Alright, so heres the problem.

This has happened 3 times now,

Car drives just fine, on the highway, then out of no where the car starts hiccuping real bad and the throttle stopped responding and the car died right on the highway, electrical system was fine, lights were still on but car was dead... tried starting it, wouldn't start.

towed it to a mechanic, wouldn't start, let it sit there over night, next day when mechanic looked at it it started just fine, drove just fine --- wtf?


Happened again where it started studdering real bad and died, so I left it in a parking lot, picked it up 8 hours later, drove home just fine ... what the ****?



I take it to acura, have them check it out, of course it didn't have any problems, they drove it, no issues. Ran a diagnostics, no check engine, no errors, they say the car is just fine.

last week, I'm driving it on the highway, I think the problem is fixed, so I go into VTEC, I hit 7900 RPM and then go to shift into 5th, hiccuping really bad, car starts studdering, then dies.. wouldn't start for 3 hours, towed it back to my house, started just fine in the drive way and I pulled it into the garage which is where it is right now.


so WTF is the problem?

whats causing it to not start for hours at a time, and then magically start working again?!?!

I need help, I'm at wits end.

 

Sounds like a fuel and spark plug problem? happened to me once, i changed all the plugs and it ran fine ever since...

 

If it was a spark plug problem would the car die? and wouldn't I get a missfire CEL? Also, if it was the spark plugs, would it make sense that it would start after sitting for several hours?

also, speaking of fuel, I know the fuel pump works because I had someone listen for it to turn on when I turned the key, but is it possible my fuel filters are clogged or clogging? Do we ever need to replace our fuel filters?

 

When you say "won't start," does it crank at all? Check your main relay.

Some reading:
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/mainr...ion/index.html
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/mainr...mainrelay.html

 

Sorry, yeah it cranks but no combustion whatsoever.

 

yup, could be that. i believe it's behind the dash near the cluster for your cars?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't it not crank if the main relay wasn't working?

 

Pull your main relay out and check for breaks in the solder. Use a manifying glass and look
at all the solder joints on the circut board. Any cracks?, replace or resolder. Feul pump might be getting hot and droping pressure. Not as likely as the main relay though. Main relay's fail often on all honda products..even the new ones.

 

Thanks for the advise, if the main relay was going bad would the car still crank without starting? also,does anyone have a suggestion that might be related to the fact that it did it right after going into VTEC and hitting 7900 rpm? just coincidence?

 

A dying fuel pump wont necessarily throw a check engine light. Mine was going faulty at one point, and would cause a similiar, if not same, situation as yours for me. Swapped in a known working pump, and problem went away. Check the connectors on the pump while your at it, make sure they are making good contact.

 

Could be something in the distributor like coil or ignitor going bad and only doing that once the car is hot. A person suggested the main relay and that was a good suggestion it happened to me in my old CRX. But it would not start once the car was off, it never acted up while you were driving. A ground for the ECu maybe loose on the tranny. All those problems except the last one will not throw a CEL.

 

I would say it is the distributor or maybe an ECU problem. I would also check grounds and terminals.

 

Thanks guys, keep the ideas comming.

I'm going to try the fuel pump tomorrow!

 

Paid and registered for expo?

 

The RPM thing may just be coincidence because it happened once before and I assume that the previous time wasn't at high RPM.

Anyway, the main relay controls the injectors and the fuel pump and is easy to diagnose. From the pages I linked:

"The Main Relay has five circuits:

* Battery (yellow line)
* Ignition (red line)
* Pump
* Injectors
* Starter (not shown here, but is a blue line on the previous page)

The Starter circuit only carries power for brief periods, and does not usually go bad."

So to answer your question, yes, the main relay can fail and it will still crank.

"It operates the fuel pump, AND supplies power to the injectors. Without this thing in proper working order, your car is going nowhere. As stated elsewhere, this device is prone to failure due to cracked solder, which results in intermittent/nonexistent current flow to the fuel pump or the injectors.

If you listen very carefully, or reach around behind the dash and put your fingers on the Main Relay, you'll hear/feel THREE CLICKS as you start the car. Check the green text on the images to see when those clicks should appear. Most Main Relay problems that cause starting issues result in one or more of those clicks being missing, making the clicks a handy diagnostic tool."

Also to paraphrase that page, when the solder on the main relay fails, it can cause intermittent behavior like you described, such as dying suddenly and then mysteriously starting later. This is due to the solder heating up from excessive current and re-melting.

 

Hmm, this could be a tricky bastard to troubleshoot if it's the main relay, meaning I won't be able to tell if I don't "feel" the three clicks unless it's currently having the problem, and for that to happen I gotta drive it somewhere, which could leave my R stranded for long ammounts of time god knows where, lol.... damnit. Do you know how complicated it is to get the main relay appart to view the solder joints in the photo below? maybe I can diagnose it without driving it anywhere./ http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/mainr.../james_sml.jpg

 

39400-S10-003 <~just go to your nearest Honda or Acura dealer and buy a new main relay.

 

I was checking online it looks like most problems related to the main relay thow a CEL, but I am not recieving one ... hmm... I'll still investigate it.

 

Thanks for the post! $50 bucks .. not bad.

 

And then register and pay for expo??

 

lol lets get her running first!

 

Sounds more like a fuel issue to me. Like its being starved all of the sudden. Fuel pumps can go bad, but still "operate." Just listening for it to turn on isn't enough. If it was asprk issue, it would seem to me that it would happen more frequently. The fuel pump could be dying if it runs for too long or there could be a bad connection somewhere.

It seems the have the same issue if it were "running out of gas." Now you just have to figure out why.

 

I'm pretty sure it's fairly simple to take apart. I've never done it, but I imagine it just has a plastic cover that you can slide off to reveal the circuit board. I had to fix a flasher relay and it was easy to take apart.

The main relay is located under the driver side dash to the left of the fuse box. If you have the helms you can see the location on page 23-8. The main relay troubleshooting procedure begins on page 11-124.

 

no problem! its actually my job lol

 

as mentioned, id swap the main relay first' then work your way down the list if the problems persist'

i know this isnt the problem at hand but just to double check id pull one of your spark plugs...cyl #3 would be a good choice and see how it looks, replace if necessary'