Hello to all. I'm yet another newbie to this forum, but hopefully it will be my home for awhile. Looks like a nice place :looks around:

I picked up a 1989 Accord for $250. Yes, it was dirt cheap, but trust me, it's definately NOT reflective of it's pricetag. The body is solid, although some of it is in primer, and it needs a paintjob. It has 143k miles on it, the interior is very clean, and it runs & drives great, after it finally starts. I bought this car for my daughter, but I'm thinking of getting her something better and keeping this Accord for myself. I love it. It's been awhile since I've looked at a nice import, and I was NOT disappointed when I looked under the hood of this car.

Sorry for rambling, here's my question:

After the car sits for awhile (sometimes even just a few hours) it won't start. It cranks great, but doesn't fire at all. After cranking it a few times for several seconds, it will usually start. When it starts, it runs great, doesn't sputter or anything, as if it had been starved of fuel, and it idles very smoothly. Because of this, I'm pretty sure it's some sort of electrical problem, but don't really know where to start looking. Any ideas? The cap & wires appear to be in great conditon. If it were that, it would idle rough after it started.

Thank you for any help!

 

Is it an LX-i? If so, check the main relay.

 

As a matter of fact, it is an LX-i
Can you tell me where I might find this relay on the car? Thanks a bunch!

BTW: is this relay specific to the LX-i, or does the LX-i just have some sort of common problem with this relay?

 

:edited to remove questions pertaining to relay: The search button is my friend.

This is an LX-i. Where does it fall in the food chain of 1989 Accords? Top? Bottom?

The only sticker on the engine that hinted anything about engine size said 2.0 .... is that right? It's got an automatic, if that makes any difference.

Thanks for bearing with me. I know these are really noob questions, but unfortunately I'm a noob again, for about the third time on auto-specific forums.


Modified by blades at 1:57 AM 8/21/2003

 

The main relay is kinda tricky to find if you don't really know exactly what you're looking for. It's way up under the dash on the drivers side, bolted to the outer panel (towards the fender) and has one plug going in to it (a flashlite or something is a must to see it). It does indeed control the fuel pump (well, half of it. There's 2 relays inside), so the reason it's not starting is cuz it's not getting any fuel. This was a super common thing on pretty much all older fuel injected Hondas (LX-i/SE-i were fuel injected, DX/LX were carb'd so they didn't have this problem), not just 3g Accords only. Usually it happens only when it's hot out and the interior is hot (such as when it's been sitting for awile), and after airing out for 5 minutes or so it will start right up. If you drop the fuse box under the dash, it opens up quite a bit of room to get up in there, but it's still a squeeze. It's held on with two small 10mm bolts.

Here's a pic of what the relay looks like...


The LX-i is the top dog for the 3g Accord line. In 1989 only there was a special edition, known as the SE-i. It came with everything the LX-i did, plus leather interior, 4 wheel disc brakes, bronze tinted windows, center armrest, cupholders, special floormats, a Honda-Bose audio system with controls on steering wheel, special SE-i wheels, and some special colors that belonged only to the SE-i. That was ony for one year though, and not a 'normal' trim level. DX was the base model, with crank windows, manual mirrors, manual locks, black bumpers and door handles, no factory A/C (and sometimes no cruise control), no fold down rear seat, sliding heater controls, 13 inch steelies with hubbies, and a carb'd engine. LX was the mid trim level, which had all the power options (cruise control, A/C, p/windows/locks/mirrors, pushbutton heat/ac controls, body colored door handles and bumpers, etc), and still had the same carb'd engine and 13 inch wheels and hubbies as the DX. LX-i has power everything (all the power stuff of the LX), plus a power sliding moonroof, center console under the stereo, better stereo and speakers, drivers lumbar seat, remote open/close for side heat/ac vents from under steering wheel, folding rear seat, nicer upolstery (and the nice beige interior!), lighted vanity mirror, larger front brake rotors and calipers, which now require 14 inch wheels (LX-i sedan came with alum. alloys), and some other stuff too. LX-i also used Nissin brakes instead of the Akebono's used on the DX and LX. Most importantly was the fuel injected engine (hence the "i" for 'injection' in LX-i). This gave it 22 more HP and 13 more ft. lbs of torque (for the 88-89 LX-i's, that is). Your engine is indeed a 2.0 liter SOHC 12 valve, and the engine code is A20A3. These were some of the most durable, dependable, reliable engines ever built (actually the 3g Accord [86-89 is 3rd generation, btw] as a whole are built like tanks and last forever, and then a few years after that, lol). They were one of the last of Hondas cast iron blocks before everything went to aluminum, which is why the A20's have sometimes adopted the nickname 'ol ironsides'. 88-89 A20A3 produced 120 HP @ 5800 RPM, and 122 ft. lbs of torque @ 4000 RPM. The carb'd engines were A20A1, and made 98 HP and 109 ft. lbs torque. 86-87 EFI produced 110 HP and 114 ft. lbs of torque. The '86 engines had different serial numbering (before A20), and the EFI engine was "BT" and the carb'd engine was "BS"

Well that was probably more info then you really needed to know, but hey info is always good. Hope that helps ya out some!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 89_LXi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The main relay is kinda tricky to find... Hope that helps ya out some! </TD></TR></TABLE>

man, hows that for a response

there isnt much more i can add to the conversation, that novel sums it all up pretty much...

i sure do miss my 88 lxi... drove that car for well over 10 years, had over 250k miles on her, except for minor things that go with age (yup, main relay also) she ran strong...

she was totaled a little over a month ago, my 6th gen that replaced it is sure nice, but it doesnt feel right... something is missing ...

 

hey man thanks for the complete post i thought i knew alot about the 3gen accords but you answered my question about my newest 3rd gen it was the engine code i was trying to figure out what the bt engine was ... but now i know ... thanks again for the info

on the car that is hard starting do the ususal and do a tune up including the cap and rotor spark plugs .. and set the timing but my guess is that your throttle body is dirty and it needs to be cleaned out ... try cleaning it out and at the same time spray throttle body cleaner in the intake to dissolve some of the black carbon in there that may be on some of the sensors if that doesent solve the problem then you need to start looking at vaccum lines and check for a intake manifold leak that can cause the problem sometimes

 

Well it's too late for me to help out with anything cause Jared covered it all. So all that I'm gonna add is to check out http://www.3geez.com that's a website that is all about the 86-89 accord, you'll find anything and everything that you would want to know about your accord there.

 

Jared, thanks SO much for that awesome response! VERY good info for a noob, as I wanted to know basically everything you posted there.

kicker1_solo: Thanks also for that link! I'm going to check that out as well, most definately.

Looks like all I need (*HOPEFULLY*) will be that relay and a new master cylinder (brake pedal sometimes goes all the way down, but the car still stops fairly well).