Questions and Answers

Acura Integra Dies On The Road Q. My wife's 1993 Acura Integra with 160,000 miles will occasionally seem to stall when the car is going down the highway for no apparent reason and with no apparent warning. I will lose power for a few seconds and the tachometer will bounce around and then everything is fine. Today, for the first time, it stalled completely at around 30 mph.

I put it in neutral and started it back up. Otherwise, everything seems fine. Two other things I noticed is that the engine temperature gauge doesn't seem to rise at all even after the car has been on for an hour and there is some oil collecting around the top part of the engine.

I recently had a buddy remove the resistor to the heater motor blower motor because it had burnt out and I could not defrost the car. Now, I only have "high" for a fan setting because the resistor is gone. Could this have anything to do with the engine stalling?

Thanks in advance for your help and keep up the great work at your site!

Dan
East Boston, MA

A. There are two things that would cause the tachometer to become erratic, a bad Ignition Control Module (ICM) and a bad alternator. Since the stalling coincides with the erratic tachometer, my money is on the ICM. ICM's are good for dying when they get hot and start working when they cool off.

If it is only the temperature gauge not working here is how to test it.

1. Ensure ignition switch is in Off position, then disconnect yellow/green wire from coolant temperature sending unit and ground it with a jumper wire, Fig. 1.
2. Turn ignition switch On.
3. Ensure pointer of coolant temperature gauge starts moving toward H mark.Turn ignition switch Off before pointer reaches H mark on gauge dial. Failure to do so may damage gauge .
4. If pointer of gauge does not swing, check the following:
   1. Blown fuse in under dash fuse/relay box.
   2. Open in yellow/green wire or red wire.
   3. If fuse and wiring are satisfactory, replace coolant temperature gauge.

5. If gauge is satisfactory, replace sending unit.

The blower motor resistor would not be related to the stalling. But I would replace it as soon as you can since with it missing, it leaves a big hole in the air duct.

Figure 1