I have a 99 Accord EX V6 3.0L that has had a quirky stalling problem since 2014 I'd like to solve because it seems to have gotten progressively worse this year.

I took it to a mechanic several years ago but he was not able to get it to do the problem and there was no CEL codes to read from so he wasn't able to solve it.

It always follows the same pattern and this is what it does:

1) The car will stall and sputter (loses power and bogs down) only after it has been driven a short distance and parked and started again (like on a trip to the grocery store)

2) It never seems to do it for the first drive of the day. In other words, it will never stall when I first start the car and drive to the store, it only stalls when I start the car again and try to drive home.

3) The stalling and sputtering is usually very brief and will suddenly disappear on its own usually after only a few minutes and then the car runs fine after that with no problems

4) It has never triggered a CEL

6) It has been very intermittent. Up until this year it would only happen maybe 2-4 times per year and it was such a brief problem I just considered it more of a nuisance.

7) When it does happen it will do it for consecutive days, typically 2-3 days then disappear for months.

8) It might have been triggered sometimes by sudden temp drops + rainy weather, but there have been plenty of times when its been rainy and cold and no stalling issues at all so its been a head scratcher

9) The problem first started when I had the catalytic converter replaced in 2014. It did it on the way home from the shop but it was very brief and only did it once more that day and then ran fine for several months before it did it again. I called the mechanic that installed the CC that same day and he said he couldn't think of any reason why a new CC would cause it to stall

As I mentioned, it's gotten worse this year and has done it for the past 3 days now and the severity of the stalling is worse (loses massive amounts of power) and its taking longer for it to snap back to normal. I had the MAP sensor tested and it was good and no obvious cracked intake hoses.

I can't seem to find anything else on the web that fits the description of this problem. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

 

plug wires? look at night , spray water with spray bottle , see any arcs? Coil on plug perhaps not. Worth a look see.

Hot soak? If so, get hot soak kit and drill out EGR passage, replace FPR with hot soak unit.

 

I would have guessed a crack in a hose or plastic connector somewhere that is slowly causing the issues. WHen cold, the car is in not in open loop, so whenever it gets into open loop, and starts relying on something (maybe EGR, maybe all the other things attached to the intake manifold, something is leaking or cracked). Maybe even a lazy O2 sensor.

So, no CEL, but you can get a scanner and watch it while driving to see if anything unusual pops out at you (like a lazy O2).

I like the hot soak idea unit idea as well.