hi all,

I'm requesting some assistance on behalf of my daughter. The car (always thoroughly reliable) started giving her problems today.
It starts, idles, runs beautifully for 5 minutes or so then stalls even while driving.

It will not re-start for quite some time then the same all over again...starts and goes as new for a while then, pow, nothing. Took her 3 hours to get home for what is usually a 20 minute trip.

It's almost as if something overheats and has to cool but there are no symptoms until it stops. Just the occasional shudder I believe.

It's a 1600cc motor, the temp gauge and every other indicator is fine at the time of stalling. Never uses rubbish fuel and the car is serviced and never abused.

Thanks in advance for any tips. Steve

 

It could be the catalytic converter. Sometimes they get so clogged up that the exhaust cannot get through.

When the car does run, does it have lots of power?

 

Is this fuel injected or carb engine?

If I were you I would go with driving with your daughter in separate car loaded some tools. Once her car stop running, I would remove spark plugs and see if there is a spark.

I would try to start again and see if the fuel pump is working or not if the car is with fuel injection.

I would touch every solenoid to see if anyone is over heating. Pay attension to those for fuel and ignition.

It could be main fuse/ relay?

I would replace fuel filter if it hasn't been replaced in the past.

I'm brainsorming.

 

A carb'd honda? Did the pre-90's hondas have carbs?

Your fuel filter might be clogged.

 

Yes, back in the days, there were carb'd Hondas running around with sickning number of vacuum lines to meet emission control. CVCC engines, yeah

 

Check to see if there's been a service bulliten for your car.Could be the ignition switch.Think it was 96-00 or 98 about a 1,000,000 of accords civics and a few others.

 

It may be the main relay. I have a similar problem but mine will not start when it's hot from running or if the car gets really hot inside. There is a bad soldier joint in the relay which causes the fuel pump to not run. You will be able to hear if the fuel pump is running or not when you turn the key to it's running position.

 

Hi,
I'm having exactly the problem with my '92 Civic. It starts up fine, runs for 10 minutes, "coughs up", and stalls. It usually starts up right away for a couple of times and then it impossible to start. If I wait a good hour it starts up away, runs for 10 minutes, ...etc, etc. Like others in the forum, I've taken the car to a mechanic but they haven't figured out what is causing this behavior. I will appropriate any troubleshooting hints. Thanks,
Joe

 

Exactly. This is a fairly well known 4G problem, and it's almost always the fuel pump relay (located all the way on the driver's side under the dash). You can actually just bridge two of the wires together with a spare piece of wire and some spade connectors to fix the problem (or at least to see if that is actually the problem). I posted which wires they were a while back (when I actually owned a 4G) but since I don't anymore, I'll try to find that post.

 

Ok, I found the post. Here's how to fix it.

The relay is a black box with a steel mounting tab (mounted with a single 10mm bolt), located to the left of the fuse panel under the dash on the driver's side.

If you hold the relay with the wire side to you, with the plug release facing down, they will be the two wires furthest to your right in the top row. Get a short piece of wire and a couple crimp-on spade connectors and bridge those two together.