Hey Anyone...or everyone...

I'm new to the boards and I have a 92 Accord that I'm buying from a friend of a friend situation. I'm still paying for the thing but I love the car.

I've never really worked on cars or at least I use to watch my dad all the time work on the jeep and trucks. I'm a noob but not technically incompetent. I just don't know how to trouble shoot vehicles or best practices. With that in mind, I want to start to work on this thing myself and at least try and save a little in repairs.

I'm experiencing a few problems with it.

In colder and wet weather it starts hard. By hard I mean it cranks alot with no results. So far I have been able to get it to start typically by making sure the relay 'clicks'. Its hit and miss whether it will start the first second or tenth time but so far its started.

The other issue I noticed with this is that it will occationally hesitate and sputter like. But hesitate I mean i can hit the gas to pass or get on the free way and it nothing seems to happen. It feels like it wants to stall but it hasn't. If i let off the gas it seems to correct itself and then i can get going. In wetter weather it seems to sputter a bit. Meaning i step on the gas and its accelerating but not smoothly. Sometimes backing off the gas and letting to adjust itself seems to help but I can also stomp the gas through it. It has not stalled yet.

My my noobness I would have thought fuel pump. But that brought up some questions for me...mostly on how it works. Does it only supply fuel at time of start and then turn off or does it drive fuel continuously?

I talked to a local shop and they suggested it was more likely a distributor assembly issue. I have a clean looking engine compartment at the moment so there is no grime and oil. I did notice oil on the bottom of my distributor cap but i have not pulled the cap to determine if thats an internal or external leak.

Another thought I had was just to replace the whole Dist Assm being a noob. Based on searching I thought this might be my easiest option. It sounds like I can either put it on right or 180 out.

I'm also assuming it has spark since it does start. I could be wrong with this. And there might be other issues I'm not aware of.

Or I could just give the car back to the owner lol.

Anyway...thanks for the time and my noobness. I'm sure I'll ask a lot of dumb questions.

 

I would pull the cap and see its an easy enough task. Also when was the last tune up?

 

I was quoted 1-2 years ago for new wires, plugs. No mention of the cap or anything. I suspect that's too long.

 

Like I mentioned its three screws to take off your cap jjust to look inside. Also if you oil in the cap, the seals are bad and theres a great how to in the FAQ or even posted just a little futher down on the treads. Good luck

 

I don't know when your post was posted, but I have a 90 Honda Accord. I had the same starting problem and found out it was the Main relay that was bad. the solder joints crack and cause this problem. replace it with a new one and that should solve that problem. You can resolder the joints on the old one.