gandalf

I have a 92 accord ex and when I start it(not all the time) it will sputter for a few(maybe 15-20) seconds and then idle normally. I recently had the water pump and timing belt replaced last month. and occasionally it will sputter for a second or two going up a hill.
My thoughts are plug wires, plugs are a couple of months new, Unless the shop that I took it to helped me have other problems.

I had the waterpump, timing belt and everything else replaced, June a year ago, when the timing belt broke. There is no anti freeze smell in the exhaust or excess steam.

The shop that I took it to said that they replaced the waterpump, timing belt...etc...but that wasn't the problem($726.33). It was a heater hose that came off of the water pump (but there isn't one, that I've seen) I've talked to several better mechanics than myself and they are wondering about the hose also. The BBB is gonna get a very nasty letter from me if I Learn the truth from you guys...The heater hoses are on the other side of the engine compartment.

Thanks in advance,
Gandalf

holmesnmanny

You should do a compression test. Buy a compression tester and pull the ecu fuse before doing the test. You can find videos on youtube showing exactly how to do a compression test. If that checks out ok, you might want to clean out the egr ports and egr valve, assuming they haven't been done before. It's a slighty involved process but if you prepare for it well it will wind up giving you slightly better gas mileage.

What happens when you start the car is that the ecu tests the egr system slightly. If the ports are plugged when the ecu tests the system and the ecu advances the timing(or retards it I can't remember) the exhaust gas that it thinks it's putting into the engine is not actually getting there which causes a slight miss upon startup. Again, this is just a guess at this point.

EfyourK

Did you have this problem before they did the timing? If not the belt could be a tooth off... trying advancing your dizzy an see if that fixes the problem.. I also have an accord, 91 an she only runs good if I advance the dizzy.. f22 likes to get beat haha! Good luck!