2002 Accord V6 J30A1 130k miles

Brand new all in the past 10k miles:
Spark plugs
Main relay
Fuel pump
Transmission fluid
Battery
Seafoam in crankcase and gas tank

Car has intermittent throttle issues including brief loss of power and irregular throttle response. Sometimes has difficulty upshifting, I assume due to lack of power. Cold starts are mostly fine, warm starts can be problematic. Most of the time it starts up fine but sometimes it will start to turn over, idle really low for a few seconds then die off. When it does this the whole car vibrates like crazy. Sounds like a manual car stalling out from lack of gas. When this happens I have to turn the key 10-20 times while pumping the gas pedal and praying that she will start. Sometimes this doesn’t work and I have to let her sit for 20 minutes until I can try again. CEL never comes on, there are no codes to check. The problem is occurring more and more frequently with each passing month.

 

CEL never comes on? Meaning when you turn the key to on/pos II it doesn't come on for ~3 seconds and then go off?

Or it never comes on while driving?

What is the age of the O2 sensors?

 

CEL never comes on when driving, the light works fine when I turn it to pos 2.

original O2 sensors, I'm going to track my gas mileage to make sure that is the issue but it sounds like the right symptoms.

took to my regular mechanic and a new one - the most well-known independent Honda shop in the city - and neither was able to reproduce the problem. seems to happen more often on triple digit heat days.


anything else i should look into / keep an eye out for, in case it's not the O2 sensors?

thanks

 

Can't remember which 6th gen v6's were prone to "vapor lock". The "hot" start issues has been covered several times. You can do an internet search and read more about this and "see" if it sounds like the issue you are having when starting the car.

Some have had luck with a new t-stat helping the "hot start issues" - I know sounds strange but I have seen it. Others have gone to the point of changing the fuel rails and that from an Ody as it had a different design.

Tracking the MPG now might not show you much - again over time O2's get lazy/slow. So if they/it is already there, the MPG's are already down.