Took my 1993 Protege to a muffler shop for repair. The shop ended up replacing most of the old exhaust system, including a new cat and muffler. When they brought the vehicle off the hoist, it wouldn't start. Today I looked at it and it turns over fine, but I couldn't get a spark out of the coil. The Haynes manual said the resistance should be 0.83-0.99 Ohm on the secondary. I read 1.3 Ohm on the secondary. The primary was 13.3 KOhm with the spec about 11-16 KOhm. I am getting positive voltage at the coil.
Could the ignition system have been damaged by the use of electric-based welding? What is the Ignitor? How does one check that component? What about the Ignition Control Module? Having the secondary winding on the coil be off by 0.3 Ohms indicate a bad coil? Any other thoughts would be appreciated. Yes the gas tank is full.
Uhmmm, the secondary winding should be the one with high resistance and the primary should be much lower resistance than the secondary. I don't have a manual with the specs handy, but the measurements you gave sound about right if you meant the PRIMARY was 1.3 Ohms, and the SECONDARY was 13.3 K Ohms.
Maybe.
Whoa... slow down. One thing at a time. There are test procedures for those components, but I don't think I could walk you through them via e-mail. I can't type for that long at a time. Unless you have a good repair manual and are pretty handy at electronic diagnostics, I would have to recomend letting a professional trouble shoot those items. Maybe Don has some sugestions. He is good at coming up with some simple DIY tests. He posts here pretty often so I'll let him chime in on this one if he can.
I doubt it.
I have heard of arc welding on a car causing damage to electronic components, but I have never experienced it first hand. I guess it is possible, but I know it doesn't always happen. On the other hand, electronic components have been know to fail unexpectedly and without any apparent cause. Even if the muffler shop did cause the problem I doubt that there would be any way to prove it.
Your measurements of the coil are close enough to specs (other than you have the secondary mixed up with the primary) that I don't believe you have found any evidence that the coil is bad. Of course, that doesn't mean it is good either. Coils can pass resistance checks and still not function properly.
If the arc welding caused any problems it would more than likely be to a module or electronic component rather than the coil. About the best advise I can offer is to have someone with experience on your model and the right equipment run through the proper diagnostic routines for a no start problem. You are likely to be replacing some expensive parts on a guess otherwise.
FWIW my brother had the same thing happen in his 94 323. It died while driving and had no spark. The ECU threw a code which was something along the lines of no spark signal. After a little research online it seemed this pointed to the cam position sensor, which is built into the distributor. It was his winter beater so after replacing the distributor with one from a salvage yard it was good to go again.
Obviously your problem could be caused by any number of other things, but hopefully this helps you in tracking it down.
You can take the ICM off and get it tested as some auto parts stores for free. If you're in Canada, Parts Source, a Canadian Tire subsidiary does it for free. If it fails call around because retail prices vary by
100%. For more > > Took my 1993 Protege to a muffler shop for repair. The shop ended up
Thank you to everyone who has responded. I've heard from two sources that it might be worth replacing the distributor. I know a local salvage yard has a newly acquired Protege about the same year. On Monday, I'll see how much they want for a used distributor. Now, I don't think it is the coil. The only other part it could be is the Igniter. Neither Autozone or Checker can test it. Hmm....
It's not always a piece part that's at fault. Before springing for a replacement distributor, you might make a couple of diagnostic checks.
Since you made the resistance measurements, I assume you're familiar with the use of a multimeter. Did you verify that you have +12v at the coil (+) terminal? If not, look into the wiring, fuses, ignition switch etc.
And also check the voltage at the coil (-) terminal while cranking. It would normally be about half the battery voltage. A reading of +12v indicates that the module's not firing, whether because it's bad or not getting the right inputs.
Yes, and I have a feeling it was. Of course the muffler shop had the good sense to disconect the negative terminal of the battery, as is the normal practice before welding on a car, right?
"Ignitor" is what many Japanese car makers call the ignition control module.
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has repair information about some cars, but if yours isn't listed, check a comparable year Ford Escort with 1.8L engine, which has the same engine and fuel and ignition systems.
Hmm....I *know* they didn't disconnect the negative terminal of the battery while welding on it because the car was running the entire time they were welding on it. The problem was discovered when they brought the vehicle off the hoist, turned it off, and then tried to start it again to drive it off the hoist.
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