Honda Car Forum

Hello, I have a 89 DX 1.5L manual that is not starting. It will crank (starter engages and turns motor over) but will not fire. It will every 20 seconds or so kind of barley stutter, but barley noticeable. The fuel pump is priming with good pressure and you can smell gas after about a minute of cranking. I pulled the number 1 plug to check for spark and it seemed kind of week(reddish-yellow, not a sharp blue) thus, I replaced the cap and coil with no changes. I bought a module for it but can't figure out how to get the old one off. The screws are impossible to get to even with the coil out. So I thought I’d check the spark on the other cylinders for shits and giggles. I'm not sure but I think this is a separate problem, Oil on the threads of #3 and #4. Assuming the o-rings under the v-cover need to be replaced, not a ring problem. So I can assume the main relay, the fuel pump relay, coil, and cap are all good. It is getting spark so I assume it is not the module but I’ll throw it on to rule it out if someone can tell me how to get to the fu**in screws.
Any suggestions???????

Sorry for the LOOONG read,
Justin

Go Here Read This

Main Relay Fix, Troubleshooting (Honda, Acura) and how to solder

To quote the Article you directed me to "Basically, if the fuel pump is running the main relay is fine. " My fuel pump is running. Unless i missed something my main relay should be fine right??

Yes.. If you can hear the fuel pump running your main relay is functioning... It the problem is intermittent... Starts sometimes and just cranks other times look to the main relay as to the source of the problem....

Im currently having the latter problem with my 99 ..... I have found another way to test the MAIN Relay that seems to be logical... The failure of the main relay basically comes from poor factory solder joints... I found that If I repeatedly keep starting the car and shutting it off and a sequence of about 5 times the relay will heat up the solder joints enough to expand them and create a failure..... Let it cool and it will start again... You see as the solder joint gets hot they separate and offer no continutiy in the circuit......

Rich King
NJ

well you need three things to make a car run, air, fuel, and spark, turn the key on and listen for the fuel pump turn on, if it does, then check your spark, use the number one wire, if you have spark, then check your air filter, if all theose are good then check you fuel filter, and all the side objectives, live like all of your major sensors starting with the main relay.

Justin.............

Just curious!

Did you find that answers helped?

Did you get the problem resolved?

If you did... What was the problem?????

Getting these answers at the end of a problem sometimes will help other in determining their problems.......

Rich King
NJ

FIXED

I pulled the main relay today... Seems that honda is using the ROHS crap solder.... I re-soldered all the connections using the good old rosin core lead and pluged everything back together... The car kicked right over... Tomorrow at noon will tell the tale.... I parked the car tonight so it will get full sun up until about 2 o'clock... That means the interior temp will be somewhere around 100 deg F.... If its gonna fail I will know it by tomorrow afternoon...

All looks good.....

Rich...........