8 replies to this topic

[Screech]

I was sitting for about 15-20 minutes in the bank drive through not moving with the windows up and AC on. Water temp was good the whole time. The idle began to stumble and I killed the AC with didn't help and the car still stalled. I just opened the windows and sat there for another five-ten minutes waiting on the dealer. When done I attempted to start the car and it fails to start. I push the car to a parking spot, tried again and call the wife to get me and the baby when it still failed to start. Its 96 out with a head index > 100. I give it one more try a couple minutes after talking with the wife and the car fired right up and drove home fine.

Now what do you e-diagnostic folks think it is. I'm thinking it may be the ignition module in the distributor. Or the coil on the fire wall. I'm thinking it may be one of them since they are only cooled by air flow and in the drive through area it is fairly closest off and no real breeze. The fans on the radiator appear to be working as normal since the water temp didn't go above normal.

Oh yeah, this is my all original EW4 car, not the B20Z.

[Old School REX]

My money is on the ignition control module in the dizzy... Never had one go in the CRX, but my truck JUST had this exact problem a few months ago. Sounds exactly the same. Besides, they're cheap so why not try it?

[Rampage]

Main relays tend to fail when hot and will fail to restart the car (prime the fuel pump) until they cool down.

If you haven't already removed the main relay to touch up the solder joints on the circuit board, now is the time to do it!

[Screech]

I replaced the main relay last summer because of a "hot start" issue and the problem remained. By "hot start" I mean: If I had been driving awhile and stopped some place to run in for less than 5-10 minutes the car would not start when I was ready to leave, would have to wait longer. This is the first time it stalled on me though.

[Gabe87CRX]

2nding ICM.

[Screech]

I guess this weekend I'll pull the extra distributor apart and look into swapping that over. Need to look through the FSM if I'm suppose to replace and seals or such while replacing that.

[1985 CRX SI]

I guess this weekend I'll pull the extra distributor apart and look into swapping that over. Need to look through the FSM if I'm suppose to replace and seals or such while replacing that.

No need to take the distributor apart.

Jeff

[icebox187]

easy, test coil to eliminate.... with ohmeter resistance on primary terminals should be .4-1 ohms, secondary should be 6000-30000. you could also check resistance in your main relay, and ignition switch. resistance on the pick-up coil should be 500-1500 ohms.

and lastly, straight from Modern Automotive Technology by James E. Duffy

Quite often an ignition control module problem will show up after a period of engine operation. Engine heat will soak into the module, raising its temperature. The heat will upset the operation of the electronic components in the unit (i assume this would be the transmitter) see the vehicle service manual for testing.

the numbers i used for resistance are general, consult the fsm for specifics if you have it, but these are the general rules we go by

[greasemonkeyreborne 5x1g's]

My beater crx si had been giving me intermitten stalling problems from 170K to the current odometer reading of 204K (over the past 8yrss).

Now, mine would stall out or not start every now and then. Then it would start. So it never "Not" started long enough for me to figure out what the problem was (can't fix whats not broken). But it would always start right away, or i'd wait 10 min and she fire again.

So, I carried a wire w/ aligator clips and a paper clip w/ me. Also a new OEM main relay. I have replaced the ingition switch for another reason, so I knew it wasn't that.

Died on the highway one day. Plugged in the new relay. still not start. Then pulled a plug wire and used the aligator clip and paper clip to check for spark when I would crank the engine. Found she had spark. So I knew it was a fuel problem.

Come to find out that my fuel pump is the culprit. about every one in every 10-20 times I'd turn the ignition key, I couldn't head the pump prime. And my pump sounds really sick and weak when it does run.

Funny, b/c my car just died at the store an hour ago while shopping for the Gulf States meet. Waited 10 min andshe fired right up.

but I've noticed that when it would die, it would rev right up, then mur mur slower and slower until it died. So it fires b/c the fuel pressure was there, then when the pump stopped and the engine consumed the available fuel, it died.

So, this is my story of events. I took the route of letting the car talk to me rather than taking her apart and replacing components. It just wasn't a hard failure to kill me dead in my tracks. So I just played w/ it until I figured it out.

Now one of my 7 crx si's I got from a towing garage. The car died on the highway and left for abandonment. I bought it right up and did the spark test right off the bat. No spark, so I replaced the ICM on the dizzy from another working car and it fired right up. So the ICM does fail. My experience is only w/ one event and it was a hard failure. Unlike my fuel pump that keeps onpumping.

So, check for spark when the car is "dead", then it'll tell you what direction to look.