Hey guys,

I have spent days searching for problems similar to mine and their solutions. I apologize for the long post, all details may be relevant...

My 1999 Accord EX V6(Auto trans) has about 192k mi. A couple weeks ago, after a 45 min drive-mostly highway, it started idling roughly/low at stops. Got to the destination, car sat for about 10 mins. Went to start it again and it would crank, but not fire. After 3 tries it started, idling kind of rough for the first minute or so but smoothed out and ran fine all the way back home.
Turned out my check engine light bulb was burnt out, replaced bulb and scanned for codes. 9 present: P0705, P0706, P1362, P0174, P0170, P0131, P0171.
Regarding the two trans codes for the range sensor: No issues noted with trans, goes into park just fine, has had slight issues with delayed shifting in the past. Haven't noticed any in quite a while.
The TDCS code: I had timing belt/water pump replaced maybe 6 months ago. The guy who did it broke the plastic cover/shield on that side of the motor which sits directly on top of that connector. I believe in messing with this cover, or in doing the timing belt job he also broke the connector for the crank/tdcs sensor. It was sitting together, but not locked on because the connector was broken. Got a new connector from the junkyard.
I suspect the last 4 codes were all from the upstream o2 sensor, replaced it. Cleared all codes.
The problem remains: Car will fire right up in the morning. I can confirm that if I start it shortly after turning it off, say to fill up gas tank, it will fire up just fine...but once it sits for 20 minutes to even 2.5 hours, it will crank for much longer than normal before firing. It will idle rough, not quite like it wants to die, but a slight shaking like it's misfiring until I get up to speed. Then it smooths out and will be perfectly fine.
Have replaced the distributor itself(mine was leaking badly behind the rotor and we could not find the seal anywhere to replace), new cap and rotor, new spark plugs and wires.
I read about the heat soak issue, my model year is not a part of the TSB. Still, ECT sensor tested normal with multimeter, as did ignition coil. Main relay solder points look fine, I do hear clicking. I have not ruled this out yet because it's hard to hear the clicks with the key chime, also I feel like the buzz of the fuel pump turning on used to be more audible. Battery is fine, it cranks great-not slow or too fast.

I am stumped because once its running, it drives great. No loss of power or stumbling. We did notice that after changing all of the above, exhaust smells a lot worse/rotten egg like there may be an issue with the catalytic converter, but that would not cause the long crank issue?
No codes have returned since changing these parts and clearing codes a week ago.
Reminder-it does start every time. It does not start and then die like a lot of other posts I've seen here. Just takes a lot longer to crank. When it takes an exceptionally long time to fire while cranking, I smell fuel. I know I need to do more technical tests such as fuel pressure and compression, and I will be renting the kits to do these tests, but it seems to have all the components needed to run... do any of you have ideas?

Thanks for reading through and for any advice!

 

1705/1706 would affect starting in that it should not allow the engine to crank.
I would purchase a new timing belt cover and make sure the crank sensors are properly protected and aligned correctly.
Check over your engines wire harness, if the guy who broke the cover did a hack job he may have damaged other parts of the harness.

 

Thank you for replying. The timing belt cover itself is still in good shape. The cover that was broken attaches to the intake manifold. Check engine light finally came back on, but the only code was P0705 again.
We checked the timing through the view hole on the front cam and it looks good. We checked fuel pressure and compression with the proper gauges and both tested within spec. Also tested for vacuum leaks by spraying every line with carb cleaner, didnt find any.
The only thing we've found so far is the intake air temp sensor resistance was bouncing all over the place in and out of spec when tested off the motor. There has never been a code for this, but I read that can also affect starting and idle so I've ordered a new one.
We had a friend hook up his fancy snap on scanner when this first started and the only thing he found abnormal was the throttle position sensor was reading at -0.6 but once he stepped on the throttle a bit it jumps into spec. We will test this sensor today.
The car now will crank for a long time everytime you try to start it. Though its fuel injected we have noticed if you give it a 1/4 to 1/2 pedal while cranking it will fire right up. I also put a can of seafoam in the gas tank. Was hesitant about this but everyone suggested doing it. There are no obvious bad wires or connectors but I will dig into the harness some more. Thanks again.

 

I have had the transmission range sensor issues and spontaneous "start -> die" since 2012. After replacing the main fuel relay this past August after it failed completely (despite solder points looking fine), these issues resolved completely. I am not suggesting that this is your issue, but I think given the age of your vehicle many electrical components can corrode on the inside and that you should consider this as a possible cause.

 

I should have mentioned in my last long post that I actually got a new main relay and it didn't change anything so I returned it and put my old one back in.
We took it out for a drive and it was hard starting and missing/vibrating a bit at idle. Unplugged the egr valve and drove a bit, then it was perfectly fine. Plugged it back in and the shaking returned. I had other issues 6 months ago and we put a new egr valve on to fix it. Warranty exchanged the egr valve and it's been completely fine for the past week. There were never any codes. I am concerned it has the common issue where carbon builds up in the egr passages(TSB 99-085) but I don't want to spend $800+ to have the dealer put a special tube in the intake to prevent the problem, nor do I want to tear everything apart to clean it out and attempt to install the pipe myself now that winter is here. I plan to keep exhcnaging the egr valve if I have to and ride it out as long as I can.