juttsdm5

hello guys,

i have a 2000 honda accord ex 4cyl with 160,000 miles.

I was pulling out of a parking spot yesterday at the bank and my car stalled out. I though it stalled because i wasnt giving it enough gas(standard). After that i could not start it back up. I towed it home with triple A.

After getting it home i sprayed Starting fluid in my throttle body , it fired up and stalled about 5 seconds later. I changed the Fuel Pump on it because i though thats what was wrong. nope. Its still sitting in my driveway. i need my car for work. anyone have any ideas ?

It has juice, so my battery is fine. It cranks, just will not turn over !

h0p3l355dork

My guess: fuel injectors? spark plugs? spark plug wires? distributor? does it idle at all? might wanna check iacv and adjust idle.

poorman212

Try the starting fluid again. Then check/test for power to the pump...sounds like the relay-test before replacing.

juttsdm5

when i spray the starter fluid in the intake it starts no problem it runs a few seconds fine and then stalls again. hmmmmm

poorman212

Did you test the main relay or to see if power is getting to the pump?

juttsdm5

hello everyone,, it was the main relay. because of suggestions from this site. i took the main relay apart and noticed a bad sotter joint. i resottered the bad joint and the car fired right up. i saved myself $90 and 2 more days of waiting for a part. Awesome !

poorman212

Thanks for the update....glad you got it going.

wheelstud

Well I just had the same thing happen and the relay (bought new) didn't do it. Mine went from running fine to stop. Wait overnight go back,drive it home. I can't get it to fail again, works fine. I guess I'll try to read the codes. At the point I have yet to check if I had gas and spark. But last time I changed the Relay I had no Pump noise.




Mine is a 93 accord LX 143K

wheelstud

My code is zero. The light just stays on. The book says thats a bad computer,as well as some posts here..Other posts say it's just a bad ground. Everytime i have trouble with this car i pull the ICM and have autozone check it under load. They say its fine.
The car runs fine right now other than the RPMs going up a down when you start it cold. I am going to start it now a let it run all day to try to grt it fail again. Any better ideas?

poorman212

WheelStud- Is the starter spinning just the car won't run?

If so.
Sounds like you are goind to have to ride around with,,,,,a piece of wire to jump the starter-hard to turn the key and test under the hood by yourself. A meter for testing power, an old plug or timing light and a can of starting fluid.

wheelstud

Yes thank you reply. The car a 93 accord Lx will crank and crank just fine. I just ran it for 3 hours to try to get it to fail again....no luck. Does the the code zero really mean the computer is shot? Cause it runs ok. Just every once and awhile It just dies.

poorman212

The light staying on-solid while the service connector is jumped means the ECU is fine and there are no stored codes.

Which means you are chasing an intermittent issue....and the list is long of what it could be. Thant is why I gave a quick list of things that might help in finding out what it might be "while on the road".

wheelstud

Yes I know . Thank youagain for at least posting. I found an old car starter
wired in and half cut out.. I repaired all that. I have been working on cleaning up the grounds. The battey was bad. But the lights do still dim if you run the car at full load and press on the brake. Any idea where the brake lights are grounded? I also am thinking about pulling out the computer to see if thier is more ground points around it. Thank you for the computer info.

poorman212

My manual for the 4th gen, well sucks but I will look, don't hold your breath. If I had to guess, rear deck lid/shelf. Main ground for the ECU is actaully on the T-stat housing.

wheelstud

Good News It just died again! (ha). Got out the tool bucket and found no spark from the coil to distributer. I have changed the coil last month. I took the ICM with me to Auto Zone and had them check it under load (2nd time). It tested ok so thats why I bought the coil. I will take it out tomorrow morning and have it checked again. I got no check engine light so I dont know. I would think it would throw a code for the ICM. There must be some kind of crank position sensor in the distributor, so it might make sense just to change out the whole distributor. The ICM is $100, The whole Distrib $160.

poorman212

I know how you feel being happy your car broke down, an issue like this.....can be a pain.

Did you happen to check the voltage of the BLK/YEL wire of the dist? I've seen key switches fail in different ways.

No code for the ICM, might look around a bone yard for a cheap "tester"?

If you had a code 15 then I would agree with a sensor inside the dist.

Good luck

wheelstud

Had the ICM tested. We tried five times , all good. I'm going to put it in , in the morning. Try to move it home, test it with a meter. Your selection of the ignition wires will be first. I had a start sent up to test spark. I guess I thought the key switch would effect dash lights If that wire failed.
When I went through all the grounds . I found that an old remote start was installed at one piont . The plug for the ignition switch had bare wires and a pigtail that i pulled apart. That with the grounds made me feel I fixed it. I got a Chiltons Manual from the Library and it says that the zero code is the the correct code for a bad ECU.

wheelstud

Replaced distributor with a reman. Runs like an F-14 jet.

Steve Z

Excellent!