More VX woes.. this time stalling, lunging on acceleration and tach needle went crazy
 

ugh, more problems.. hopefully someone can shed some light... here goes..

I have a 92 honda civic vx, when im accellerating sometimes my tach will drop to zero quickly and the car will lose power but then jump right back up to where i was and it will lunge at that point.. its like the car loses power for just a split second. its really annoying and i don't know what to check

and now my car has completely shut off when slowing down twice. ill be coming down the mountain doing about 25 and it cut off once, where i had to pop the clutch just to get the car to start back up so my brakes would work right, and the other time was coasting into a stop sign, the car just shut off quietly and all the red lights on the dash came on but the radio and everythign stayed on, i tried just turning the ignition over at the stop sign, but the first time i cranked it, it started up but the second i hit the gas, it cut off. so i waited a minute and started it up again and it stayed running and allowed me to keep driving

for the last couple of weeks, before these above things started happening, the tach(its the factory tach) has been going nuts on me.. ill be driving along at about 2000 rpm then all the sudden the needle will start jumping around like a mad man and will eventually settle back into 2000rpm for a while, then start jumping around all over again. i don't know if this has anythign to do with it or if its just maybe the tach is going out.. but i figured i'd throw that out there

anyone have any ideas on wtf is going on?

thanks

nick

Sounds like a "development" of the previous problem you posted about in this link: possible vx problem..

Regarding the tach, it sounds to me like you have some bad grounds in your engine bay, or your distributer is going bad. The factory tach gets its signal from the distributer, and when something goes bad or is going bad inside of it, it generally does that sort of thing to the tach. Check to make sure all your connections at the distributer are clean and tight and that there are no melted wires near it.

The stalling issue is something I had to deal with too when I first bought my car. I did a full tune-up on it, and nothing seemed to fix it. I would try TB cleaner to fix it.

Two things I'm aware of that will cause a bouncing/chaotic tach - a car that's running on a battery that's very nearly dead (only happens when the alternator dies) and a failing ignitor unit in the distributor. I'm basing my experience on CRXs, but the '92-95 Civic design is nearly identical.
The failing ignitor unit would explain the loss of power as well. The ignitor basicly does the grunt work of switching power on and off to the ignition coil. If it stops switching, the ignition system stops firing... No spark, no power.

how do i check the distributor? i replaced the cap/rotor when i tuned it up in december

The ignitor unit can be replaced separately from the rest of the distributor... It just unplugs and unscrews from the housing. Take the cap and rotor off, and look toward the bottom of the distributor housing. You should see the top of it sticking out with 4 wires connected to it.
The only testing that the FSM provides is an input test. That is, you check that all the wires connected to the ignitor unit are doing what they're supposed to. If everything checks out, you replace the ignitor unit.

Make a note of which wires go where and disconnect all four ignitor unit wires.
Blk/Yel wire: Ignition switched power - Should have battery voltage when the ignition is switched on.
Wht/Blu wire: Ignition coil negative terminal - Should have battery voltage when the ignition is switched on. Don't use a test light on this one, only a multimeter.
Yel/Grn wire: ECU ignition signal - Runs between the ignitor unit and ECU pins A21 and A22 (wires will be red/grn at the ECU).
Blu wire: Tach signal - runs between the ignitor unit and gauge cluster.

I'm going with Bobski on the ignitor...it has always been the cause for a neurotic tachometer and sporadic power loss. Always done the trick for me and it pretty easy to replace. the worst part is getting the two screws loose that hold it in.

my town only has an autozone and they don't know what i'm talking about.. is there another name for it?

This article from Team-Integra.net tells you how to toubleshoot a distributer. It's written for an Integra, but they should be pretty similar. As stated earlier, the tach signal comes from the ignitor, and while it's possible to have an erratic tach signal and still have the car run OK, considering your symptoms, I'd say there's something wrong with your ignition.


https://www.team-integra.net/sections...ArticleID=1112

Looking through the autozone website, they have it listed under "Control Module-Ignition" for $65 and $98.
If you're willing to wait for it, you can get a brand new OE part from Majestic Honda for $73.05 + S&H. They claim the list price (what you would pay if you went to your local dealer) is about $104.37... Just so you know if you're getting ripped off.

maybe simpler solution...

FOR SALE:

Honda engine with 100K miles. Runs great. Needs new Distributor and hoses which were removed when I swapped in my new engine. $150

Date: 2007-09-18, 3:20PM CDT
Location: Duluth, MN

i only have 110k on my car.. an engine is a little extreme haha im gonna check the ignitor today, i found the section in the service man. about checking and replacing

Different car, but my wife's '99 Acura was doing the same thing.

It wound up being the ignition switch, it had an electrical short in it.
Found out by jiggling it slightly and the dash would go dead and then come back.

Hope this helps.

What's up with these, Majestic shows $153.30 + S&H for a 94 VX. I had to track down a part # thru San Leandro to even find it. Why the big price diff?

Dunno... I was looking at the '92 VX page.
They list the same distributor model for all VXs - TD-42U... But for some reason they have a different ignitor part number and price for '92-93 and '94-95.

I heard that some of the older Accords did this (jumpy tach) and in their case it usually turned out to be a bad ignition coil.

Jumpy tach and loss of power is almost always the ignitor. I've also been able to swap pretty much any 88+ honda ignitor with any other 88+ honda ignitor, might require some grinding of the ignitor to get it to fit in the distributor housing, but it works. =)

For those who really want to know how a Honda ignition works, check out this article.

https://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/ignit...ion/index.html

well.. i started the car this morning and had a bad squeal/squeek coming from the distributor area.. lucky thing i heard this on my way to the parts store and not after.. because turns out my distributor has apparenly been crapping out on me slowly but surely, had i of known the tach insanity was a sign.. i couldve avoided all of this.. but i bought a new distributor today, and when i took the old one off and compared it to the new one.. the old one grinds horribly when you spin it, and on top of that it would catch every couple of spins and you'd have to force it to get it to keep spinning... im guessing that could've had SOMETHING to do with my issues haha.. well once i got the new dizzy in and adjusted the timing(as close as i could..) i took it for a spin, now the "lean" doesn't kick so hard and its actually smoother accelerating.. im hoping this may help my low MPG issues slightly... thanks for everyones help!

Sounds like the bearings were on their way out. I've had one distributor personally do that on my hondas.

I bought an accord once that had a snapped timing belt due to the distributer siezing and cracking the entire distributor. Car was great for me, though I'm amazed it survived the ordeal.

Glad to hear your issue is resolved.

I've read about bad bearings producing enough heat from friction to melt the rotor. I bought a D16A6 several years ago with a seized distributor bearing. I got it at core price because the salvage yard thought the whole motor was seized. I bought a replacement distributor, but actually managed to drill out the screws in the distributor housing and replace that bearing, giving me a spare.