Rep Power: 0

Have a 1990 civic wagon, last night after starting it started jerking a little while running. After getting on the freeway it began to cut out and you could watch the tach go to zero then back up again. it finally died and coasted off the freeway. I was able to restart it and got it in a parking lot, after that it would not start. am going to check to see if it has spark but if it does where would be a good place to start. also if it doesn't have spark where would be a good place to start also. Car will turn over . Thanks

 
Rep Power: 519

Tach dropping would kinda make me want to check for spark (spark, coil, signals to the coil, etc.) and suspect the igniter may have failed.

 
Rep Power: 0

went to the car today with a spark tester, thought I'd try to see if it would crank over first and it started right up. got out and let it idle after a few min. it died then I put on the spark tested and no spark to the plugs. have to charge up the battery for further testing but will check the cap next then the coil.

 
Rep Power: 229

I'm calling alternator/battery, on this one.

Jump it, if it starts hook up a multimeter/voltmeter if you do not see 12.5-14.5 volts while the car is running, your alternator is cooked.


If it will not jump, swap in a known good battery and try to start it, then test alternator as well.

 
Rep Power: 0

Take off the distributor cap and make sure all the spade connections are properly connected on the coil. They can look alright but still just be touching. I know because I replaced the original, worn out cap with a third party cap and the coil. This caused problems before I bought and installed a new cap and coil. When I cleaned coil #2, I found one set of male and female connections were not having dex; he was just rubbing it against her leg.