I need help, I have a 1995 Honda Accord in excellent condition, garaged its whole life. Interior looks new, only 148,000 miles.
Right now I am experiencing an issue in which the car will crank, run for 2-3 seconds and then turn off. But, on random occasions, I can crank it and it will run for 15 minutes or I can drive it hard and nothing will happen (a/c on, lights on, etc). I even paid the dealership $120 to diagnosis it and they were wrong. (suggested main/fuel relay).
So far this has been changed: Distributor, main relay and I am $500 deep into this problem with no solution in sight.
Should I sell it? Any suggestions or ideas for the problem?

Any good specialty shops? Because the Honda dealership clearly doesn't know what they are doing. Please help, this is my daily driver.

Also, I did search the forum before posting, that's where I got the distributor idea from.

 

if i had to guess I would say the ecu might be bad, but when it dies you need to immediately check for spark using a spark tester and for fuel

 

I asked Honda about the ECU and they indicated that it was good, but now I am no longer sure if I trust them. How can I test the ECU?

 

not really a way to foolproof test an ecu but you can take it and pop it open and see if there are any burned spots or capacitors in it, if so then you can either replace the capacitors or replace it with a junkyard unit of the same year make model and trim

even if it looks good it can still be bad, 'though

 

Gotcha, thanks! I'll see what I can find at a local junkyard and I will update the thread!

 

Check the fuel pressure. I am thinking bad pump or something else causing it to not get enough fuel.

 

So I narrowed it down some more. When I turn the key all the off and then turn it foward just so the pump primes, it can be heard priming. Then I proceed to crank the car and it cranks runs for 1-2 seconds then turns off.
Hears the kicker!
If I try to crank it again, without turn the key all the way to the (o) symbol it turnsover but doesn't crank. But! If I spray starter fluid in the intake it cranks but dies.
What do you all think?

 

About to get a junkyard fuel pressure regulator and let yall know what happens

 

It wasn't the regulator. Now I am thinking fuel pump but it primes just fine. I got the car running yesterday, probably luck, but today it started right back doing the same thing.

There are other threads on here with the same issue; however, none of them end with solution. Maybe they give up?

 

Also, I opened up and checked both sides of the ECU, no signs of anything being burned.

 

im thinking either the lock cylinder or the ignition switch, is the key loose ?

 

The key is loose, but jiggling it with the car running doesn't cause it turn off. This started a few weeks after I took the fuel pump fuse out and left it out for a couple of days so that the car couldn't be stolen (coincidence or not?). I got another (new) fuse, same amperage, but that didn't have a positive effect on the issue either.

 

normally the main relay turns on and if the ecu doesn't detect the car starting up then it turns the main relay back off in a few seconds and this is what it sounds like is happening, if it was me I would swap out the ecu with a junkyard model of the same year make, model, trim, and tranny

 

Giving switching the ECU a shot this weekend. I'll be sure to update the thread *fingers crossed*

 

Does the inside of ecu smell like fish or are any of the caps tenting upwards? When has the last time routine maintenence been performed on the egr system?

 

It did not smell like fish, but quite a few of the internal components were leaning (not sure if normal or not). In reference to the EGR question, I am unsure; however, the car does have a new muffler system.

 

New (junkyard) ECU = So far so good (fingers crossed). I will give it a week or so before I can say that it was and is the for sure fix. I will update the thread next Sunday. BTW, big thanks for the helps guys!
ECU was actually out of a 1994 with 230k miles, but the ECU sticker numbers matched up and it cranked right up. Has 30day warranty (from Pull-a-Part)

 

awesome, let's keep our fingers crossed

 

Still good so far *fingers still crossed*. Hopefully this post helps someone else. Like @holmesnmanny stated, even if the ECU looks bad it could be bad (this was the case with mine). If I had to do this over, the first thing I would have done is check to see if it was a fuel or spark problem (I would've saved some $$$). Nonetheless, don't take it to a dealership haha, it's an old car and they're use to plugging up OBD ports (I could've saved some money there too). Almost $600 later, a $40 junkyard ECU appears to have done the trick. Also, if you have a similar problem, its likely not the fuel pressure regulator (I saw cars with 230,000+ miles that still had the OEM fuel pressure regulator at the junkyard).

Thank again to all those that helped.