Hello everyone. I am new to the forum. I have a 1995 Civic lx 4 door sedan(1.5 Liter) with 195000 miles. I had it towed to the local mechanic about a week a ago because it died out when i was driving it and it would not start again. Mechanic said i need a new ICM(ignitor). He wanted $430 to replace it. Advance Auto Parts has them in stock for $100-$150. Is this simple enough for the average joe to do or would i be way in over my head. Don't want to junk it. Wanna keep it rockin. I did a search and could find nothing on how to install an ICM. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

i think you could replace it yourself.
just a few things to note is the distributors mounted location, the rotor button pointing direction and plug wire locations.
if im right it should be under the distributor cap and button..... might be easier to remove the whole distributor and pull it apart on a bench... just note where the button was facing, location of distributor.... and if you can after puting it all back together then have the engine timing checked........ cause most likely you wont get it perfectly lined back up.....

i havent done one myself but i have had the distibutor off before.... takes a bit of work..... but if ya got the time you can save yourself some cash.... lets face it what can ya realy mess up as long as you get the button and wires back in the right spot and ya dont have any extra parts should be all good...... just take your time...

hardest part should be geting the motor in the perfect spot to take out the rotor button bolt to pull the button off....

 

I replaced my own Igniter on my 2000 Civic Si. It's better if you don't remove the distributor because more likely it will NOT be on time anymore. Just remove the cap and rotor and you will see it right away. It's an EZ job to do.[&:]Good luck

 

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll give it a shot.

 

Just make some marking with a marker on the bolts of the distrubutor and where it bolts on the engine, so when you take it off, you can aligned back where it was (it has work everytime with me without ruining my timing[8D])

Also, be careful when taking out the ICM to not stripped the screws. Becaus when the ICM distributor burned on my new distrubotor[:'(], the damn screws where hella tight and since the screws are made out of bronze they easily stripped.

 

These two pictures also may help.

[IMG]local://upfiles/25538/6046BF0ACE71444CA6FD57AE0968C771.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/25538/AE10CF5C39714BCFA7F0FF487F95D995.jpg[/IMG]

 

so i replaced the ICM and it still wont start. Mechanic said the ICM was bad. Maybe i need to replace the coil as well? Any suggestions?

 

The coil is a likely suspect. Do you get any sparks at all? Try cranking with the cap off and see if you can get any spark to jump to a grounded wire held near the spring on the coil. A good system should spark at least 3/4 inch. If you do get sparks, but only with the wire real close, it's a bad coil.

Any codes in the ECU? I don't think a bad ICM or coil will set one but another problem might.

 

As an option, only if necessary, the picture describes a different coil test using a multimeter.

[IMG]local://upfiles/25538/263831E61BD347648664C97BA246A5C0.jpg[/IMG]

 

Ron J, the wiring for the ignitor on my car goes, acccording to the picture of the ignitor you have posted, starting clockwise and working your way up: green,yellow-green,black-yellow,green-yellow. I know it does not make much sense going back to green-yellow again for the last prong instead of white but it does. And that last wire(green-yellow) is too short to go anywhere else but on the last prong. I thought maybe i might have scewed up on the wiring but i don't know how. Any thoughts any one?