my car has been giving difficulty to start when the engine is cold, or actually by the time it cools down(even 20 - 30 minutes after parking at times). upon trying to start the vehicle, the battery is strong, it turns over strongly but refuses to start until atleast 3 attempts, sometimes with the help of pressing the gas pedal.

ive brought the vehicle to now 3 reputable mechanics including the honda dealership here in jamaica. the vehicle had stayed there for 3 days, after which the problem occured only once, they did compression testing and other types and said all was ok, they had just changed the plugs and it seemed to have started to work. by the following day the problem actaully started again. they also said upon doing a diagnostic test the Electronic load detector(ELD) shows up.

i brought the car now to another reputable car parts/service provider of genuine honda parts. they did fuel pressure testing/cleaned the injectors and found no problem.

i now replaced the ELD, problem still exists, does any one have any suggestions???? this problem has been going on for quite some 3 months or more by now, and is very frustrating.

no check engine lights or indicators are showing a problem other than the eld which was replaced, but not yet tested to see if its still a problem. it was replaced yesterday actually and the problem continued this morning.

Brief history on the vehicle

about roughly 3-4 months before this starting problem started, the vehicle was driven into a large mass of water during the hurricane season and was immediatley shut off.
i attempted to start the vehicle, and it didnt fully turn-over. after a few attempts the car started and i left it to throttle for about 10-15 minutes and tried to drive the vehicle but it shut off. i then had the vehicle towed back to home, where the oil was changed immediately, to have the vehicle in a driving condition and had a full service done the next day, everything was changed excepting the gas filter.
water got in the oil pan, thats why the car was shut off and a a result it picked up a oil leak and i noticed after awhile whenever the oil level got low the car started giving difficulty to start, and then now, the oil leak is fixed but still having the problem


can anyone help

 

Hmmm, that's an interesting problem. I really can't even think of anything. After started, does the car idle ok?

 

actually, when its starts it buckles a bit, maybe for like 5 seconds or so, then it clears up, then after that its perfectly fine. drives like a dream.

 

replace crank position sensor, and pull the VTC oil control valve and clean it really well with carb cleaner, reinstall and see if that helps. the vtc filter may have stuff in it as well, its about the size of your thumb and is top left of the head if your looking at it above water pump left of manifold runner, squareish cap over it.