I recently purchased a 1994 Honda Accord Lx with the 5 speed manual transmission and the f22b motor. The car only had 143,000 original miles and drove great during the test drive. The seller wanted $1200 and I loved the car so to me that was a steal given the miles and how good it ran. It wasn't perfect, but in pretty good condition given its age and it had apparently been given proper maintenance since it was first purchased. I drove around my new car for a a couple hours and I found myself stranded in the middle of the road when the car out of nowhere stalled and the engine refused to turn back on(I know how to drive manuals so it was not user error). I was going about 45 mph when the engine suddenly died. Keep in mind, prior to this the car ran like a DREAM and did not have a cel.The car would fire and start running but then it would very quickly drop in rpm's and stutter and die a second later. If I pumped the gas pedal that helped a little, yet it would still drop in rpm's quickly and die. I checked the engine out and visually nothing seemed wrong, I even checked fuses and they all looked good as well. I knew the car was getting spark because it was trying to run and I even heard the fuel pump prime when I turned the key to the on position so the pump was working. I pushed the car into a parking lot from the side of the road and just sat there for a good 20 minutes doing nothing. I once again tried to start it and this time surprisingly it started up perfectly fine as if nothing even happened and I was able to drive it no issue. I get home and take a look a better look at it and did some research online. I came to the conclusion that my entire distributor was the culprit as it was leaking a significant amount of oil and therefore it was getting inside the seal and messing with the ignition components. I decided to just shell out the $200 at oreilly's and go for the whole distributor for what I thought would be a guaranteed end to the issues. I installed the new distributor with no problem and the car started right up. Keep in mind the car started just fine before as well, it just stalled after some driving and I did not want to get stranded again. Fast forward a couple months with no issues, out of nowhere my car suffers the same exact symptoms as I had experienced months earlier and stalls in the middle of traffic and drops in rpm's and quickly dies whenever trying to restart it. I pushed it to a parking lot and inspected the engine, I found what I had feared, once again oil was leaking out of the distributor. I was furious as I had just paid $200 for a new one from oreilly's and it had gone bad in the same exact way as the previous one. I called oreilly's and luckily it was covered under a limited lifetime warranty. I went in an exchanged it for another distributer no questions asked. I asked the employee if these get returned often and he said not at all, I assumed maybe I had just gotten a bad one by chance. The new distributer was plug n play just like the last and the car fired right up no issues and I was relieved this was finally over.... I was so wrong. Not even a week later, my car stalls out in the road AGAIN. After inspection of this distributer, no oil appears to be leaking out of it however, all the symptoms are identical to what I had experienced before. My car randomly stalled and would try to start back up but just stuttered and died. I waited about 20 min and she started right up like nothing and I drove it home. At this point, Im wondering if my car is the one thats causing all of this or maybe oreilly's sells **** parts! Im stumped, it could be something else causing the issues as I did not visually see any oil leaking from the distributer as it did before both times, however all of the symptoms are IDENTICAL to before. The brand of the distributers are optima premium. The car also recently had a tune up done; oil, oil filter, air filter, spark plugs and a brand new cap and rotor that came with the new distributers. Please help guys, I need this car to be reliable and I know the fix can't be that hard!!!

 

i would pull the main relay and see if it looks original, you can even replace it just as preventive maintenance but I think this could be an ecu issue, perhaps a junkyard 94-95 lx ecu would be a good idea

it's not common for ecu's to go bad but it does happen

 

Yeah I've been thinking that the main relay could be cutting off the fuel. I gotta probe around with my multimeter today to see. What's strange is that my car starts up just fine after stalling, however after sitting for a little while as if something needs to cool down before my car starts properly.

 

the main relay solder contacts cool down and start working again

you can pick up some starter fluid and when it doesn't start, quickly spray some in the throttle before starting, if it tries to start then it's fuel related and likely the main relay

you can even get a fuel pressure tester kit from Harbor Freight and hook it up and drive around and see if fuel pressure is cutting off when it died and doesn't start