Hi guys! First post here; joined because I've got this thing, and it needs to get me through ONE MORE YEAR, and I hope this forum can help me.

So the car is a 1997 Accord LX 2.2 SOHC with about 237k miles on the odo. I was planning to do a timing belt next month, but now I'm faced with the specter of an old ghost - the thing will just decide to shut off while I'm driving.

Now, I know you're thinking, "screw this n00b, doesn't he know how to search??" but the thing is, I'm aware that this is, in general, a known symptom. But it turns out, several things can cause it. The last time I had this problem (I know, right??) I found that the common wisdom was that the issue came from the distributor cap. I figured, old-*** car, let's just toss some money at that whole bit; so, whole new distributor, new cap, new coil, new plugs, new wires, NO DICE. Then by chance I noticed that wiggling the wire harness to the switch (no, per the dealership via my VIN, my car is not included in the TSB) would cause funny things to happen. So, brand new ignition switch swapped onto the existing key cylinder, and boom - Rhonda the Honda lives again!

I have also replaced the alternator recently, after the original died and went to rebuild heaven.

So now, the car just started doing this nonsense again; driving down the road, hunky-dory, and voomph! the engine shuts off. Mostly it'll fire right back up with a turn of the key, but then turn off again either immediately or once the engine revs up above, say, 1500RPM-ish (I had to limp it home a few blocks at 1200RPM once).

Also a recent issue, sometimes when stopped in gear and idling, power output from the charging system will drop, causing a dramatic decrease in the brightness of various lights and speed of the heater blower. Once earlier today, it actually resulted in all accessories turning off for a moment (although the engine continued to run). This can be temporarily alleviated by revving the engine a bit. I checked the alternator belt, and it appears to be snug (I can't quite twist it ninety degrees). Also, the battery cables are both tight, and like I said, it seems to make plenty of juice when you hit the starter (battery is dated 1/13). Any thoughts or suggestions there?

So now, I'm wondering if maybe it's the famous PGM-FI Main Relay - how can I verify that before I spend the fifty bucks?

Thanks in advance for any help;

Cheers!

 

Have you checked your grounds? And are you sure the alternator is OK? Check the plug on the alternator and maybe smear a little dielectric grease on the contacts.

 

Main ground cable is good; I haven't checked the alternator because it's less than a year old. I'll fiddle with that next. PGM-FI main relay checks out good. Any other suggestions? I really don't think the alternator is causing the engine to shut off.

 

You can easily pull out the Main relay and inspect it for cracks. You may want to go ahead and add some solder to the contacts anyway just in case, that's what I did with mine.


Did you put a meter on and see what the charging system is doing. I found a simple gauge that i can plug into the accessory outlet to monitor my voltage, it was cheap from amazon and comes in handy.


Generally if the alternator is bad the car will die then wont restart because the battery is dead. from what you have said i wouldn't think that's the issue, also i wouldn't think the battery is an issue either considering the car is able to restart off the battery.


I think the top 2 things to investigate are the Ignition switch, which you replaced already or the main relay.


I have had a handful of bad ignitors, due to running an external MSD COIL, not anymore tho. The car would bog at medium rpm and sometimes i could keep it running by hitting the gas hard and other times it would die and then struggle to start or start then die.