da9 issues :( WARNING! TEXT-HEAVY.

ASSISTANCE Stock Engine-Bay Components
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Car: 1990 Integra GS
Trans: Auto
Miles: 91,xxx
Mods: GReddy Catback exhaust w/ hollowed cat; AEM Short Ram intake.
Known bads: EGR Valve/system and broken A/C compressor

Well, my da9 has been giving me issues for a long time, have really attributed most of it to the bad egr system and a possible vacuum leak.

First started the roaming idle. It began about 8-9 months ago. After driving my car about 15 miles, i drove into a parking spot and put it in park. The car revved up to 1500 and down to around 750, and repeated this until i tapped the accelerator pedal… Figured it was probably a vacuum leak or something quirky or whatever.

Its been giving me that problem for a while. I had a water pump blow out on me on the highway, got it fixed before the engine got too hot. Ran okay afterwards.
Eventually ran into an oil issue, where i was squirting alot of oil (was the oil pressure sender unit). I was lazy and let the shop take care of it (i was going to replace the oil pan gasket because thats where it looked like it was coming from). When i went to drive the car off from the shop, it felt like the car had ALOT of lost power. Idle issue got worse by far, and it just seemed to be running terribly. I asked the shop what the HECK they did, they told me that when they changed the valve cover gasket, the guy “Noticed my valves were loose” so he tightened them… It was running alright after they had it for another day, still with rough idle. So i decided to clean my IACV, and that helped a little. Still rough though.
I did a valve adjustment (0.006 - 0.007) because when i checked my valves they were ALL WAY OUT OF SPEC. After the valve adjustment, car seemed to run much better. I also replaced spark plugs (Bosch Coppers or something cheap).
Car has within the past 1-2 months started blowing a puff of smoke (white or blue, cant really tell) ONLY after it’s been idling for a few minutes, then i hit the gas.
Also, when putting the car into gear, the rpm’s dip VERY HARD, to below the 500 line. Has stalled out a few times due to this.
I removed the A/C belt because compressor is broken about 3 weeks ago.

The biggest problem started last week. I brought the car into school to do a vacuum test. Car gave me a steady 16" at idle, and wanted to idle perfect at school. Meh. I checked, could not find any evidence of vacuum leaks, which completely confused me.
That night was raining, and the car had stalled out 2 times (it hadn’t stalled out for a few months).

Teacher suggested it might be a clogged fuel filter. From reading here and t-i, i know that a rough idle could also be caused by this (or a bad pump).
Drove it home, no issues. Ran perfect. Went to a friends house for a few hours, then left to go home (less than 1mile drive). 3/4 of the way, the car felt like it misfired or just diddnt have gas. Was during a turn. Ran back normal for a few feet, then i tried to go WOT to see if it would happen again, it stumbled at about 3000 rpm. Driving down by my street on the last corner, i pressed the pedal in out of the turn and it starts to stall. I release pedal and it goes back semi-normal. I press gas in again, and it completely stalls out and dies. I coast to my parking spot and try to turn it over again. Difficulty starting, strange noises, and I tried to hit the gas a little bit to get it started. It starts up a bit, and then dies out. Car has not started up since.

The motor spins, but doesnt crank.
Today I tried spraying starter fluid in the throttle body during start. Nothing, not even a kick. Perhaps I was doing it wrong??
Did a compression test, dry only

  1. 175 2) 180 3) 175 4) 175

I am thinking it could be my distributor.

My question for you all after this extremely long and cumbersome rant,
A) Is there a better way to test the fuel system rather than spraying starter fluid into my intake? Or should I consider the results of my starter fluid test as conclusive?
A) What are the testing procedures for the distributor and ignition system (or where to get them)
B) Would a bad distributor explain the issues that have been plauging my car from the start? Or is this just an additional issue that has come along the way.
Can the distributor cause me to have bad idle for 8+ months??

I am so frustrated right now :frowning:
My initial plan was to get the filter + fuel pump and it should be good as new, but now this seems not the case :frowning:

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A1. A fuel pressure guage would be help but have your unhooked the return line and put in a bottle to see if your getting anything? I wouldnt say conclusive but does say a lot about the problem. even with good fuel pressure a faulty injector would cause your studering at 3000 rpm under WOT althought that would throw a CEL
A2. both the coil and ignigtor are testable. I sadly dont have a copy of my manual on the computer but im sure some one else around here would be happy to help you with that.
b. yes a fault ignigtor and/or coil would would cause problems similar to what your having. Distributor dont just fail, they usualy are problematic for months at a time so yes if in a 8 month span these have gotten worse. that is a good sign of a failing distributor…

Compression seems alright and ill bet your dipping/irattic idle and smoking are unrelated issues that will have to be delt with separately.

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Awesome. Yeah I have the FSM somewhere on a flash drive, couldnt find it. I’ll look again tomorrow and see. I appreciate the responses, I’ll look up the testing procedures for the coil and ignitor and see where that takes me.

I have not heard of the bottle on the return line trick. Would I put the bottle on the return line from the filter? A little googling is in order :slight_smile:

Thanks for the responses, I will post here after I check on the ignition system.

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As far as the misfire, I had something similar coming from one single bad spark wire that was corroded internally some how.

The hunting idle is a majro issue. There used to be an insanely detailed write-up on one of these honda sites. One thing that I’ve used that helps is spraying starter fluid on vacuum lines, if the idle kicks up, you know you have a leak in that line. I never understood why Honda’s were so touchy with vacuum leaks!

Good luck, I’m interested to see what the issue will be!

  • Brandon
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EF-Honda

FITV Adjustment

I have the link bookmakred at home but I’m at work right now. I can try to remember to add it tonight.

  • Brandon
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Thanks Axe!
Yeah, I sprayed Carb cleaner along all my vacuum lines, and I only got a result once. I did do a vacuum test and attempted to find out the condition, and surprisingly it was perfect on the vacuum tests… I was thinking possibly it is an intermittent vacuum leak or something crazy :frowning:

Thanks for the links I will check those out.

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:confused: My toolbox is not with me until sunday. I did test EVERY FUSE and relay, and they are all working. I tried putting a screwdriver in the plug wires and setting it close to the valve cover, no sparks during cranking… Not even a little. Will try it again, but the bolts on the distributor cap are stripped so checking the inside, coil, and switching is going to take a little time :frowning:

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[QUOTE=BLKACK1;2260631]b. yes a fault ignigtor and/or coil would would cause problems similar to what your having. Distributor dont just fail, they usualy are problematic for months at a time so yes if in a 8 month span these have gotten worse. that is a good sign of a failing distributor…

Compression seems alright and ill bet your dipping/irattic idle and smoking are unrelated issues that will have to be delt with separately.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like the distributor to me… at least with the mis firing… I just did a thorough cleaning of my upper and lower engine and transmission block over the weekend, and had a tiny bit of water get into the cap and rotor area. was having very similar misfiring issues. idle would be fine, but give it gas and sputter and die in gear… just like what you explained. The 2nd gen tegs are known for problematic coil systems according to edmunds. They will run fine when they are in good shape but when they give up the ghost they crap out badly. It was for this reason I went to a local pick and pull and got a spare to carry around with me LOL…

I would recommend pulling the ditributor cap off and check the points inside for corrosion and make sure the small bbrass blade on the rotor is clean and shiny not oxidized. Once you rule out rotor and cap points then you can assume it is something more involved.

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Alright, did the testing today.

Got the cap off, and the inside was quite dusty, but not oily. Left a black residue on my hand.
Inspected posts, seem OKAY. The main issue that stood out to me was the coil spring was INSIDE the rotor cap instead of coming out of the distributor.

I did a test anyways, I placed my test light to ground, and then put the probe up to the area where the coil should be, got a bit of spark. Tested the switching, got flashes so it’s good there.
Tried another spark test with good conductive wires, no spark.

It appears that the point where the coil connects to the distributor, it either broke off or corroded off. It has a white thick substance around where it should be connected, I’m assuming its cement or something to hold it on but I haven’t taken apart a distributor before so forgive me if im wrong.

The posts were fairly shiny, slightly oxidized. The rotor blade is nowhere near shiny.

My assumptions from this:

  1. The rotor has been oxidized for some time causing the constant misfiring
  2. The coil has somehow become disconnected, causing a no-spark condition.

Possible fixes:

  1. Replace distributor and cap with OEM.

Is there anything else that I can do to resolve my problem more cheaply? This car IS for sale, I would prefer to have it a reliable vehicle with no issues when I go to sell it, but if I can get away with replacing the coil unit and the rotor, I will do it in a heartbeat :slight_smile:

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[QUOTE=Recent;2261542]
It appears that the point where the coil connects to the distributor, it either broke off or corroded off. It has a white thick substance around where it should be connected, I’m assuming its cement or something to hold it on but I haven’t taken apart a distributor before so forgive me if im wrong.[/QUOTE]

Can you get a photo of the connection? The white, thick substance sounds like dielectric grease, which should be there (it increases the conductivity of the connection).

You may be able to get by with replacing just the coil, igniter, cap, and rotor, but if you can find a decent price on a new distributor that may end up being easier. Something to watch out for is that sometimes a coil can test fine when it’s cool, but will fail when it’s warm. So they can be difficult to diagnose.

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A: This spring and Contact point are in the CAP. Is this correct, or should this be in the coil?

B: I did not see this carbon point in the rotor or cap. I did see a small orange/brown disk-like material. Perhaps this is broken?

I figured that it was either a conductive grease or a cement to hold it in, but thinking about it it SHOULD BE the grease.
If replacing the Coil, Ignitor, Cap, and Rotor will end up pretty much fixing any distributor issues that I have, then why not?

Final question: Do I have to mess with timing if I am replacing the entire distributor? I would hope I can get away with just taking a picture and marking it, because I don’t have a timing light :frowning: I know I need one but meh…

Thanks :slight_smile:

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I’ve made the decision to completely replace the d1zzy (I know why it’s called a dyzzy now!).

Now, I can find decent distributors for cheap, but the main problems that I am encountering is that most, if not all, are for Manual Trans.
What the f*** is the difference?! I don’t believe that the transmission would cause a difference in the distributor??

Does anybody know if I could use a MANUAL TRANSMISSION DISTRIBUTOR in an AUTOMATIC CAR?
I have searched and searched all this morning, and I’ve come to the conclusion that you can use an Auto distributor in a m/t, but I want to know if it would work in reverse, and how I can make it work :slight_smile:

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I decided to grab the “correct” distributor. I bolted her up, and she fired right up no problem. FINALLY!.

Alot of the problems had stopped, but now I am experiencing similar issues.

First and Foremost!
TIMING! I attempted to set the timing to 18 btdc, and the timing light diddn’t seem to be in sync with the crank pulley.
I got it to "between 18 and 16, i believe, but I am still having the issue where the idle drops low. REALLY LOW. Like below the 500 mark occasionally. It has stalled out on me 1 time since the new distributor, but it seems to be sporadic.

I have already cleaned the IACV once, I suppose cleaning it again won’t hurt. I was also told that I could shove some compressed air into the coolant lines for the fitv and the iacv to flush out all the gunk which may or may not be causing fun issues. Also, a “mechanically inclined” friend of mine had attempted to set the idle with the screw on the throttle body, but when he turned it LITERALLY NOTHING HAPPENED. ???

My thoughts are to clean the IACV and force all the radiator gunk out, try to clean the fitv, and try and inspect for some electrical issues.
I know that my EGR causes some problems, but it shouldn’t touch my idle…