I have an 87 Honda Accord with about 108,000 miles on it. It was working fine when it suddenly started having problems starting and occasionally seemed to sputter while idiling at red lights. We changed the sparkplugs and it worked great for a day. Now it takes many tries to get it started by jump starting it with another car (but the problem isn’t the battery). After it finally gets started it works fine the rest of the day, but the next morning it is the same problem. Possibly a fuel injection problem? Is there a possible easy and inexpensive fix? Any ideas?
Hondas of that era are notorious for problems with the Main Relay. When that relay acts up, it prevents the fuel pump from delivering gas to the engine.
This is particularly common on hot days, as the relay is inside the car, underneath the dashboard, and is affected by high temperatures, such as when the car is closed up on a hot day.
Which Accord it this, base model, Lx or Lxi. The last is fuel-injected, the others are carburated. If it is carburated, I would seriously consider a gummed-up carburator that might respond to cleaning. If the car has a lot of urban miles on it, some carb parts might be worn out.
Lxi
It was my Grandmothers and mostly had highway miles and spent many years in the heat of Arizona don’t know if that has anything to do with it.
Is there any relationship between heavy dew in the morning, and a rainy day and sputtering at the stop light?
You have to start tracing this…
When it’s not starting…make sure it’s getting a good strong spark to the plugs…
Might be worth just doing a tune-up anyways if you’re unsure when the last one was done…Very simple and cheap to do on this vehicle…Even an novice can change the plugs, cap and rotor in less then 1/2 hour. Also being over 20 years old…it might be worth inspecting or replacing the wires.
I’ve worked on an older honda that had issues with the oil pressure sender. The sender was linked to the fuel pump and when the pressure registered low the pump wouldn’t work there would be sputtering and starting trouble. That’s something you may want to check.
On second thought, I was working on a carburated version so the pressure sender may not apply to this case. I would lean towards VDCdrivers comment
Without any further info . . . I’d have to say change the plugs/wires/cap and rotor. Before that, however . . . run the fuel down to 1/4 tank and pour a can of Seafoam into the tank, then run it for 50 miles or so. Fill it back up and change the oil, then the plugs, cap and so on. You’ll be cleaning the fuel delivery system (somewhat) and bringing the spark delivery system back up to par. The main relay is a good suggestion, but I would hold off on the main relay just for now. While this is very common with older Honda cars, especially those which sat in the desert for 20 years . . . the symptom of hard initial start with a cold engine doesn’t work for me. Rocketman
yes - heavy dew makes it more difficult to start in the morning. yes, there is sputtering at the stop light.