Questions and Answers

Acura Integra Eating Distributors? Q. 1988 Acura Integra 1.6 liter engine, automatic transmission and 228,000 miles. The last four years I have replaced the distributor on car three times. About once every 12 months. Now the car is doing the same thing again. It will start but as soon as I try to take off the engine will cut off and not start again for several hours.

After waiting a while the engine will then start. But still I can't drive. I have replaced the wires replaced the spark plugs. I am at a stand still could you please give me some advice on this problem. I don't smell any gas leakage. There is no whining from the fuel pump either so I don't think that is the problem. Any advice would be of help to me.

Thank you very much...

A. I guess I would have to see the distributor to see what's bad and then I can probably determine what is causing it to go bad. I'm wondering if you have an igniter problem, rather than a distributor problem. The igniters are replaceable without the distributor.

First check to see if there is an updated igniter inside the distributor. You will have to remove the distributor from the engine to check it. Then look at the igniter, if the igniter is black and embossed with OKI, it needs to be replaced. If the igniter is brown and embossed with NEC, it is an updated igniter and does not need replacement.

If the igniter is the updated one, then I would have Acura test it to be sure it's good before replacing it. That's about the best I can do for you at this point.