Ok for starters if this is the wrong place to post this please just move it for me dont delete it. And I know this is a lot of info or what not but please be patient enough to read it and try to help me. I'm only giving so much info because I think it might help somebody help me.

I really need to get my car fixed in 9 days because I have to be out of the place I'm living in by then. I cant leave my car sitting here when I go because the landlord will have it towed and I can not afford and impound fee ect.

My car is a 1992 honda prelude it doesnt have the vtec the guy i got it from told me it was a 4.2 liter engine but after lookin up engines online it seems he may of got it backwards because it looks more like a 2.4 liter

Anyways the car always started right up and ran great most of the time. Although sometimes it would kind of idle down and sputter a little like it was about to die and then rev itself. It would do this for like 3-4 mins then idle n run fine. It only did this every once in a while in other words not a lot. Sometimes it would die on me but it would always start right back up. Sometimes it would also die on me while i was downshifting when slowing down and stopping for stop signs and traffic lights. One day my car died and it would not start back up. It cranks but it doesnt start but when I first put the key to on i hear a click which i think is the main relay so it should be good right?

extra info

Ok so I let my batter charge off a friends car today by hooking it up to his battery with jumper cables and letting his car run to charge my battery for about 20 minutes. I put my battery back in my car after that and the first thing i did was turn the key on and lisened to the fuel pump. It primed or whatever so i pushed in the clutch n cranked it. Started right up. Now the problem is it ran for about 5 minutes with a little sputter when i reved it but very little then it died and wouldnt start again. So I figured mabe the alternator is bad and the car ran off the battery till it was to low to keep the car running so I hooked it back up to my friends n charged it some again but this time when I put it back in my car I didn't hear the fuel pump prime and the car wouldnt start.

would my problem be that the alternator is bad and the battery doesnt have enough juice to start the car and keep it running?

Note it cranks over just dont start.

 

Does it crank slow? That is not an alternator issue sounds like your battery is toast. Do you have a multimeter? A good battery would allow you to start it and drive awhile before it died on you if you had just charged it.

 

Kinda but it wasnt a full charge or nothin like I said I only let it charge a little while on jumper cables from an idling car. And if the alternator is bad the car would run off just the battery and drain it quick tho right?

 

Sounds like an intermittent problem with the fuel pump or main relay especially if you didnt hear it prime the second time around.

If it cranks thats a good sign. I would say either fuel pump or main relay. Both arent too terribly hard to do.

 

If it cranks we'll and does not start you have an issue outside of the starting/charging system. Now you have to find out if it is fuel, spark, or if its mechanical

 

I agree, main power/injection relays are common and can be repaired usually by re soldering the cracked joints

 

If its a good battery then no it would not drain "quick". You said you had them hooked up for 20 minutes, that is long enough to let the batteries equalize enough to run your car for awhile. It is possible it could still be the battery, I've had one that turned the car on just fine, drove somewhere, then tried to turn the car on and it was completely toast.

You didn't answer my question do you have a multimeter or not? This is the first and easiest thing to check. If it's below 12V then your battery needs charged. But if your fuel pump didnt prime then it very well could be a fuel problem as well....

 

To answer your question, no I dont have a multimeter. Also the battery isnt completely dead it will still crank the car over now just wont start. I just checked to see if my fuel pump would prime again and it did but it kinda gurgled turned ignition off n back on and it did the same thing again tried to start it but wouldnt start. Clogged fuel pump filter mabey?

 

How many miles?

Filters are cheap I would just go ahead and do that, can't go wrong there but I am still leaning toward the pump.

If it were me I would replace both. Probably less than $100

 

265k but the motor was swapped at 180k at some point or another the fuel pump or fuel pump filther has been replaced. I don't know when but I can tell it has because the plate has been taken off before I can tell because they only put 1 screw back in it so that it can be spun open and closed.

Anyways I managed to get my car running so I reved the **** out of it a few times and so far it has stayed running for the past 20 minutes now. I listened to the fuel pump for about 5 minutes and its not making any funny noises at all just a smooth hum.

^^^^^^^ Does this rule out the pump itself?^^^^^^^^

Don't know if that info will give you any opinions or ideas but I kinda hope it might help figure out why it wouldnt start n run the past 2 weeks.

 

I still think it might be the battery. The battery "self charges" after you let it sit, which means the cells balence eachother which gives you a little more cranking power the next time. With the car running its obviously running off your alternator. If it happens again try using your friends battery. If that's not the issue then there could be a relay going out

 

Honestly I think there was a clog or somethin dirty in the fuel. It kept starting after I did all that stuff earlier so I waited a little bit then checked to see if it would start again and it did. So I went to the gas station n put a half tank of gas in there and bought a bottle of intake cleaner n put it in the tank n let it run for about 15-20 mins after that and it seems to run smoother and the idle is a lot more stable now ect. Hopefully the intake cleaner will keep it that way but thanks for trying to help buddy. I'll let you know if I have anymore problems.

 

Really? That's cool, I'm glad it wasn't an issue you had to throw a lot of money at. Hopefully that's all it was!

 

Well its doing it again but I hear all the clicks as far as for the relay so I'm guessing my fuel pump is either going out or has went out on me so I ordered a new fuel pump on ebay is it hard to put them in? I'm no mechanic but I'll have to do it myself. lol

 

not hard at all buddy take out the rear seats and unbolt the inspection panel

 

I didn't even have to take out the seats, just lifted the cushions up and had enough room to change the fuel pump. Like Gaz said, it's really easy.