Hi All,

I am a lady who loves her '91 Accord Wagon. However, my baby has had a roughtime lately:

My car is cutting off while I am driving! I'll be riding along and she just loses power (lights still on). She will start right back up, though.Happens like every other day. Tech swore it was fuel pump and replaced it...still happened...replaced main relay...still happended. Yet another tech ran codes (1 long blink,5 short blinks) and said that I need a new ECU. Since the ECU's are pretty costly, I started looking online today, I see that thecode is "ignition output signal" and read that it is very rare that the ECU goes bad! Distributor was replaced back in August, so this should not be the problem. So, before I get yet another part that I do not need, what do you guys think? I have new distributor, main relay and fuel pump/filter. What else ya got? Could it be my wiring or ignition? I had a used alternator put on about a year ago....Please help!

 

I am no expert, but I like to think I know a little.
Have any of the techs that looked at the car mentioned the ignition? I doubt it is the ECU. Does the car sputter like it is running out of gas? or does it abruptly cut off with no warning? if it abruptly cuts off, it could be something in the ignition. if it was a lack of fuel issue, the car would likely sputter like it was running out of gas.
The main relay would likely not cause it to turn off while driving. it would cause a no-start. Is it a Honda tech that is looking at it? First things first, I would start looking for another shop. Preferably a Honda Certified one.

 

She doesn't sputter...just loses power abruptly, with no warning, and I kinda coast over to the side of the road until I can get her started again. I do agree with you...I need to find a new shop. I thought I was saving money, but ended up spending more in the long run on unnecessary replacement parts. Are the honda certified shops normally expensive?

 

No. I found mine in the Yellow pages. They will likely charge about the same rates other "do it all" shops charge, only they actually know what they are doing and won't replace parts out of ignorance to the actual problem.
Dealership service departmentscan do the same thing, however they are going to be a lot more expensive.

 

I looked at what code 15, and it is definitely an ignition problem. Its either the ignition switch, ignition control module, coil, or the wiring.

Do you have the old distributor parts around? You could try to install the original ICM/coil (if they were still working when replaced) and see if that solves the problem.

As for finding a shop, you will just have to shop around. Replacing the ICM or the coil is a pretty quick job, so you will probably spend more money on parts than labor. The ignition switch is a little bit more work. You might want to call a local dealership and find out their rates to diagnose a problem and find out their hourly labor rate.

 

sounds like a coil to me

EDIT:

Did you have to pay for the pump and MFR??? Please have the coil tested prior to any more replacements. It's a 15 minute test. Also, as mentioned the ignition switch electrical portion may be at fault. Please review the TSB's and recalls for your car ..... the ignition switch seems to be common and has been recalled on a few models.

EDIT EDIT: I'm not an expert either.

 

I'm definitely no expert on auto electrics (hate them actually!), but it could be what Honda calls the 'igniter', which may be what some other are calling the 'coil' (?). It lives inside the distributor and does something magical that allows the spark to happen ('magical'?, well I did say I'mno expert on this!). When it dies it can lead to intermittent ingnition cut outs. If you had a new distributor then you probably have a new igniter inside, unless they just changed some parts of the distributor (unlikely I'd think but strange things happen in some workshops).

Igniters can be damaged by excessive resistance in the high tension circuit (i.e. distributor rotor / cap, ignition leads, plugs), the resistance causing them to run too hot. Oldleads are likely to have developed higher resistance over time and more likely to have high resistance than anything else, so can wreck a new igniter quite quickly (been there). If it turns out that the igniter is your problem, then have the leads checked for correct resistance before you drive on the new igniter, if they're not up to scratch have them replaced or you may be back to the workshop in the near future. This may well be the reason your new igniter died quickly (if you have a new igniter), and may be why someone diagnosed a faulty distributor in the first place??

At any rate igniters are not real cheap but not real expensive either (as these things can go!), and the better news is labour costs should be reasonable because they're not hard or time consuming to replace. If the distibutor cap / rotor etc are also quite old it wouldn't hurt to replace them too, and the plugs if they've been in too long.

 

@ JohnL: usually they just replace the distributor cap, not the entire distributor assembly, so it most likely has the old coil in there.
are you in europe? i think coils are called igniters there...

my vote is to the coil as well.

Did you have bosch plugs in there? they have a tendency to fry honda ign coils.

 

Igniter is King's English for ignition module!
Actually I've heardthem called "igniter" quite a bit in the US too.

 

The igniter (ignition control moduel aka ICM) is just a switch that charges the coil. It is constantly turning on and off. The coil is what stores the charge and releases the spark when the ignitor switches off.

I think that the coil is outside of the distributor in the lx and dx (only the EX models have the internal coil).