spark plug wires, then the coil is inside of the distributor.

Newer accords after 2002 or maybe after 2000 have coil over plug.

 

It would have to be after 2000, because my wife's 2000 Accord has a distributor and regular plug wires. I believe the V6 cars went to COP (coil on plug) first, in 2000.
My first thought though was it might have jumped 1 tooth on the timing belt. I know when my 99 had skipped a couple of teeth, it barely ran.

 

Yeah, my 2002 4 cylinder accord has a distributor and normal plug wires. No COP.

I have also been thinking that some of the symptoms of my car could be a timing belt issue. I watched a video on how to work on the timing belt on this car but it's pretty difficult. I ordered a new cheap distributor that I can return if it doesn't fix the problem. If it still doesn't start I think next step is to check the timing belt. I've just never worked on one so I'm hoping that's not the issue.

The reason I thought it's not the timing belt is because it just would not start after parking it for a few hours. I would think if the timing belt jumped it probably would've stalled out before I got home? But if the distributor is bad then maybe the sparks are off enough to cause it to not start, but they were close enough to keep the engine running? I'm really not sure.

The last few things I have to look at are measuring compression, measuring pressure in the fuel line, and the timing belt. They're just all kind of beyond my mechanical skills so I'm putting off doing them. I thought maybe I figured out it was the distributor from the tests above, but I might be wrong. Maybe it's the timing belt?

 

If your distributor cap has a 5th wire, it will lead you to the ignition coil. I was going to suggest putting your spark tester at the coil to start working backwards through the system. I though you may be able to plug that tester between the cap and the spark plug wire that goes to the coil.

 

If it's anything like my 99 or 00 Accords I have here, the coil is under the cap. My old 97 Accord had a separate coil, but it was also a non-VTEC car. Could it be the igniter PA?

 

Im pretty sure that the coil is part of the distributor because when I bought my new distributor on the internet it said the coil was part of it.... Might be a poor translation or misunderstanding of a merchant who doesn't have a good understanding of what they're selling though.

What is the igniter PA?