Ok im new here, but not to other fourms and not to honda's or any other cars. but i have a question i need help with, like it says up top im working on a b16a2 civic si, now i did alot of custom work on the car but i didnt do the engine swap and the person who did, didnt do it very well so alot of stuff on the engine isnt done right or even plugged in, but this isnt about all that, this is about the distributor so lets get to it. The distributor is getting power from the wiring harness, however there isnt no power getting to the control module but on one wire and its reading 0.1 volts on a voltmeter when the ignition is turned over and the car is trying to start, also there is no power getting to the ignition coil or the spark plugs, now my question is how can i test the TDC sensor in the distributor and can that be what is wrong with the car, i also tested on of the wires coming from it to the module and no power came from it, also if that is what is wrong can i replace that part or do i have to swap the whole distributor, if this was a german car i would know everything about it as most of the cars i work on are ether porsches or BMWs. Thanks for any help.

 

You need to have power to the coil to make the sparks fire. Both terminals of the coil should measure 12 volts to ground with the key on. The power lead to the distributor tees inside and powers both the coil and the module.

The ECU reads the 3 sensors in the distributor to synchronize itself with the engine. The sensors are reluctance technology as is typical of most cars from the 70's through the 90's. The sensor coils have a resistance of about 350 ohms IIRC. All three should be close to the same resistance and be open circuit from the sensor wires to ground. You can also unplug the ECU and measure the sensor resistance at that end, this will test all the way through the harness and distributor.

The ECU returns a properly-timed low-level pulse on a separate wire to the ICM (module inside the distributor) to fire each spark. The ICM amplifies this pulse and uses it to drive the minus terminal of the ignition coil primary to ground momentarily and then release it to generate a spark from the secondary.

 

yeah that was the first thing i looked at when i tested and got no spark, but like i said there is power coming off the harness just not going to the modules or the coil, i tested all the leads with someone trying to start the car each time, also on another note the vtec will not kick in at all, and those leads are testing no power at 4500 to 5k RPM and that is when it should kick in from what i know about the set up. But like i said first there is power going to the TDC sensor just not out of it to the ignition module like it should, is there a way to test that unit to see if the distributor needs to be replaced

 

Hey, few months back I purchased a 1999 Honda CIVIC LX and had problem with engine. I view online for solution but didn't find.

 

yeah i havnt gotten any help on this, i think its the distributor, it seams that a wire inside the unit came loss and arked it self inside the unit and fried the TD sensor in the distributor, thats the only thing i can think could be wrong, i looked at all the fuseses and relays and they all look good and as there is power going to the unit then it couldnt be one of them, also another thing that leads me to thinking its the unit is the owner said the car was getting very bad millage and not running right.