Ok, first off, my wife ran our 2000 Accord 2.3 out of gas last night... FAIL.

I went to her rescue, filled it up with 5 gallons, got it to start but when trying to accelerate at all, it boggs down, stumbles, attempts to die, until upper rpm's. Very typical stuff for an injected car that has been run dry, but I did get it home.

I was a Honda tech for a few years so I know my way around it, but this time, im stumped.

Went out this morning to fix her up and it would not start at all. I started with the basics, made sure I had spark on all 4, put in inline fuel pressure gauge on it, 54psi, at the fuel rail, perfect. Pulled the fuel pump from the tank, cleaned and inspected, all is well, replaced. Manually fired the injectors, all are clicking fine. Pulled the fuel return line from the fuel pressure regulator and cycled the fuel pump to flush the fuel rail. Made sure the battery has plenty of juice, 12.6v. Checked voltage at the injectors, 12v on all.

Still nothing.

Spark plugs are dry as a bone just after attempting to start, so the injectors are not firing, but they will fire manually. Im lost at this point. Any suggestions?

 

When the manually fired did they spray fuel? I wonder if running the tank dry let something clog the injector screens.

 

was going to guess the same thing

 

I didnt remove the injectors so I could not visually confirm if they were squirting, but the plugs were dry after manually firing them so it is possible that the screens are clogged, but could they really be that clogged. So much so that it wouldnt run at all?

Also, I sprayed either into the manifold and tried starting it off that, still nothing which is really strange, because I already confirmed the there is spark.

What about crank angle sensor, TPS, or fried ECU?

I also just tried pulling the code, but nothing came up, but the ECU has been reset a lot today while removing the battery terminals when doing the fuel pump.

 

removed the injectors today, hooked a line to them one by one and filled the line with injector cleaner, attached 40 psi of air to the line and manually fired the injectors forcing the cleaner through them, reinstalled, and it started first try.

Still, has the same bogging down when nearly any gas is applied, misfiring and sputtering.
Throwing the misfire code on multiple cylinders.

Where to go from here, im not sure???

 

As someone said, letting the tank get completely empty probably let some debris or junk get sucked into the fuel line. Sounds like a job for Seafoam.

 

Or a fuel filter changeout.

 

theres no inline fuel filter on the 2000 2.3, there is the screen on the fuel pump assembly, and a small screen where the gas exits the pump on the assembly, but no standard engine bay or under car fuel filter.

had already bought the seafoam, doing that today!

 

If the Seafoam gets you enough combustion going to get the car sputtering and stumbling again like it did when you put some gas back in it, perhaps find a clear stretch of road and FLOOR IT. I'm talking about an old-fashioned blowout. You might even get a backfire or two, or three, which will be the vapor pockets or water, or whatever finally surrendering to smooth fuel flow. It's not a pleasant process, but throttling the thing hard at brief intervals over several miles might help your fuel system help itself.