Honda Car Forum

I have a 1999 Accord with 125K miles and I am trying to solve a problem that my mechanic and I have been working to solve. When it rains, I sometimes have trouble getting the car to turn over first thing in the morning and when it does start, the car will sometimes hesitate or even stall out after I drive a short distance. (Of course every time I drop the car off at the mechanic he has yet to experience this and I even let the car sit at his shop overnight to see if a cold, wet night might reproduce the condition.) In my experience, once the engine is warmed up, the car seems to run ok. Except for last night when I left work. It was pouring down rain when I started the car, which by the way, started right away. But after driving down the highway at 55 mph for about 3-4 miles in the pouring rain, I could feel the car misfire 2 or 3 times to the point where I felt the need to downshift (5 spd manual) to prevent a stallout. This morning the car started right away but stalled out going 25 mph up a steep hill about 2 miles into the morning commute. It was wasn't raining this morning but it had rained hard the day before and car body was covered with condensation and rain water. Any ideas on what this could be? Could it be water getting into the distributor and then the engine eventually drying out the moisture when the engine temperature goes up?

I have an almost identical situation with my '99 Civic Hatchback DX. It only occurs after a very heavy rainfall or if I don't start my car for several days in wet, humid conditions. I don't have any trouble getting it started, but for the first few miles, when I try to accelerate, it sputters and nearly stalls out. After a couple times, though, it isn't a problem. It happens infrequently and I know if I take it to a mechanic, he won't witness the same issues.
It happened again yesterday morning, and for the first time ever, my check engine light came on, but once the engine worked through it, the problem went away.
Someone suggested that it might be my spark plugs and/or cables, but I just had those replaced relatively recently.
My original theory was that water was somehow getting into my gas tank. (after long, heavy rains, I sometimes find water in the spare tire well underneath my hatch trunk). I figured, maybe it was seeping into the tank somehow. A friend, whose opinion I trust, all but assured me that probably wasn't the case.
Anyway, my rambling response probably doesn't help you in any way whatsoever, but at least another '99 Honda owner knows what you're talking about.