2009 Accord: No power, shaking, check engine light flashing

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I have a 2009 Honda Accord EX four-cylinder automatic sedan with 220K miles. I am the original owner and have maintained it fairly well. It was time for some maintenance, the spark plugs haven’t been replaced since 100K and I was going to do that at my next oil change in 1K. The starter was replaced 3 months ago and a rear ball joint at 150K, catalytic converter was replaced early on under warranty. For the past 6 months or so the car had been starting hard. At first occasionally and more recently about 80-90% of the time. I asked my mechanic at my last oil change if he thought that it could be the fuel pump which was my suspicions and he said that Honda fuel pumps rarely need to be replaced and if anything it might have been a leaky gasket.

One night this past week my fuel tank was empty and I stopped to get gas. I filled it up to about a half a tank. When I got back in the car to start it it took about 10 or more seconds to turn over and finally started. When I went to leave the gas station I noticed that my acceleration seemed markedly laggy. Then the check engine light starting flashing as I drove but only when pressing on gas pedal. Then it lost almost all power and I could barely get it to go 10mph, going up a small incline I would lose what little power I had and almost come to a stop. It also was intermittently shaking, almost bucking. Then the check engine light, VSA, and triangle/exclaimation point stayed illuminated. I turned the car off and restarted it. It started up fine and no lights were on. Then I tried again to drive it and still had no power and check engine light was flashing again only when stepping on gas.

I went to my local AutoZone to rent a fuel pressure gauge. When I got it home to hook it up I found that I needed an adapter for my particular model of car to use the testing kit. But as I was depressurizing the fuel lines I thought the pressure seemed low. When I went back to AutoZone to return the kit I was talking to the associate and he said it sounded like a clogged fuel filter. When he looked up the make and model of my car he said that there is no fuel filter that it’s in the fuel pump. Impulsively I bought a new Delphi fuel pump and installed it myself. But sadly that was not it! It still has all same symptoms.

Anyone have any similar experiences or ideas what it might be?

2

Get a code reader and tell us what codes have been set.

3

If you continue to drive it with the CEL flashing, you are likely to cause expensive damage to the catalytic converter and/or other expensive parts.

2 Likes
4

Too late now, but when you were at Autozone the first step would have been to have your codes read.
Don’t drive it until a proper diagnosis and repair is performed.

1 Like
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For future reference, when the check engine light is flashing it means “Shut the engine off now!” I don’t know if you’ve done any harm but you certainly haven’t done the car any good. Follow @Purebred 's advice.