First of all I know nothing of cars so plz excuse my ignorance
My car has had a strange problem since I bought it. Whenever I attempt to restart my car immediately after shutting it down, it will not start. Over the period of 3 years I’ve been taking my car to monroe for maintanence and they’ve kept my vehicle running until now. The reason I’m brining up monroe is because although they helped with other maintanence well I’ve tried to communicate my underlying problem starting the car. They have been unable to help with that and eventually the car would not start at all.
Later I took my car to nas car garage and it seemed ok for a few days and then the same problem was back.
Let me explain what is going on with it as precisely as I can, when the problem got to the point that I couldn’t start my car for up to 15minutes after every single time I shut it down. The car would start if I waited long enough (usually). It always turns over and isnt a battery or alternator problem.
Monroe replaced my spark plugs and distributor for $400 but that didnt even help and Nas car garage replaced the spark plugs a few months later for $320 too saying that the ones that were inside it were not the correct kind. I spent all this money and now my car is still getting worse. When i went back to nas car garage the guy showed me that the distributor was overheating" and when he sprayed canned air on it, it cooled off and the car had no problem starting up.
I can say that now even when I get it started sometimes, the light that indicates which gear the car is in For ex: P for park D for drive is usually solid when the car is in gear. When the car is having problems the light is no longer solid it “blinks” to indicate that something is wrong. It seems the transmission or the computer that controls it (I have no clue, this is just specuation) is having problem
I have been rather discouraged about spending all this money on the car, i’m so dumb about cars I dont know if i should just sell it to a junk yard or not. But I’m taking the time to ask you guys becasue in the last 5 years I dumped about 2k in mainanence into it. So when the car runs it runs damn good but if it wont start anymore and it takes $800+ to get fixed and it’s not getting fixed how do i know when to stop dumping money in it?
Please help if you know what is wrong with my car
[b]The most common cause with a hot start problem on a Honda of your vintage is with the main/fuel pump relay under the dash. Over time the solder joints in the main relay crack. This causes the relay to become sensitive to heat. When this happens, the fuel pump fails to operate when trying to start the engine. So the engine won’t start.
The relay is located under the dash, above the drivers left knee.
Tester[/b]
Two items that can stop a honda from starting when hot are the fuel pump relay (already mentioned) and worn brushes on the fuel pump. Make sure you get the sound of the fuel pump “prime” when you first turn the key to ON (before cranking).
Try this first: read your ownners manual about starting a warm car. So many people “pump” the pedal, hold it down, or go through a starting procedure that may affect the starting. I’ll bet that the book advises you on how to start a warm/hot car . . . didja ever wonder why the engineers who BUILT THE CAR would do that? Follow the manual exactly and I’ll bet you will find that it starts. Good luck! Rocketman
I have Hondas. If it doesn’t start on the first crank, within 5 seconds, STOP cranking! Wait a minute, or three, before trying again. To crank longer than 5 seconds is a waste of battery power.
I have a 91 accord that had the same problem. I resoldered the pins on the relay, and have had no problems since. There is a website that I found that gave full instructions on how to remove and solder the relay. It is http://techauto.awardspace.com/mainrelaydefine.html
Good luck.