1997 Honda Accord EX stalled on street - ignitor and distrabutor problem

My car suddenly behaved strangly this week. It stalled when the speed
was low. And every time when the auto transmission changed gear, the
rotation of engin dropped sharply, then went up.

Yesterday, the car was totally down. I had it towed to a nearby
garage. I got a call today and was told the ignitor or module(are they
same?) and distrabutor hose(?house?)need to change. It will cost over
$800. I bought my car from a friend who left US after put 20,000 miles
on the car. The car was in my garage for a year before he finally
decided to sell it to me. It has only 40,000 miles on it.

Any expert here can help me to figure what's caused the problem? Does
the cost and fix make sense? Thanks a lot.

A poor owner who need to walk this whole weekend:-(

 

Is this a V6 or not? Is this a Honda specialist independent place or a
Honda dealer? The symptom you got is not impossible for a bad ignitor but
not really typical either - they usually go completely dead all of a
sudden. You need to ask:

1) Are they quoting parts prices based on Honda OEM parts? Check the parts
prices here: <www.hondaautomotiveparts.com>.

2) Why does the distributor housing need relaced? AFAIK your car came with
a Hitachi distributor and I don't *think* I've read here that there's been
problems with them.

For the V6, the distributor housing can be purchased separately ($281.58)
or with all its parts ($614.91) including ignitor. The ignitor is listed
at $200.25. You need to find out what they are actually proposing to buy
and replace and how much labor in hours is involved. Even if they use a
complete Honda OEM distributor and charge an hour for diagnosis, their cost
seems very high. If they are going to replace the distributor and ignitor
as parts, it's extortion.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

George and Sickend,

Thank you both for your replies. I was so busy last week to check
here. I finally got my car back yesterday. This is a very unpleasant
experience to me.

My car first stalled several times in front of red light when speed
dropped below 20 mph. And the rotation dropped to almost zero before
went up when changed gear. But the car could be re-started. I sent it
to Honda dealer first to have a routine maintanance. And it come back
better but the guy at dealer suggested me to change ignitor (or part
of it) for $330. Because the car ran ok that day ( very strange), I
drove it back home. Then it stalled and couldn't even start the second
day. I called AAA and the tow truck driver suggested me this auto shop
which I found out later belongs to the same owner of the tow trcuk
company.

It costs me $40 to diagnose the problem. Then it took two to three
days to get the parts from Honda. Then they called me said they lost
my car key! I couldn't believe it! I sent my other key to the shop. At
the time, I was so tired of asking others to sending and picking me up
here and there. I viewed the parts. It's a whole piece including all
parts except the dictrabutor cap and motor. Cost $500. The guy said
that it's better to change the whole piece instead of just the
ignition coil and module (part $100+$200). The labor was $160 for two
hours(and I don't understand why took them so long, just a few
screws). The total is over $750 includes tax and environment
charge(?).

I finally got my car after a week. It runs great now. The problem is
gone. But I will never, ever go to this garage. Just don't know what I
should do with the lost key.

Thanks again for both your replies. Now I understand my car better.

Kathy