I’ve recently purchased a used Accord that is in a good condition (according to the CARFAX report, a mechanic, and the previous owner).
The car, however, does stall randomly at times. I have had it stall on me (the engine just shuts off and I need to come to a stop to restart) a few times in the last month and I’m starting to worry.
This stall is different than the one I could trigger by simply stalling out and have the battery light and other light come on.
I seem to lose power steering and break when it stalls like this.
Should I be worried? What is the problem here?
There are various causes for engine stalling, but often it is because the idle is set to low. This is an older car, and a loose wire in the ignition, or a faulty igniter can cause this kind of problem. Also, if the gas cap vapor check valve sticks or if the fuel filter is clogged it can cause this to happen. does it stall when you are at a red light? Or when you are running down the road? Either way it can be a real pain and possibly dangerous, since you obviously have power stearing and brakes. Sometimes a loose vacume hose will cause this.
open the hood when the engine is running and listen for a sucking sound to locate a bad or loose vac. hose. Jiggle ignition wires to see if it is a bad wire connection. Loosen the gas cap and see if it still stalls. replace the fuel filter. If none of these things slove your problem, you will need to get to a certified mechanic the sooner the better, as this can be dangerous.
Is the check engine light on?
Some good news is your vehicle is covered by a 14yr/150,000 mile emissions warranty from Honda. Hopefully you have <150k.
If your light is on call your local Honda dealer and see what is up. My wife’s car (96 Civic with 148k) had a similar thing with intermitent CEL she ignored for 2 yrs. It finally stalled after driving off exits and she took it in and they replaced her spark plugs, cap/rotor, wires and two O2 sensors and cat converter free of charge.
Take careful notes when it stalls. There are three key suspects in a Honda which cause stalls intermittently: ignition switch; PGM-FI (“main”) relay; sensors in the distributor.
If the radio goes off, it could be a faulty ignition switch. The next cheapest suspect is the PGM-FI relay. It controls electrical power to the fuel injectors and ignition (spark). The most expensive is the replacing the distribtor with a remanufactured one.
There is a Website which can you more detailed information at: www.tegger.com
It could also be the fuel pump relay or the ignition switch.
Thank all for replying and helping me to solve this problem.
It seems like I do not have enough information yet to solve this problem.
I will have to have my radio on to see if it turns off.
My dashboard just goes out as well.
While I was getting used to the car and stalled out due to my poor driving skills, there were a number of times when I would stall repeatedly (again due to my driving skills) over a span of a few minutes and the car wouldn’t start for the first few ignitions (The engine makes the cranking noise but doesn’t catch up and start the car). But after a few ignitions, it starts fine. I don’t know if that has anything to do with the car stalling.
There was a time when I was going fairly slow, less than 10 Mi/Hr, and the same thing would happen.
I will update with more information as I find out more but my biggest question while gathering additional information is this:
How do I restart the car when it stalls out without coming to a complete stop?
I have tried to just press down on the clutch and restart while I was rolling fairly slowly at around 20 Mi/Hr but I couldn’t start it again without coming to a dead stop, which was quite dangerous.
Ok, I was able to recreate the stall and I guess the good news is that the radio stayed on.
No check engine light, no sucking sound that I could distinguish under the hood, no rough stall. It just stalls very quietly but it mostly starts right up. In some cases where it doesn’t, by the second or third try, it starts up.
Sorry to break into the topic, but I’ve been having engine problems on my 96 Accord recently.
andrew_j, how do you know it’s covered by that warranty and how would I find out if mine is?