Hey everybody,

I have a 1991 Honda accord with the 2.2L engine. I have owned the car for about 5 months now. It runs great with no issues and has about 150k miles on it. Recently however, the car has been giving me some problems when I try and start it up. 9 times out of 10 in the morning, the car will start right up with no issues. Sometimes though it will start harder and sometimes I will have to push down on the throttle to get it started. The biggest problem though is when I start the car after sitting for 10 hours at work. Recently it has been giving me problems nearly every day. It will not start right away, and I always have to put the gas pedal to the floor for it to start up. Some days it will start to sputter like it wants to die and sometimes once it's running then it is fine. I tried replacing the main relay, but that did not solve my problem. It almost seems like it is choking for fuel when it starts to sputter, but I can always hear the fuel pump come on. Also, the car never has had an issue once driving. It's only the initial startup. Any one experience something like this and have any advice?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Is it running rich at all by any chance ?

When you're holding down on the throttle, your cutting off the injectors firing command.

Leaving the unburnt fuel deposit that's been sitting inside the cylinders for proper combustion and startup. Sounds like it's flooding.

 

On any fuel injected car, when you push down on the throttle when starting the car you are not giving it more gas since the gas is controlled by the ecu not the throttle.

This issue is usually related to the ECT sensor located below the distributor and it has two prongs on it. If you measure the prongs with a digital meter it should read around 2500 ohms when the car is completely cold and around 180-400 when the car is completely warmed up.

 

^Makes sense as to why it's dumping a lot more fuel prior to startup when cold.

But how does the car startup at operating temperature ?

 

The car starts fine when it is warm. If I drive it for a little bit until normal operating temperature and then turn it off, it always fires back up right away. I am going to check the ect sensor today to see if that may be it.

 

Alright, well I tried to check the ect sensor and the plug broke as I was taking it off. So, I just went ahead and replaced it for $15. I will report back if this cures my problem or not.