Hi,
I'm looking for an appropriate way to test my igniter unit. I found this online (Link) and was wondering if there was a similar approach with our cars (I have an 89 SI).
Little background, I've had off and on issues with hard starts, stalling, misfiring, and periods where I can't start the car. Everytime, the cause of this is no spark. Usually, I can replace something, and it will start working again for a period of time. For instance, I recently had a mechanic replace the intake manifold gasket, and he told me my coil was bad, causing the rough starts. He replaced it, it worked for a while, but now the problem is back. In the past I've gone through this cycle, and temporarily fixed the issue by changing the distributer cap a few times, changing the coil once or twice, etc. I think I'm just getting lucky (or unlucky) and have never found the true cause, which brings me to the igniter unit. I've worked through the troubleshooting steps in the manual. I've tested the ignition switch (good), current spark plug wires (good), and the current coil (good). I've also swapped out the ECU and haven't noticed any change. I notice that the igniter unit is getting power (I see battery voltage at the blue and blue/yellow wires in the diagram below when the key is in the start position).
The troubleshooting steps for the igniter, unfortunately, start with a code 15. My car is not throwing this code. The other problem is that you never check the igniter directly, just everything around it. If I go through everything in the tree (omitting the ECU checks since I don't have a ECU checker wire), I don't find any issue with anything else, indicating that the igniter is bad, but I haven't really checked it.
Does anyone know a good way of checking this unit directly? Or, does anyone know how best to check the signal from ECU? Should I be looking into sensors that may be able to interrupt the igniter signal, such as the crank/TDC sensors?
Sorry, it's a bit scatterbrain, but I'm kind of lost in wiring diagrams right now. Any suggestions are very appritiated.
![29510]( "29510")
![Image]()
I'm looking for an appropriate way to test my igniter unit. I found this online (Link) and was wondering if there was a similar approach with our cars (I have an 89 SI).
Little background, I've had off and on issues with hard starts, stalling, misfiring, and periods where I can't start the car. Everytime, the cause of this is no spark. Usually, I can replace something, and it will start working again for a period of time. For instance, I recently had a mechanic replace the intake manifold gasket, and he told me my coil was bad, causing the rough starts. He replaced it, it worked for a while, but now the problem is back. In the past I've gone through this cycle, and temporarily fixed the issue by changing the distributer cap a few times, changing the coil once or twice, etc. I think I'm just getting lucky (or unlucky) and have never found the true cause, which brings me to the igniter unit. I've worked through the troubleshooting steps in the manual. I've tested the ignition switch (good), current spark plug wires (good), and the current coil (good). I've also swapped out the ECU and haven't noticed any change. I notice that the igniter unit is getting power (I see battery voltage at the blue and blue/yellow wires in the diagram below when the key is in the start position).
The troubleshooting steps for the igniter, unfortunately, start with a code 15. My car is not throwing this code. The other problem is that you never check the igniter directly, just everything around it. If I go through everything in the tree (omitting the ECU checks since I don't have a ECU checker wire), I don't find any issue with anything else, indicating that the igniter is bad, but I haven't really checked it.
Does anyone know a good way of checking this unit directly? Or, does anyone know how best to check the signal from ECU? Should I be looking into sensors that may be able to interrupt the igniter signal, such as the crank/TDC sensors?
Sorry, it's a bit scatterbrain, but I'm kind of lost in wiring diagrams right now. Any suggestions are very appritiated.
