98 Honda Civic DX Automatic 277k miles

Last week I started the car to warm up, came out 10 minutes later to the car not running, but saw the windshield had defrosted halfway telling me the car ran for 5-7 minutes before stalling. Car started up right away, drove it a couple miles to work and successfully put another 100 miles on it. Now today, 7 days later, I was driving and when I approached a stop light the car stalled again. Dash lights flash on as well. When I tried to start, it cranks and while I hold it cranking(crank is strong/normal sounding), I can feel the motor wanting to run(very weak sounding/feeling/flutterish), but the second I stop turning the engine won't stay running. Attempted 4-5 times with 10 seconds in-between starts and no luck. Waited for 2-3 minutes and it started up and drove it immediately home, turned off engine. Now its in the driveway waiting for me to troubleshoot. I've read so much on stalling issues, was really hoping to get some troubleshooting steps to start to eliminate variables and get this running again. Thanks

 

Well, if it were me I would consider 4 possible things causing this intermitent issue: fuel pump, main relay, coil or ignitor and possibly ignition switch or ecu. First I would check if when the car stalls and does not want to start=does the CEL stay on with the ignition switch in "on"(when dash lights come on) or does it go out like it should after some 10 secs or so if stays on I would look at ecu/main relay. If this is all good I would put a fuel pressure gauge on and see what kind of pressure I would have while cranking. Then I would check input to distributor (that is to the ignitor- output from ignitor to the coil's terminals. Do not bother taking the ignitor to autozone etc for testing for it's a waste of time-- I have had them tell me it tested bad when in reality it was still good. Of course an oscilloscope is best for testing ignitor and coil under load but not everyone has one.
What's throwing me off is that you say "dash light flashing" if you mean the CEL flashing then I woudl look at the distributor causing a major misfire that needs to be address immediately-- just my 2 cents since no one has given any input to your questions. Bystanders you can flame me all you want I got's me asbestos suit on.

 

What maintenance items have you replaced on the car in the past 3 years?

 

My money is on ignition switch

 

If you are the original, or long time owner, have you ever redone the distributor cap/rotor? My experience,on my D15b7, is the igniter / coil last about 10 years. I have replaced those twice in my coupe, at almost exactly 10 year intervals.

 

CEL codes stored in ECU?

 

Distributor cap/rotor-5 Years ago
Plugs/Wires- 2 Years ago
Cat and both O2 sensors- 2 Years ago

 

UPDATE:

These are the three things I did. First, I pulled the main relay and noticed what looked like two broken solder joints. Cleaned up and dropped new solder joints. Started car fine, but after idling for a few minutes, it sputtered and than died. So I don't think the main relay was the issue, I don't know. Second, swapped fuel filter for a new one as I have no record of that ever being done. Third, I also popped off dust cap on dist. and removed the corrosion from the contact points. It started great, took it around block quickly and now has been idling for 10 minutes with heat blasting to test main relay.

Now, since I have been digging deep, I found a couple threads talking about the fuel sock that is attached to the fuel pump in the tank. They claimed civics that experienced similar issues should take out back seat to access the fuel pump and inspect to see in fuel filter/sock has fallen off, cracked/loose, or is pointing a different direction other than to the front. They say that when fuel tank gets below 1/2 or 1/4, the motion of stopping and turning while driving causes air to get into fuel line and cause these intermittent stalling issues. Curiously enough, I only have about 1/8-1/4 tank of gas now. Also, historically if this civics gas tank was under 1/4 or 1/8, it would has take 2-3 times the amount of time to turn over, start and run. So a full tank car starts on first crank, where as a low tank took 3-4 cranks until it started. Don't know if that is relevant, but figured I'd share. So before I access the tank and inspect, anybody have similar experiences with the fuel pump sock?? Any thoughts??

Also, no CEL codes thrown and successfully idled for 20 mins after a quick spin around the block

 

Test your idea. Fill the tank with gas and go from there.

How did you check for CEL codes? Does the clock work?

 

Try cleaning your IACV and throttle body really good.

 

UPDATE 2

Car stalled in identical fashion to as first time. Started in morning with full tank, came back out 5-10 mins later and civic was not running. Started immediately on first crank. So I don't think I can blame a low gas tank issue. Everybody says fuel pumps in these rarely die. So before I siphon a whole tank out, Ill clean throttle body and IACV, but in the mean time, does this repeating symptom ring a bell with anybody?? Fuel delivery issue??

 

My integra wouldn't run without the IACV cleaned. It started then died. This might be your prob.

 

I don't remember the exact symptoms but several years back had a stalling issue that cleared up by taking out the throttle body and disassembling enough to clean all the moving parts. There was a lot of stickiness in there.