Ignition coil questions

[lx 1986]

Has anyone bought an ignition coil made by import direct, delphi or standard motor products.

Which one is the best out of these 3 brands?
Do you know if any of them is made in China?
Has anyone used the Delphi brand, if so what do you think of it?

I'm replacing my 2nd BWD that's made in Japan that I bought from Advance Auto. I was going to get it replaced under the warranty but they no longer carry it. I heard Standard bought out BWD sometime ago. The 1st BWD I bought years ago lasted for several years. The one I'm replacing is about 1yr old. It was leaking oil. I made the mistake of testing it on the car and the results said coil was good. When I removed it to test it again that's when I found the pool of oil under it. It cracked right where I couldn't see the leak because of the guard it sits on. Any thoughts or advice would be helpful

86 Honda accord lx, auto, 2.0L 2bbl carb.

[Oldblueaccord]

Ignition Coil Resistance

This is for the EFI coils:

The new Standard auto ones I have checked are incorrect. I would assume the other Standard brands are incorrect as well.

I dont think I have bought on in the last 7 years.

[lx 1986]

Oldblueaccord

So what your saying is standard is not a good brand for the coil. The 1st one I bought the BWD brand was still it's own company Maybe that's why it lasted for several years. I was surprise this one took a dump so soon.

Do you know anything about Delphi or Import Direct brands? Import Direct is Oreillys brand. I don't know how good their parts are.

[Oldblueaccord]

I have had pretty good luck with Oreillys branded stuff last couple of years. Delphi I have no idea really.

What ever you get I would just check the coil reads close to what the book spec is over all at room temp.

The OHMS I have gotten on those Standard coils made me think "this coil will overheat" and reading what you wrote about all the oil leaking out makes sense to me.

Wells was a company I remember from a while back but I havent seen there products in a while.

[lx 1986]

Oldblueaccord

Thanks for the help again. I'll take everything you said into consideration.

[Dr_Snooz]

I've also had good luck with O'Reilly's parts. In fact, I use them over Rock Auto now.

[lx 1986]

Thanks Dr_Snooze for your input. I decided to go with the Delphi only because I got a good deal on it. It will arrive tomorrow. I never used this brand of coil before so I'll let you guys know how it goes. I can always return it and get my money back. I'm not to crazy about rockauto's stuff anymore either. So if the Delphi doesn't work I'll try Oreillys coil.

Thanks to you and Oldblueaccord

[lx 1986]

I did put the Delphi coil on thinking this was my crank no start problem but it wasn't. I also checked my igniter on the dizzy. The igniter had what looked like vegetable oil on it. I don't know where it came from but it was on the side of the igniter that's against the dizzy. Couldn't be my oil it's dirty and the only thing that's close to it is the thermostat housing and it's not leaking. Cleaned the igniter and the car started yesterday. Today started the car this morning and I was so happy it started. I decided to change the oil and did and now the car will not start again. Any suggestions?

[ShiRen]

The distributor seal is probably leaking, there is a write up on how to rebuild the TEC unit, but imo the Hitachi is a better and more reliable design if you are considering a new one.

[lx 1986]

I have a question about the voltage on the pickup coil when they say test readings should be battery voltage do they mean 12v or the actual voltage of my battery.

Example: Battery voltage 12.83
Pick up coil reading 12.27

I did pulled the cap and rotor to see if dizzy was leaking and didn't see anything. I think if it was oil it would be black . I needed to change oil it was way past due but haven't been able to get the car to start consistently like what happened yesterday. My igniter is external.

[Oldblueaccord]

No battery voltage is what your battery reads right at the terminals. The "voltage drop" you see is pretty normal under 1 VDC at the coil.

[lx 1986]

Oldblueaccord

Thanks for clarifying that for me. So anything around 11-12v depending on what I'm testing is alright, is what your saying?

[Oldblueaccord]

yes.

[ShiRen]

If its dropping to 11 something volts on a fully charged battery I would start to worry about the condition of your wiring, however, as long as the grounds are good that is good enough to work usually

[lx 1986]

I was going to check ground wires but can't do it today It's raining

[Dr_Snooz]

The igniter had what looked like vegetable oil on it. I don't know where it came from but it was on the side of the igniter that's against the dizzy.

That's dielectric grease and it needs to be on there.

For the no-start condition, are you getting fuel and spark?

[lx 1986]

Added a ground wire from the negative post on the battery to body & changed that small ground that runs from the valve cover to the body to a larger battery size one. Also ran some tests on the igniter unit & igniter itself. Can someone tell me if my readings are good.

IGNITER UNIT TEST From 89 Accord manual pg 24-9
Battery voltage at start of tests: 12.78

TEST #2
Bu 1 wire to body ground with ignition ON
RESULTS: 12.28v

BLk/Y wire to body ground with ignition ON
RESULTS: 12.28v

(Book says there should be battery voltage)

TEST #3
G and Bu 2 measure resistance between terminals on pick up coil.
RESULTS: 510 ohms.

(Book says Resistance: Approx.750 ohms)
(My meter set at 2000 ohms)

IGNITER TEST

TEST #4
Check for continuity in both directions between A and B terminals on the igniter output.

Postive probe on A and negative on B
RESULTS: continuity

Positive on B and negative on A
RESULTS: 13.54-18.70

(Book says continuity should be only one direction)

TEST #5
Connect positive probe to D terminal and negative probe to igniter unit ground.
RESULTS: 00.2

(Book says Igniter input Resistance 50,000 ohms)
(My meter set at 200k ohms)

Dr_Snooz

Since I took the igniter off to do the test I noticed that it looked slightly wet again. Is the grease made with some kind of oil? I know the grease is suppose to be there but it looks like the oil is coming from the grease. Does this grease melt because what I'm seeing is something that looks like light weight Wesson cooking oil. The only other place anything could leak from is the igniter itself. The igniter and that piece of junk dizzy are still under warranty. I just bought that dizzy less than a year ago to replace the same brand that took a dump right after the warranty ran out. I would have bought another brand but that's the only one that works on my car.

[ShiRen]

Looks like the igniter is shorted from pin D. Turn the meter to a lower reading, idk how many digits your meter shows so not 100% sure how many ohms .2 is, my guess is 20. All the other tests are fine if you were wondering.

[lx 1986]

ShiRen

My meter starts at 200, 2000, 20k, 200k and 2000k is the highest setting for OHMS.
Turned meter down to 20k and specs were flashing off and on with different numbers no steady read.

So my dizzy is Ok, so I'll eliminate that as the problem.

[Oldblueaccord]

The igniter ground test reminds me I think there is a small ground strap from the igniter body to the distributor housing on the tec distributors. Make sure yours has one or make one. The ground is very important on transistorized ignition systems since the sink(switch) to ground.

[lx 1986]

Oldblueaccord

Your right there is a ground wire to the igniter.
It's part of the wire harness that goes from the dizzy to the ignition coil. At the end where the ignition coil is, it branches off and has 2 connectors. The big white connector goes to the ignition coil and the ground is connected to a small device next to the ignition coil. I believe it's has something to do with static in the radio. I don't know what it's called. It's attached to bracket that holds the ignition coil and the bracket is attach to the body of the car. I checked it and it's grounded. It's getting battery voltage 12.77 same as battery at the igniter.

[lx 1986]

This is another igniter I have can someone tell me if my readings are good on this one? If this one is good I'll use as temporary replacement.


WAI IGNITER

Continuity should be in one direction on the igniter output

TEST #4
postive probe on A and negative probe on B
Result: 1

negative probe on B and postive probe on A
Result: 13-16

TEST #5
Connect positive probe to D terminal and negative probe to igniter unit ground.
RESULTS: 23,000 ohms

(Book says Igniter input Resistance 50,000 ohms)
(My meter set at 200k ohms)

[Dr_Snooz]

Neither igniter is within spec, so they need to be replaced. Though I've never heard of an igniter on these cars failing and causing a no-start condition. They usually cause enough tach hop that you replace them before that.

Not sure on the cooking oil. Maybe the igniter is getting hot and liquifying the grease.

The dizzy itself is just a rotor that spins. It's pretty hard to mess that up. It does have 3 electronic parts though:

• The igniter, which you need to replace.
• The camshaft sensor, which almost never fails and throws a code when it does.
• The pickup coil which, again, almost never fails.

The manual has tests for all these parts and last l checked, they're all still available so you shouldn't have too much trouble getting it working.

I'll ask again though, have you done a basic no-start diagnosis and established that the car is getting fuel?

[ShiRen]

So, the tenths place in the 200k setting is the ten thousands place? That doesn't make sense to me, the hundred thousands place should be the left most digit, where I would assume the integer would be in the 2000k setting. Im just basing this off the fact that it shows 50ohms as 50 in the 200ohm setting, it moves the decimal over each time then it should read .5 for 50ohms, and if it was that way it couldn't read single digits or lower, which is absolutely crap if you ask me. Do yourself a favor and buy this meter New ANENG AN8002 Digital True RMS 6000 Counts Multimeter AC/DC Current Voltage Frequency Resistance Temperature Tester ℃/℉ bside avd06 voltage detector knopp k-60 tester k60 aemc high - - Amazon.com It is the only sub $50 true rms meter you will ever find, basically a fluke clone.

Even at 20k that igniter is out of spec. I wish this forum would see the light in the superior Hitachi distributor. These TEC units suck, and the replacement parts suck, I bet that ignitor came out of spec. I don't expect you to buy an ignitor for that reason though, I don't remember if you ever said you've watched for spark with a tester, or laid a plug on the valve cover, but if you don't have spark and you have power to the dizzy its gonna either be an ignition coil or a dizzy. You've replaced the coil, I wouldn't trust a reman coil as far as I could throw it either, I'd just put an Accel or MSD coil in it and be done, but I doubt its doa. I could see the pick up coil in the dizzy being bad, when my TEC died I am still not convinced it was the ignitor, but I had the tach jump. This is why I would write off the TEC.

Snooz, OP has an LX, so that dizzy is dumb as can be, just a pick up and an ignitor... its basically a fancy friggin points ignition and no codes to throw.

[lx 1986]

Dr_Snooz

Your right about tac hop that's why I replaced the igniter for all 3 of these WAI dizzys. Right out of the box brand new. All 3 had tac hop. So I bought one WVE brand igniter from Rock and have used the same one on all 3 dizzys and problem went away. The WVE brand is the one I have on there right now that I'm seeing the oil on it. It's still under warranty from Rock.

Yes it was getting fuel and spark after I changed the ignition coil. I waited about an hour to see if it would restart again just to make sure it would. I thought the coil was the problem so I could change my oil, so I did. After I changed the oil it wouldn't start again. So I thought no spark that's what lead me to check the igniter and pick up coil on the dizzy. Well ShiRen was saying pick up coil specs are good so I'm ruling out the dizzy. That leaves the igniter.

ShiRen
I had no choice but to buy a after market ignition coil. The one that was on there was made by BWD and was under warranty. I bought it from Advance Auto, but they no longer sell it, so warranty is no good anymore. So I bought Delphi brand. OEM was an BWD product. I replaced twice. 1st one lasted yrs. the 2nd one lasted less than a yr. Goes to show how inferior parts are made today as opposed to yrs ago. All coils are not reman they were all new.

As for the dizzy no one could give me info about whether or not the Hitachi was interchangeable with a motor with a tec dizzy that's why I went with the WAI from Rock because of the external igniter. I know the Hitachi has an internal igniter, but is it compatible with my motor.

TEST #5 for WAI igniter (book says Resistance 50,000) ohms I'm assuming they mean 50 thousand.

Meter set at 200k or 200,000 thousand reading is 23.0

Meter set at next higher setting 2000k gives me a reading of 023

Meter set at 20k that is setting right below 200k gives me flashing reading which I assume means cannot give a reading because it's set to low.