Drax's daily Headlight's

[Drax]

No worries Dan even have the workshop manuals if you get stuck mate

got the online one cheers

Wow. Drax finally owns a real Prelude.

in a quick update, she's being stubborn still not starting. checked the valve clearances, a few improved but nothing major


immobilser seems to go off ok - green key thing on the dash disappears after a few seconds of turning the key.

main relay seemed ok


ive swapped the HT leads for spares plus new ones from my 4g, swapped the dizzy cap for a known working one from my 4g, checked the rotor arm and used the best one i have.

ive also redone the Earth as the old ones were falling apart. one question thought, this one to the rocker from the chassis - do we think it's thick enough?


ive triple checked under the dash for loose/rogue/cut/not plugged in wires and cant see anything.

there seemed to be 2x fuel pump fuses on these so plugged in a fuse for the missing one.

ive checked for spark but cant see any - my thought now is ignition coil, although ive got two TDU89 dizzy's but neither can be 100% verified to work. im tempted to bite the bullet and buy a new dizzy for £150....

quite lost otherwise now.....

it tries very close to start but no fire. i had a brief "cough" at one point but that's all.

[Vtecmec]

Are the plugs wet with fuel?

[Drax]

Are the plugs wet with fuel?

yep, plus you can smell it and ive opened the return line by the rail and its full of fuel. fuel pump primes too, you can hear it

[Scott560]

You can buy the coil just on its own, pretty cheap last time I checked. That said, its hard to test the rest of the items completely so might be easier to go for a whole distributor instead. If you can prise off the flame guard from the dizzy, worth checking the state of the wires in there, pretty sure I had one of the coil screws snap on me when removing, so not to say it couldn't have cracked off of it's own accord perhaps.

The ground on the valve cover doesn't do anything, its just there to help catch any sparks that might escape an HT lead.

[Drax]

You can buy the coil just on its own, pretty cheap last time I checked. That said, its hard to test the rest of the items completely so might be easier to go for a whole distributor instead. If you can prise off the flame guard from the dizzy, worth checking the state of the wires in there, pretty sure I had one of the coil screws snap on me when removing, so not to say it couldn't have cracked off of it's own accord perhaps.

The ground on the valve cover doesn't do anything, its just there to help catch any sparks that might escape an HT lead.

yeh i looked at buying a new ignition coil, rotor arm and cap but took a punt on a whole new dizzy.

it arrived today funnily enough - she now starts thanks everyone for your help, much appreciated. next steps are new fluids and to clean her up for an MOT. @Sailor

[Sailor]

yeh i looked at buying a new ignition coil, rotor arm and cap but took a punt on a whole new dizzy.

it arrived today funnily enough - she now starts thanks everyone for your help, much appreciated. next steps are new fluids and to clean her up for an MOT. @Sailor

Nice one. I'm pleased it's on the road to recovery.

[Drax]

clutch next, which despite bleeding it the pedal kept going to the floor, so likely the slave cylinder needed swapping.

usually a pretty easy job but didnt help but first one of the two bolts holding it one had rounded so getting that off was a PITA


easiest way was rad out job, or mostly out of the way


could get to it better then, rammed on a slightly smaller socket and got her off


and bingo!! the cause...


so i stole the one from the 4g for now and ill buy a new one for that. swapped over and after some faff with fitting it she was on. need to bleed it again when i can grab the wife/a mate as i dont have a bleeding kit....yet.

i also bought & fitted a new rocker cover seal and fitted that as the old one looked original & leaked - cleaned up around the head & refitted, much better now. forgot to take pics of that though, nowt exciting really.

[Scott560]

Good job! Its surprising how much room there isn't down there. I replaced mine a couple of months ago thinking 'its not that bad' , only to find myself cursing quite a lot at the lack of space with rad+fans in the way.

I presume you checked the master, as even though the seal for the slave has perished, the master could also be the cause / or on the way out (mine was the master, but replaced the slave as likely to be old also).

[Drax]

Good job! Its surprising how much room there isn't down there. I replaced mine a couple of months ago thinking 'its not that bad' , only to find myself cursing quite a lot at the lack of space with rad+fans in the way.

I presume you checked the master, as even though the seal for the slave has perished, the master could also be the cause / or on the way out (mine was the master, but replaced the slave as likely to be old also).

yeh ive checked this, i had the master fail on my 4g daily a few years ago - pretty sure thats ok

[Drax]

new slave cylinder is on, bled ok and pedal is now fine - drove her around the block and she's good! need to take the wheels off and check the brakes, underneath etc. plus see where the exhaust is blowing (badly), i think the flexi so i'll buy a new replacement downpipe to be fitted at the mot centre.

i did the 4ws reset and that made no difference to the 4ws & abs light coming on, but when you do a blink code i only get the abs code 81 (abs ecu) popping up now, and not the 4ws steering wheel sensor one i had the other day so that's one down lol the manual says to drive the car first before replacing the ecu so ill get hold of one first in case it's required.

i do get the battery warning light staying on, plus the handbrake warning light stays on too....faulty alternator??

also, the ignition wire is very 50-50, if you push it in at the connections where it connects to the back of the key barrel it comes on & off - ive stripped this and all seems fine but still does it, may need to replace that too.