Pyro109

Hello all!

I have been working on my fiance's 98 CRV for about a week now. It began to have the issue about a week and a half ago. What happens is that it will start when the engine is cool/cold and run fine, but then after it has warmed up to normal operating temperature if you shut it off, it will not restart until it has cooled down enough or if it does which is seldom, it puffs out black exhaust. I thought this was relatively odd so I did the normal quick fixes before looking at the forum for further assistance.
1. I first replaced the plugs and wires and added a fuel injector cleaner. This was interesting because the 3rd and 4th wires were switched, so once I corrected that it ran smoothly but still had the no restart when hot.
2. Then I began looking on here for similar problems, and found a host of them, many having different solutions for the same problem. I found one that said to check the IAC valve, so I did and it was caked with carbon, so I cleaned it to the best of my ability and found that did not help either. By clean it, I removed it, cleaned it with carburetor cleaner and used are to help clean of the carbon as to not damage the screen. I do not have a 5pt allen wrench to open/adjust it. I did check it by connecting to a 12v power source and that worked, but when I checked the resistance, it was reading a little high as compared to what someone posted on another forum. So that may still need to be replaced, but it is relatively costly, are there any other ways to make certain that it is working properly and remove the actuator to clean it?
3. Then I tried taking apart and cleaning the intake throttle body. This too was CAKED with carbon, which after it was cleaned and completely gone through, it ran even smoother still with no sticking or jumping when pressing the throttle. BUT still no restart when it is warm.
4. After that I found a thread that showed to check the main fuel pump relay that is next to the glove box for any cracks in the solder. This was a good thing to check because it did in fact have a small crack in the solder from the expanding and contracting. I soldered that and replaced it, ran the car for a while and again no restart. I could hear the fuel pump though and one thread mentioned to check the fuel return line to see if there is gas. Where is this located and how does one check it?(could not find this info on here)
5. I then found a thread that mentioned to check the igniter. I went to pull off the distributor cap and noticed that the little blades on the rotor were broken off and loose in the cap, and that the screw that is supposed to hold the rotor in was punched through the distributor cap! Obviously this is not helping things! I checked the resistance for the coil and it was bad, so I opted for a new distributor since they do not sell the inner workings for that. Oh, and it was only held on by two of the three bolts(missing lower back one)...so it was leaking oil out of there(found the mysterious oil leak ). Just got done with a drive around a few country roads and guess what...stop and no restart. I tried to swivel the distributor to get it to start but nothing.

So I am at quite a rough spot, I do not have the tools to check compression, check codes, or find a vacuum leak if any. There is no check engine light and I am stumped! If anyone has more ideas and can answer the underlined and bolded questions, I would very much so appreciate the help! I cannot afford to take it into a shop.

Thank you in advance.

Pyro109

Hello again all,
So I spoke with my certified mechanic friend(which I try to not pester him with my questions) and he said it sounds like the coolant temperature sensor.
That makes sense, so I bought that and installed it. My fiancee took the car around for a few miles and when she had gotten back, turned it off. Attempted to restart it and...it STARTED!!! I inadvertently found several other problems in the process and found that it was a small simple fix, only after too many days of struggle and frustration.

I just wanted to say thanks for the points that I found in other peoples threads and I will update if anything relapses.