My 1991 Honda Accord can't start

Hello,



My 1991 Honda Accor LX can not start its engine today. I live in
NY. I tried to start it for 10 minutes, but it didn't start. Does
somebody have any ideas of what I have to do? Thank you very much in
advance.


Sincerely,
Tiberiu

 

If you get in the car and turn the ignition on (do not try to start), do
you hear the fuel pump run for a few seconds? If not you likely have a
failed main relay.

 

Hi,


When I turn the ignition on for a few seconds I heard one noise,
that looks like the fuel pump, and after this, the engine won't start.
Last night was so cold, and probably this has affected something.
Yesterday it started well.

Sincerely,
Tiberiu

 

In addition to the main relay possibly being a cause --

Have you turned on your headlights and do they appear to be full-strength? If
not, try a jump start. Hopefully you just have a dead battery. How old is your
battery?

Next, carefully take the distributor cap off, have someone try to start the car
while you watch the distributor rotor. If it does not turning when you try to
start the car, your timing belt may need replacement.

When is the last time you changed your distributor cap, rotor, plugs, and wires?
All of these can be replaced at pretty low cost.

Next, check the distributor's ignitor. See
http://www.crx.org/southcal/tech/igniter/igniter.htm and
http://www.crx.org/southcal/tech/igniter/default.htm for help diagnosing this.

Last, suspect the distributor coil.

The Achilles heel of circa 1990 Hondas are the main fuel relay, the distributor
ignitor, and the distributor coil, roughly in this order. How many miles on your
car? When is the last time an ignitor was put on it? A distributor coil? Were
they OEM parts?

These are the typical ailments. Updates welcome. Good luck.

 

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

tiberiu11,

If it's injected, have you been holding the gas pedal half way to the
floor, while cranking, per the instructions in the owner's manual?

Once you get it running, put a tiny bottle of gas line antifreeze in the
gas tank to prevent icing, or if you can, fill the gas tank with
ethanol-enhanced gas. It will help keep your injectors clean too.

'Curly'

-- =================

 

Could also be the igniter in the distributor....another common problem with
Hondas.

Bill