Intermittent restart problem

Occasionally my 1990 Civic DX 1500cc/5spd won't restart after a brief
shutdown - say like driving toe the grocery store, shutting off and
coming out ten minutes later to find that the car won't start right away.

It just cranks and cranks and cranks...

But wait five more minutes, and it starts right up.

It doesn't happen often, but it is increasing in frequency, I guess.
Used to be once a month or so, really rare, but now it's about once a
week, maybe.

The car always starts in the morning, no problem. Except for once when
it sat for three days unused, but that was the *only* time the first
startup of the day failed. And again, after letting it sit for 5 or 10
minutes, it stared normally.

The problem is most common after the car has been run for a while - a
short while, now that I think of it...

Vapor lock in the fuel lines...?

Any ideas?

Thanks,

--Charlie Henderson.

 

This is a common problem and has been posted a number of times. Most
recently in rec.autos.makers.honda:

news:

 

This happened to me in my 1985 Buick Century. I put in a new fuel pump
and solved the problem.
Dave

 

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You came to the right place, Charlie!
http://members.rogers.com/john-ings/MainRelay.HTM

Some guys just desolder, resolder, and go ten more years. Some add
cooling holes and go 15 more years. Some 'big wheels' just buy a new
relay. Your choice. This comes up very often in summer, for obvious
reasons.

'Curly'

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To REPLY: You must remove two underscores from the return address to
reply directly . . . . . .

Regarding stage performances: When everyone else has finished playing,
you should not play any notes you have left over. -

 

(snip)

Thank you, thank you, thank you! That's just the kind of thing I figured
it'd be, without a snowball's chance in hell of figuring *which* one!!

Thanks again!

--Charlie Henderson