Hi all,
Have a '93 Accord, is it my second car. It has 269K miles on it.
I've had this issue for the past few years that I've kinda neglected to fix since I was afraid it might be one of those fixes a dealer cant replicate...so I thought I'd post here and see if it is something I can fix myself!

This problem mainly happens when the car has been sitting in the sun all day and it is hot out or the cabin of the car gets really hot.
The car will crank but not fire over. The trans selection light on the dash will flash in the D4 area even tho the car is in park.
I have found if I open up the gas cap and let the gas fumes that have built up out and let the car sit for about 10 mins the car starts right up.

Have others had this same issue? I read awhile back it could be a fuel relay somewhere under the dash?

Thanks for any thoughts,
Mike

 

Thats correct, when you get in your car and its quite hot inside, I am sure you dont sit inside with the door closed and the windows closed for long, you either leave the door open or lower a window to let hot air out, this is what brings the Main Engine Relay back to life, get one at the dealer, use it as a sample to match up the the one under the dash and change it. If you have cruise control, you will need to drop the cruise control computer as the relay is hiding on top of the computer.

 

Cool...so it is the main engine relay that needs to be replaced.
Any idea what this relay is gonna set me back?
I think I may change the distributor out at the same time since I read that might also have something to do with my issues. However, like you said, I really have never had the problem when it is cool out.

 

Its strange that you are worried about the price of a main relay but you are willing to spend the big bucks for an unneeded dizzy, it should be between 40 and 70 bucks, keep the old one and have an electronics friend resolder all the joints and keep it for a spare or sell it to a friend or use it to troubleshoot the next guys car that has this problem in the summer time then sell it to him for 40.

 

I'm not too concerned about the cost. Was just curious since a "main engine relay" sounds costly!

I'll start with that and go from there. Since it is getting cooler here in GA now I probably won't have any issues all winter!