Louie B.

OK guys, it's still doing it!!!! My car runs fine for about 10 min. and then it dies. I take the gas cap off, put it back on, and off I go for another 10 min.

I have put a new main relay in, new fuel filter 2 months ago, and an MPFI swap about a month ago. It's a 91 std that's stock other than the MPFI swap.

so, plugged vent tube? bad gas cap? time for a new engine? any way to unplug a clogged vent tube without dropping the tank? anyone? anyone?

Louie B.

Cmon people! somebody has to have had this problem before!

Chiovnidca

What happens if you drive with the gas cap off? Does it still do it?

Louie B.

hmmm.... haven't been able to get it to start while i was trying with the cap off, but that may be some bad timing on my part. I'm not even sure if the gas cap removal / reinstallation is accually curing it or if it's just a matter of me letting the car sit for a minute while I go through the ritual.

Chiovnidca

When it's acting up, does it have spark? How about fuel presure?

crxcess

Mine was vaporlocked the other day. I took the gas cap off and it made a huge "pshhhhhh!". sounded like a BOV. then it ran fine. It was almost out of gas also. Filled it up and the problem went away.

As stated above, you might have a different problem. I think I am right about this, but someone might correct me. I believe that crx fuel is gravity fed. It doesn't have a fuel pump. How much gas do you have in the car? Has it sat for a while? Have you checked your ignition? compression ratio?

vtecrx

the crx does have a fuel pump,the fuel tank is below the engine how would gravity feed work? when you turn your key listen real good and you will hear it turn on.

Andy

Louie B.

problem started with tank empty, but still does it with full tank. acts like the fuel is getting cut off, but I can hear the fuel pump running.

I'm starting to worry that something's wrong with the MPFI swap, it's been running fine for the last month, other than running a little rich and idling low (500 rpm).

I checked out all of the hoses and wires and everything looks good, and I adjusted the idle up to 800 today (disconect EACV, adjust idle, reconect EACV, reset ECU) after I reconnected the EACV, the idle went up to 1500 and started surging between 500 and 1500 so I dropped the idle back down and got it to 800 with the EACV conected and everything smoothed out. After I did this I made the 10 mi. drive home from work without dying once but that could just be coincedence.

Louie B.

OK this is wierding me out!!!!!!


After adjusting the idle and resetting the ECU yesterday, I drove it around all morning today and it didn't die once!!

The ecu never threw any codes, and the car was dying while driving, not while idling. so this seems very strange to me.
Also, the car used to have an annoying "whistle" at 1/3 throttle and since I adjusted the idle, it's gone too!!!

Anyway, the problem seems to be gone, and I'll just give the good Lord credit.


[Modified by thumpu77, 1:31 PM 8/11/2002]

MADEINIRAQ

which method are you using to reset the ecu?

Louie B.

the easy way...... disconect the negative battery terminal, wait 2 minutes, re-connect

Louie B.

Alright, now I'm getting frustrated!!!

Aparently, my car just likes to run well on the weekends!

Monday morning, driving to work, less than a mile from my house, dead!!!

I spent 15 minutes this time, much longer than usual. tried the gas cap, nothing. tried leaving the cap off, nothing. tried resetting the ecu (disconecting battery,) nothing. for some reason I decided to pull the distributor cap and look in there, it all looked good, put the cap on, and it ran!!

most likely had nothing to do w/ the dizzy, just needed some time. Of coarse, any time i can get it into the shop to see whats going on, it runs fine!!

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

BreakStuff

carry an old spark plug with you the next time it happens to verify if you have spark when the car decides to call it quits.. you could also duct tape a fuel pressure guage to the windshield, but I think the spark plug would be the easiest

Your problem is definately intermittent and may be related to an electrical component failing when it gets heated up, I'm thinking the coil, but we have to determine if you have spark and fuel at the time of failure...

on another note, your car will throw a fuel injector code (15?) rather easily if it is starving for fuel.. but anything is possible...


[Modified by BreakStuff, 11:48 PM 8/12/2002]

Louie B.

Thank you! good advice. I'm starting to think spark rather than fuel because I hear my fuel pump running and shut itself off just after it dies (like it built up the proper amount of pressure) then when I'm cranking, the fuel pump kicks back on.

when I did my mpfi swap, I got the si dizzy off of ebay. the coil looked pretty new, so i just changed the cap and rotor. looks can be deceiving.

something i forgot to mention in my last post, this afternoon when I was driving home, it never died out on me totally, but it did loose power for a split second a couple of times.

Temperature wise, i don't think it's really temp related, but if anything it's happening more when the engine's colder and the outside air is cooler.

I'll try the spark plug thing tomorrow... if I can get the plug somewhere where I can see it while holding the clutch down and cranking the engine (it only happens when I'm alone )


[Modified by thumpu77, 10:04 PM 8/12/2002]

slowpokesi

has it ever occured to you that your ignition switch maybe going out?
this happend to me in my crx and like u i was baffled for about 3 weeks i kept checking fuel lines etc.. until one day it died once i let go of the key so i started it again and held the key in place and as soon as i let go it died again.

Louie B.

If my ign switch was the culprit, my fuel pump would be shutting down because it's on the same circut. also my gauges would be going dead and my tach is still showing engine rpm as I'm coasting to a stop.

I think I'm going to concentrate on the coil. It didn't die today (of coarse not, I was PREPARED for it today) so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Louie B.

I'm sure you guys are sick of this thread by now but.....

my problem seems to have changed slightly. After 2 days of running fine (record high tempratures tuesday and wednesday), it died twice on me today.

This time though, instead of not starting right away, the car would try to fire back up imediately. But when it fired up, somehow the engine would run for a second backwards (blowing exhaust out of the intake and sucking air in the tailpipe) When doing so, it would blow a vaccum line off of the intake mani. Replace vaccum line, start it back up, off i go.

The exact same scenario the second time. So, to me this is sounding more and more like either the dizzy or ECU. retarding the timming way before tdc. I bought both peices off of Ebay, from two different sorces so I really don't know the history of either one.

Am I on the right track here?

Louie B.

OK, I think I've got it!!!

I had it narowed down to something with the dizzy and I still had my old std dizzy so i decided to swap some of the parts that were the same between the two.

I started with the coil, still dying.

My next thought was the condensor, It was all rusty so i figured it might be shorting out internally. I looked at my old dizzy and it didn't have a condensor. So I removed the one on the new dizzy, still dying.

Next I traced the wires from the coil and noticed they went through another part before exiting the dist. This part:

I don't know what it is or what it does, but I haven't had a single problem since I switched it out with the one on the old dizzy 2 days ago. I looked on Majestic Honda's website and near as I can tell, you can't order this part seperate, you have to get the entire distributor. I'm so glad I didn't throw away my old dist.!!!

Just out of curiosity, what is it?

hybridmike

thats the igniter(spelling) but you can by them seprate, the Honda dealer wants you to think you cant, try Pep Boys if all else fails, i know they have them.