General engine questions/issues that aren't specific to the other categories
By Crowie27
#297554 Hi, your thoughts would be much appreciated on the following....

My eg civic, 1.5l SOHC was having an intermittent spark issue that pointed to distributor problems. Without buying a complete new distributor (as the one in it was only 2 years old and this upset me a little), I did a self diagnosis and this pointed to the coil. New coil in....still the same problem - The car would run for 5-10 sec and cut out without warning - no spark found. The car has sat untouched for the last week and I had forgotten that the distributor cap was not bolted on and I tried to start it and it went just fine, drove it round the block and back home, lifted the bonnet, saw the distributor cap wasnt on correctly, pushed it on flush and the engine shut off.

The car will start and run just fine with a gap of about 5mm between distributor cap and the housing it rests on. I have cleaned the contacts and the rotar and given them a light sand but this changed nothing. What else could it be? and what should I replace? :?
Last edited by Crowie27 on Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
By bks84
#297562 id try a different cap?
By Crowie27
#297791 new cap, all is well. Thanks