Sarah wanted to drive her 1984 Honda into the ground, but her guy left the oil cap off. Then it wouldn’t start!
Typical of Honda’s circa 1984 (my wife had an Accord of that same year) was that after 10 years or so the solder joints on the main relay would work loose, and the fuel pump wouldn’t pump, hence the car wouldn’t start. I re-soldered ours instead of paying $90 plus installation for a new one. It went from intermittent starting to nice solid starting right away.
I think you guys should mention it on the radio show in case she’s listening. We got about 225,000 miles on the Accord, and could probably have gotten another 100,000 if I’d have known better (but that’s another story).
The “guys” don’t visit here. There’s only us lower life forms.
Nice work, by the way. In the past we’ve had long threads on just this problem.
Gambling odds are in favor of a main relay not being the cause of this particular incident as an 84 model is carbureted. More likely causes would be the ignition switch or the secondary ignition.
That’s all assuming that the engine did not fail due to an excessive amount of oil being thrown out because of the missing cap; as happend with an old Subaru of mine that I sold to a local woman some years ago.
A few months after selling it to her she had an oil changed performed at a quick lube, the oil cap was left off, and not too many days later the engine expired when the oil level dropped dangerously low. When towed to me the entire underhood and engine was oil soaked and I have no clue at all as to why she could not smell roasting engine oil.
My Mistake. She has a 1984, and I was thinking 1994. You’re right, no main relay on that one (probably). Also I suspected that the guys don’t come here, but you confirmed.