The K series 2.4 liter engine in your Honda Accord uses a Coil on Plug (COP) ignition coils to ignite the mixture inside your combustion chamber. These ignition coils that drive your i-VTEC K24 engine usually do not fail, but when you have Honda misfire issues, this is an easy way to test your Accord ignition coils.
Fortunately for you, learning how to test a Honda Accord Ignition Coil is easy and very straightforward. Today we’ll be showing you how to test a Honda Accord ignition coil in a 2003 Honda Accord with the 2.4 liter four cylinder i-VTEC engine. The Honda Accord ignition coil part number is 30520-PMA-007, and there’s a few Honda interchange part numbers for this ignition coil such as 30520-PNA-007, 30520-PRA-A01, or 30520-RAA-007.
Typically, when your COP ignition coil begins to fail in your Honda Accord, your check engine light may turn on. This signifies to you that there’s an issue with the coil that your ECU recognizes. You may also feel your 2.4 liter Honda engine miss, or run unevenly, which can result in poor gas mileage.
This can mean that there’s stored codes in your Honda ECU that will need to be cleared using a scan tool, OBD reader or something like the HKS OB Link System.
The stored codes that may need retrieving can range and vary, depending on how bad your ignition coils have gotten. In order for you to learn how to test a Honda Accord ignition coil, you will need a 10mm wrench or socket and a multimeter.
To begin our how to test a Honda Accord ignition coil DIY guide, open your hood and remove the 10mm bolts that hold your spark plug cover in place. Remove the spark plug cover to expose the coil on plug ignition coils, and the harnesses connecting the coils.
Once you have the spark plug cover removed, you can access the coil on plug coil. Shown below is a K20 engine, but it will be very similar to your Honda Accord.
Unplug the ignition coils, and undo the 10mm bolt that holds your ignition coils in place. Now comes the hard part, finding the bad ignition coil in your Honda Accord. The OBDII trouble code stored in your K24 ECU can definitely point you in the right direction. Using a scan tool, pull the codes from your ECU (if any) to help point you in the right direction.
If your OBDII misfire code is specific, this part of your job is significantly easier. Codes like OBDII P0301 point to cylinder 1, P0302 point to cylinder 2 and so on. Simply reference the cylinder in question, if your misfire code points to cylinder #1, this is the cylinder closest to your timing belt. In this case, it would be the cylinder on the left hand side of the picture above.
If you don’t have a stored OBDII trouble code, but need to test your Honda Accord ignition coil anyways, continue onward to learn how to test a Honda Accord ignition coil.
Q: How does my Honda Accord Coil On Plug ignition coil work?
A: This is a very common question when people want to learn how to test a Honda Accord ignition coil, and the answer is easy. When your Honda Accord ignition key is inserted into the steering column and turned to the “ON” position or started, the 2.4 liter Honda ignition coil will receive power and ground. There’s two wires we’ll be testing to see if your Honda Accord ignition coil is receiving power and ground.
The next wire we’ll be testing is the signal wire, which is a signal sent from your igniter, notifying the ignition coil that it’s time to ignite the cylinder in question. In the 2.4 liter K24 Honda Accord ignition coil, these igniters or power transistor is located inside the COP ignition coil.
How To Test your Honda Accord Ignition Coil for Power and Ground
This part of our guide will be showing you how to check your Honda Accord COP ignition coil and make sure it’s being powered correctly. Turn your multimeter to DC mode, and put the black lead on the negative terminal of your battery.
Using the red probe of your multimeter, gently touch the front of your Accord ignition coil CONNECTOR at the PIN 3 position shown. This wire should be black with a yellow stripe in it. This wire should have a 12 volt power signal at this terminal, if you have power here, move ahead to checking for the ground or low reference.
The low reference or ground wire should be at terminal 2, and when you test your Honda Accord wiring harness, you need to make sure that wire 2 on the plug provides a ground signal.
If you don’t have power or ground at these wires, you’ve got a break or problem elsewhere in your wiring harness. Make sure to check your fuses and begin tracing back the wiring to locate the break or the problem. Look for frayed wires or exposed signal wires, which could lead to wire rot and degradation of the signal and wires.
However if you do have power and ground here, the next step is to remove the spark plug and insert it into the bottom of your COP ignition coil. Gently rest the spark plug against the valve cover to provide a suitable ground for which the spark plug to arc across. Have a friend try to crank your engine, and look for your spark plug to fire with the coil and harness connected.
Have spark here? Move on to the next coil and repeat until you have found your misfire culprit. Part of learning how to test a Honda Accord ignition coil involves checking each COP coil to make sure that :
- There’s power and ground
- It sparks once removed and rested against the valve cover of your Honda Accord.
Have any questions about our how to test a Honda Accord ignition coil? If you are still having problems locating your Honda Accord misfire, leave us a message below.
Hi prostreet. thank you guys for this awesome writeup. I own a 2008 accord and followed this guide, I’ve got power and ground and my spark plug goes off but my misfire code won’t go away and keeps coming back. Any ideas?
Hi Angela, thanks for reading.
Quick question, how is the spark condition when testing against your valve cover? do you find the spark to be weak or blue instead of white? What OBDII code do you have stored?