Errr... the SE-i broke down

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

[BEGIN RANT] Man what a weekend.... my sisters wedding was this last weekend, so my dad and I drove up here to central Illinois from south Florida in his SE-i, about a 1300 mile drive each way. Left down there on tuesday afternoon @ 4:45 pm and got up here by 8:30 pm wednesday night. Car did absolutely PERFECT on the way up here.... didn't give a single problem and ran like a dream. I was even suprised how well the auto tranny did going through the mountains and such... it performed flawlessly. Anyways, got up here, got through the weekend just fine, sunday afternoon I drive up to Chicago to see a friend and spend some more time with my mom (3 hr drive each way) and I was gonna come back later that night. Met up with my friend at a club up there, went to leave and start the car... click, click... click! Friggin battery is DEAD... I didn't leave any lights or anything on it was just dead, and the battery is only 6-7 months old. So some nice people in an Audi give me a jump start and it starts right up as always and running fine, so I figure it's not the alt just the battery, but it's 11:00 pm by now so I drive over to my moms house and stay the night so I can get the car checked out next day. Take it over the next day to make sure everything is charging properly and everything, it is and it was just the battery, so they put a new one in. Picked it up, started right up ran great, hang around for a few more hours then head back to central IL. Well about half way back between central IL and Chicago in the middle of nowhere I start feeling a misfire of sorts, starts small then gets worse and worse, so I pull over to the shoulder and it stalls. Try restarting and it barely restarts and runs like crap, won't stay running. After letting it sit for a bit it just cranked and wouldn't start at all. Long story short, we had it towed this morning to the Honda dealer 50 miles south of where it broke down at since the redneck at the shop locally "only works on american cars". I originally suspected either the coil, distributor, or ignitor, but without any of my testing equipment I have no way of being sure. Got a call from the dealer and it looks like it's the ignitor, but they won't have one until wed morning (keep in mind we were supposed to be heading back to south FL tues morning). Soooo, luckily it's nothing too major, but what a PITA!! I have a spare distributor and ignitor and everything, but it's all at home so it doesn't do much good :( Hopefully it'll be ready tomorrow so we can get on the road and get home. Now 2 days late getting back. Oh well... I guess as long as it gets us back. [/END RANT]

Ok I'm done. Sorry for the long rant.... I hate car problems!!

[mykwikcoupe]

so does the couner start over under the sig? Anyway its good it was just inconvienent. Things happen right. Mike

[smufguy]

damn jared? when you mean the ignitor, u mean the one under the metal cover of the distributor? im surprised it even went bad. Hmmmm maybe i should keep mine handy ;)

[Cheeseburger]

hopefully they will get ur car up and running, and u can get urself back home

[jigga225]

yah stuff happens man. but remember these cars are almost 2 decades old....I mean you made it half way through the country with no probs....

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

Well some good news.... cars fixed and up and running great! I ended up fixing it MYSELF! Car was at the Honda dealer for 2 days and the ignitor they originally thought it was did not fix it, so they said they tried everything they knew, they said straight up the distributor was working fine (<-- remember this comment), they were at a loss as to what was wrong, they said they called their hotline and were awaiting a response from them. After they gave us price quotes on multiple other parts, like an ECU ($900), and some conflicting stories between people we were really getting a fishy feeling about this place. So we just payed the guy what he had into it already (minus the ignitor that didn't fix it) and had it towed to my dads sisters house locally. I went to the junkyard and got what I thought it was from the very beginning..... distributor. Got one, in pretty damn good shape too, put it in and whaddya know, she fires right up first try and running great!! So there you have it.... 2 days with the 2nd best Honda tech in their shop (according to them) -vs- my immediate roadside diagnosis.... scary

So we're back up and running, and we're leaving to head back to S. FL early thurs morning, and should arrive down there friday evening sometime. Shouldn't have any more car problems hopefully! I doubt we will. Wish us luck! :)

[2drSE-i]

YOU SON OF A BITCH U FUCKED UP AN SE-i!!!!!!!!!!

nah j/k

cudve been worse, funny that the tech was a retard tho

[smufguy]

i wont go about to say that the techs at honda are retards or dont know what they are doing. we all know how hard this car is to diagnose if its not yours. Only cause its not an OBD and neither does it have a selfdiagnosis mode onboard except the codes on the ecu. I have friends work at Honda dealership and my mech was a honda tech supervisor for 8 years, and in his service, he has seen only like 5 or 6 3gs come into the dealership cause they were privately owned first owner cars. I see more 3gs in junkyards than parking lots of dealerships cause its a pain in the ass to fix these cars.

We have an upper hand than these guys cause we have a forum, thousands of people with problems post here and find solution here and also we, the rest, have the blessing of coming in contact with these and knowing the solutions or how to go about them.

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

WooHoo!! Well we made it home safely tonight.... after replacing that distributor the car ran like an absolute dream for each and every one of the 1298 miles home, even had the a/c cranking out 42 degrees the whole way up and back (and it was HOT out!!) and it never quit. Overall trip was a success. Even though the car had a little hiccup and it was quite frusterating, hey it's a 16 year old car so, it happens.

Oh well enough on that... now I'm just happy to finally be home. Now I can go ride my bike!! :rofl: