HELP - 85 SI prelude died in the street!

[jonwz]

Just two blocks from my house the prelude just died - seemed like it lost ignition. Will turn over but no spark. First time in 22 years that it let me down unexpectedly, fortunately I was able to roll it into a friendly driveway.

What is the likely cause and how to test? The electrical troubleshooting guide shows simple wires from ignition to coil, then coil to something called the ignitor.

Is there a simple way to test the coil on a fuel injected 85 (si) prelude?

How about this "ignitor" solid state thing?

Appreciate any advice - thanks in advance - Jon

[Drew]

are you sure there's no spark?? a lot of people always assume because their car died it didn't get a spark. check your plugs, wires, cap, rotor.... make sure they are in good shape and you don't have excessive corrosion. check the condition of the plugs. they can tell you a lot of things. depending on what they look like it will tell you if maybe your injectors weren't flowing enough, like if they were clogged. um, while the car was running did the battery light come on at all? if so, your alternator may have took a ****. um, to check if you're getting a spark. pull one of the plugs. put the plug in the wire. set it on something thats a good solid ground. turn the key and see if you get a spark. if so then most likely its fuel related. possibly a pump. i would start with the fuse. make sure that's not blown. most cars when you turn the car on you can hear the pump start up. its a very low humming noise. if you don't get that then its the pump or pump circuit... hope this helps.

[jonwz]

Thanks for the tips. The first thing I did was remove the coil to distributor wire to see if I could get a spark when cranking the engine - no luck.

I also posted over on "prelude power", and the consensus there is that it's likely a fried timing belt - will check that tomorrow.

[thomas97]

i think you would have heard a snap or something if your belt broke perhaps?

[Drew]

Thanks for the tips. The first thing I did was remove the coil to distributor wire to see if I could get a spark when cranking the engine - no luck. in order to do this though, you need to make sure it can jump to a ground. if its to much distance to any ground, it wont make the jump. and you just wont see a spark even though it could still be working.

as for the timing belt. its quite possible.. i didn't even think about that. you really wont hear a snap when it breaks. if thats the case though. best of luck. hope you didnt damage the head in any way.

[jonwz]

Well, the timing belt looks fine.... But the simple service manual ignition coil test shows the primary side shorted out rather than the required 1.2 to 1.4k ohms.

I'm crossing my fingers, hoping it is the coil and not an incorrect reading on my cheapo ohmmeter. I'll know this afternoon if the part comes into my local store.

[thomas97]

thats a relief for sure!
timing belt snap ftl!
you shoud take some pictures of this baby for us, 4 more posts and you will be able to post up! so get too it and use a site like photobucket.com to upload your pics and use the IMG code to post em up here!

[jonwz]

Thanks for the reply! It will be sweet relief if I hear that motor catch this afternoon!!!

Nothing special about my SI. It's almost identical to the one in the youtube commercial with Burgess Meredith as the voice-over. One thing that's nice; the 85 SI's didn't have that additional brake light on the rear shelf to clutter things up a bit. I am the original owner, and I've only put 140k miles on it.

But I'm still crossing my fingers until she starts....


Update: wasn't the coil. Gave up and towed it to a shop. Two days later they inform me the distributor base snapped off (so I need a replacement). I see remans. on the web for about 250. With any luck they will get me my car back tomorrow (Wednesday), but since I'm a non-regular customer (a DIY'er) they will probably let me twist in the wind for a few more days..... :(

thats a relief for sure!
timing belt snap ftl!
you shoud take some pictures of this baby for us, 4 more posts and you will be able to post up! so get too it and use a site like photobucket.com to upload your pics and use the IMG code to post em up here!