It seems to me that there has been a fair amount electrical-system related discussions which got me thinking about the coil packs and distributorless iginition system in my 02 Civic Si. It has about 87k trouble free miles so far, a warrantied catalyst replacement was the only time it saw a shop. I'm familiar enough with the Honda way of standard distributor based ignitions, so about now I'd be replacing plugs, wires, maybe the cap and rotor for grins. I'm going to replace the "Iridium" plugs at 90k, pulled them a couple times and they still look fine. Any other reasonable maintenance procs to be done in this area? Why did Honda adopt it? Is it a superior system?
Just an amateur here who was curious about these new systems, starting last year. A shadetree mechanic with a fair amount of experience I knew thought all cars likely would be distributorless in the near future. IIRC, and as you probably have imagined, he felt the maintenance would be less, but parts might be more expensive, overall.
This makes sense, since there are no rotating parts, for one, with which to contend. Getting the electronics further away from the heat of the engine (also therefore being better ventilated) and the vibrations of the camshaft would seem advantageous, too. I would expect no-start conditions to occur less often. Then too no oil leaking down the camshaft into the housing; no distributor housing bearing failures; no doggone rotor set screw stripping and requiring a whole new housing or a jury rig; etc.
I see the four coils for an 02 Civic go for about $40 each, for a total of about $160. I guess one could say that in some ways, they see only about 1/4 the duty that the single coil (selling for about half that or $80) on my 91 Civic sees. So they should last longer.
I see the plugs go for $14 each. But with others, you say they last way longer.
How the voltage to the coil is controlled on the 02 Civic isn't clear to me. There are four relay assemblies under "Control Unit (engine room)" that might be involved. They go for about $15 each, which altogether is way less than my Civic's igniter. (Though at this time I don't want to imply the igniter and these relays are analogous.) See
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's parts for this car.
I don't know exactly why Honda adopted it, but I thought many car manufacturers had indeed chosen this route.
Larry Carley is a well-known (by hands-on folks in the industry with time to spare) automotive writer. Here's his latest take (dated 2005) on these systems, with some hints on maintenance:
http://hostingprod.com/@aa1car.com/library/dis.htm He has some more "general overview" articles on the subject. Google for {distributorless ignition carley}.
So far, queries on Honda DISs are rare here, as you probably have seen.
"MAT" wrote
electrical-system related
distributorless
trouble free miles so
it saw a shop. I'm
based ignitions,
and rotor for
pulled them a
reasonable maintenance > procs to be done in this area? Why did Honda adopt it? Is it a superior
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