91 Accord won't start after 1 month non use

Please help!

91 accord 2.2, was parked up for approx 1 month and now will not run, was
running fine beforehand.

Sometimes it will start and run for a short period of time, between 5 and 20
seconds, then misses and dies.

I have cleaned up the plugs, checked the inside of the dizzy for damp etc,
still no good.

Could the fuel pump have partially siezed? Any ideas of where to start
gratefully recieved

 

Thus spake Me on 1/11/2004 7:26 AM:

You might just have bad gas in it. Try tossing a can of line dryer in
your tank.

-moitz-

 

Could be a bad main relay. There is a starting circut for the fuel
pump (first of the two relays in the main relay). Problem could be a
little or very intermittant, usually during extreme temperatures.

See the following taken from previous posts:



=============================================
Hi all-
I've got a 91 Accord LX that drives me crazy sometimes. In the cold
weather,
no problems whatsoever, but when it gets warm outside (which it is
starting
to in my area) it sometimes won't start. Here are the symptoms:

-When it's warm out AND the car is totally warm from driving, every
once in
awhile it won't start, like after getting gas or something.
- I let it sit for awhile and it finally starts (never consistent,
sometimes
5 minutes, sometimes a few hours)
- When it won't start, the engine turns over, and almost catches, but
then
immediately dies- this tells me no problems with battery or starter.
- It has never just quit running in middle of traffic, at a stop
light, or
anything like that, once it's running, it runs until I cut it off.
- I thought it may be a gas tank vapor lock, but even releasing the
cap and
letting pressure escape, still doesn't help.
- I replaced the ignition module, and the problem seemed to go away
for a
few weeks, but maybe it was just coincidental. The problem may only
happen
once a week, once a month, or once a day- it's totally unpredictable.
- I replaced plugs and wires, not trying to fix the problem, but just
because they were way overdue to be replaced. This, as expected, had
no
effect on the problem.
- I took the car to precision tune (lol) and they couldn't find
anything
wrong with it, even though they kept it for a few days, it always
started
without no problem.
- It finally happend to me one day in the driveway, and not at a gas
station, store, etc. so I was able to do more diagnostics. What I
found was
that when it wouldn't start, there was either no spark, or just a
spark
occasionally when turning the engine over. I tried this on each
individual
plug, all were the same.
- I can't remember, but I believe I also changed the cap & rotor when
I did
the plugs and wires.

Does anyone out there have any info on this huge annoyance?? It sucks
having
to leave the car running in fear of it not starting after I get gas,
smokes,
and a six-pack at the store!!!!

Thanks in advance for ANY info!

===========================================

It's not the typical description of the problem, but still:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the "main relay" (also the fuel
pump
relay). They are failure prone on the 90-93 Accords (at least), just
search
this newsgroup in google.

If your relay has the typical broken solder joint problem, then an
intermittent problem with rough-running/quitting would result. Please
do
the search. There are web-sites (some from people in this NG) with
colorful
pictures of the relay location and how to replace it, even how to
inspect
it. The typical trigger for the symptoms are hot weather, although
once the
contacts are broken, you can get the no-start, or engine-quit symptoms
in
any weather.

If you've never had the main relay replaced, then I would start there.
Good
luck, post back with results!

-Arthur

========================================================
The usual symptom is the engine will not start when engine was shut
off after running for a while. Often after getting gas the car will
not start. A couple of minutes later when a little cooler it runs
fine. Could also happen when very cold but I think mostly during very
warm/hot.

Heres a link to a great site to identify and fix the main relay
problem. It helped me tremendously when I had the problem with
my '91 Accord. The cracked soldier joint was very hard to spot.
Even when knowing exactly what to look for. Mine was just a little
mark on one post (didn't look like even a crack). When un-soldiering
this joint the soldier melted differently than the other joints.

http://www.markl.f9.co.uk/howto/electrical/main-relay/main-relay.htm

==========================================================

 

Is the gasoline also only 1month old? That would not be enough to make the
gas go bad but there are some odd things happening with the modern
gasohols, which can pull in water from a humid atmosphere.

After it dies, it stays "dead"... and won't kick again?

Did you take the plugs out right after the above 5-20sec run? Were they
wet with gasoline? That'd tell you it's at least getting (some) gas.

Turn the ignition on and listen for the fuel pump humming for ~2secs - it's
not loud so close the doors/windows and listen carefully toward the rear
seat. Repeat this a couple of times to be sure it repeats. If OK it's
probably not the main relay.

A similar scenario to yours happened to our '92 Integra - would run for a
few secs and then die and not restart for several hours, when it would
repeat the above. It was at college at the time so I have to trust the
diagnosis and fix the Acura dealer told my daughter. They changed the
igniter and all was fine. In case you don't know, the igniter is an
electronic replacement for the old contact points - it's bolted to the
inside of the distributor.

Before replacing the igniter, which is not cheap, I'd check for spark and
check all relevant electrical connections and grounds. Since the
difference in ambient temps over that month could be making a difference, I
think I'd also check the resistance of the coolant temp (TW) sensor. It's
screwed into the cylinder head end just under the distributor - the one
with a two wire connector - and it should measure ~5k Ohms at 0°C,
decreasing with higher temps to ~100 Ohms at operating temp. It's used by
the ECU to decide how much to "choke" on cold starts.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

No compression? Might need lubricants the cylinder walls.