Honda Car Forum

I have a 95 civic the distributor keeps dying, the coils inside keep breaking. the car has new spark plugs, new grounding wires everywhere, new spark plug wires, everything is changed. but the distributor coils just keep dying. The car would run fine for a few hours or so, and then die, as in wont start anymore. could this be the timing? how can i solve this problem? THANKS SO MUCH !

no

Check the coil with an ohm meter to determine if they are actually dead or if it is something else. You should have 10,000 Ohms resistance between the big positive and the negative. There is a little can shaped thing with one wire coming off it called a 'rectifier'...try replacing that. Examine the coil closely to see how it failed...is there a break in the outside insulation? A burn mark? Does it smell burnt? If the distributor body is defective and causing the coils to short out, try replacing it with a used one. Its not the timing, but timing is important...you should check and make sure that the timing is correct anyway.

Somebody tried to make the original coil work better by bypassing the drop down resistor, and now when you put a new one in, it's getting too high a voltage and burning up.