So here's the scenerio. 89 crx si with stock motor/header/intake. If the car is cold and I'm driving, it will often stutter and stall in second or third gear at about 3-4k rpms. I'll sit there once it's dead, click the ignition key and hear the fuel pump fire up. Try to start it and most of the time it won't restart. If I let the car sit for an hour or so it will fire up no problem. If I drive the car for about ten minutes or so I also won't have a problem, it seems to only happen when the car is cold and it will happen within a mile of where I started it or not at all.

Could this be the main relay? I had a problem when I first got the car and it would run fine but when I drove it a long distance and went to a gas station, it wouldn't start up. Read up online and it seemed to be a common main relay prob so I resoldered it and it never had that problem again.

Since it happens on a cold engine I was thinking it was some sort of fuel pump problem and was going to replace the fuel pump. Anyone ever have a main relay problem on a cold start in second gear? I have replaced the plugs, wires, rotor cap, alternator, o2 sensor.

 

anyone?

 

I have the same problem but havent figured it out yet. How is your idle mine is for **** it idles where it wants to 900 +\- 200 depending on tempature and how hard I run the engine. I think this is the root of my problem if I adjust my idle screw to run a little higher it doesnt die when its cold so mabey try that. Where does yours idle at by the way?

 

Mine idle's about 9k but will drop a tiny bit or go up a bit. I'm guessing the problem could be: distributor, fuel pump, main relay? I'm not sure about the main relay because I soldered it due to a problem I had when it was parked at a gas station etc.

 

If the fuel pump is priming ( you can hear it whirring) after the stall, and the car still won't start what would be the main culprit? Since the fuel pump is priming would that also rule out the main relay?

The only reason I thought maybe it was the fuel pump was the honda dealer said that the fuel pump seemed a little weak. To me that would indicate that the car would stall but would start up again right? Since the car won't start up after stall and I hear the fuel pump running I wonder if it's not the pump and is actually a bad distributor?

 

Okay I think I got it fixed. Finally pulled the rug and ecu code was 15. I had replaced the distributor cap a while back but did a search and people thought it might be the ignitor. Since I didn't have time or the patience to test coil, ignitor etc I just bought a new distributor from distributor king on ebay. Hooked it up this am, reset the timing and took it for a test run. No more stumbling at 3k rpms, no dying out. Knock on wood I think that was it, thanks guys!