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Hello. I’ve got a 1999 Civic LX with the d16y7 engine.
The distributor was replaced by a non honda shop and afterwards the tachometer started acting strange. When I crank the car, the tachometer will read at around 1000 rpm. While driving around town and using light acceleration, the tachometer will not move at all. If I use hard acceleration, the tachometer will move to zero and then when I let off the gas, the tachometer will move back to around 1000 rpm. All the wires/connectors appear to be in the appropiate place.
I asked this a while back and Eric had mentioned how he: 1. Didn’t like aftrmarket distributors. 2. Thought it might be the igniter. 3. Recommended getting an OE distributor from the salvage yard.
I’ve been unable to find an OE distibutor from a salvage yard and so I am thinking about buying an igniter, but was wondering what brand was reliable. I know OEM is most reliable, but those cost over $300 dollars. Thanks for your help.
Here is a video of my tachometer problem:
[video width=425 height=344 type=youtube]6vJjLBzVXDY[/video]
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Before you buy any parts. buy a cheap tach and hook it up
at the tach test connector.You may have a problem with your
factory tach.if the ignitor was bad the car would misfire.http://www.justanswer.com/honda/3z6u5-wanted-hook-tach-98-civic-dx-will-hook.html
It COULD be the igniter as that is where the the tach gets it’s signal. However, if the pick up in the distributor is not sending a good signal to the igniter the result will be the same. That said you know all to well at this point what non OE Honda parts have done for you. Do you wish to continue down this path or just spend the money now and be done with it? That’s the real question in my opinion. My opinions are based on many experiences just like yours. That said you might find parts at a more reasonable price here.
Update. I’ve been doing some research. Still having tachometer problem. The only history I have about this issue was from the previous owners statements. He said the car wouldn’t start. Took it to the shop and they replaced the distributor with an aftermarket. Afterwards, tachometer wasn’t functioning properly.
I was fortunate enough to find an almost brand new genuine honda distributor TD-73U, for my 1999 civic lx d16y7 for $75 (Got it from someone who did an engine swap). I put the new distributor on, but am still having the same problem. The tachometer is functioning exactly the same as shown in my video. I studied the wiring diagrams and learned that the 1999 civic lx d16y7 tachometer signal comes from the ckp and not the igniter (hence the reason that the rpm output connector has no blue wire hooked to it). It then runs to the PCM/ECM and then to the instrument guage panel.
I’ve been reading the wiring diagrams. On other model civics, it shows that the test tachometer is connected to the igniter. For my model year and engine, I haven’t been able to see if test tachometer connector is connected before the pcm/ecu or afterwards. I’ll see if I can find it and figure out where it is routed to/from.
I looked at the wiring. I believe that the following picture is the test tachometer. If so, I traced the wiring and appears to going direct to the distributor. But how would I connect a tachometer to it?
The tach does get it signals from the igniter. The igniter gets the rpm signal from the pick up inside the distributor which sends it to the ignitor which then sends it to the tach on the dash as well as to the ignition coil. The connector that you have there is for checking the signal I believe. If you have a known good distributor which I believe you do, then I might turn my attention to the tach inside the dash itself. There may be a loose connection at the cluster causing it’s intermittent operation. In fact I remember someone posting on the forum about a similar issue in the past and it was that very thing. You might also check all the wiring connections at the igniter in the distributor. I’ve seen plenty of times where a loose connection here caused a no start or the tach not to read correctly.
I have determined that the tachometer itself has failed. That picture I posted is the test tachometer connector. The black piece is rubber and can be removed to expose the connection. I bought an inexpensive aftermarket tachometer and connected it to the test tachometer. The result was a working tachometer. I then removed the instrument cluster and disconnected the connector going to my factory tachometer (It was secured and wasn’t loose). I then attached the aftermarket tachometer to this connector and the result was a working aftermarket tachometer. So I can conclude that the factory tachometer has failed. As soon as I can find a factory tachometer I’ll get it installed and hopefully this will solve the problem. Will keep you updated.
This is the photo of the tachometer connector. I just plugged the aftermarket tachometer wire into the blue wire and it worked perfectly.
I bought a replacement oem tachometer on ebay, installed it and it works great. Thanks for the help.
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