gremlin_mischief

Hello All. My 1993 SI 2.3L has been dying at what is often days between incidents. The details of the dying:

Have had the oil changed, fuel filter changed (they said the old one looked fine), cleaned the grounds under the hood, put in a new battery and distributor. Still died randomly. Gave it to Honda for a week, they said they could not replicate the problem and so they gave it back to me.
I've found that when it tries to die, I can step on the gas and the car will jerk somewhat violently and then keep going as if nothing was wrong until a little while later when it tries to die again. Each time it has died, it keeps dying multiple times until I get it to my destination. When it is acting up it always dies when I can't give it gas, like at an intersection. It usually starts right back up but wants to die soon after. When I took it to Honda it tried to die on me about 10 times on the way, and only actually died twice when I had to bring it to a stop. One of those times I had trouble getting it to start right back up - just turned the key over and over and it sounded like it wanted to start but wouldn't... or would and then died immediately after. Finally got it started up and hit the gas right away and got it to Honda (though they turned out being zero help). It will often go days without any problem whatsoever. Any ideas as to what it could be? Thanks!

slamdlude

Sounds like it could be the electrical piece behind the ignition cylinder if it is totally random. A good check for that is to crank the car and wiggle the key, while it is cranked. Don't turn it out of the ON position just wiggle it up and down and back and forth. If it dies suddenly it is most likely the electrical piece.

gremlin_mischief

Thanks for the advice. I tried it a few times over the last couple of days though, but it had no affect on my car. Some more information from yesterday: I found out that the car doesn't have to be in motion for it to die. I started it up yesterday morning and it died instantly. I have a standard, but it was in neutral so I know I didn't stall it. Started it back up a couple minutes later and the needle was fine for a few seconds, then dropped very sharply like it wanted to die for a split second, then jumped right back up to where it should be. Then today I was driving it and I slowed to take a turn. When I did the rpms actually dropped to zero, but as soon as the car "died" I stepped on the gas a second later and the car magically came back to life. Of course it kept trying to die over and over on me after that until I got it parked. Could it be the fuel pump? Thanks for the help!

Acidcrakker

is it hot outside when this happens.

gremlin_mischief

No, the first time this happened it was still extremely cold out. It's hot out now during the day though. But it's also happened on chilly nights. Someone told me it could be something called the main relay