1988 honda accord LX starting problem and loss of power

> wrote
> Thanks for the tip about the autozone site. I did not
know that one,
> and it is great!
> I checked it out, and it is very helpful. In fact, their
photos (fig 2
> and fig 3) at
>
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...rdPage=/az/cds
/en_us/0900823d/80/0c/ed/e1/0900823d800cede1.jsp
>
> show exactly the location and configuration of my pcv.
snip for brevity

Finally someone besides myself has peered into Autozone's
fantastic online free repair manuals! It has manuals for
Hondas 1995 and earlier, among other makes of car. They are
as detailed as the modern Chilton's series, which from my
reading replicate at least a lot of the Helm manuals. It's
good to have your review on the record.

Good luck.

I would replace the fuel pump unless it has under 100 K mi. They're
only about a hundred bucks. I had one wear out, and present
intermittent bucking.

wrote:
> Dear Remco--
>
> Your tips about the fuel pump are very interesting. My wife seemed to
> think the loss of power and bucking problem at highway speeds was
> correlated with the tank being less than half full. (Unfortunately, I
> probably told her that although she might have a point, I could not
> think of why the gas level would matter!) Even though my car has a
> carb, would all of your thoughts about the fuel pump still apply? The
> carb need gas too!
>
> Thanks for taking the time to give me your help.

(I think you posted this a couple of days ago -- sorry, I must have
missed it, because I didn't see it until just now)

If it has an electric fuel pump and that pump is indeed located inside
the tank, it is one suspect that could cause your issues. See if the
problem consistently goes away with a full tank -- if so, chances are
your pump is having some issues.

To see if it is a power issue to the pump, you could clip a small
lightbulb with some wires attached across the power leads to the pump.
Put the bulb someplace where you can easily see it (like from your rear
view mirror).
Since your problem is intermittent, next time you are having problems,
make sure that the bulb is indeed lit. If it is lit, you know it isn't
the power to the pump.

Pumps do go bad, but I'd hate for you to shotgun replace it without
knowing for sure and here's my reason:

A friend of mine was complaining that intermittently his car (saab or
volvo, I forgot) would start bucking, lose power and then be fine
again. First we replaced his filter as that is cheap and often the
problem.
When it didn't fix it, we figured it must be a bad pump or pressure
regulator. The injectors were fine, we had determined. Spark was great.
His would actually die faster on a full tank, which makes sense in
retrospect:
Totally by accident, we found that the gas cap was supposed to be
vented. He had somehow put another cap on (possibly at a gas station,
left by someone else) it that did fit but wasn't vented and caused the
car to stumble after it had been driven a while.

That your problem is related to the gas cap is a long shot, but I am
just illustrating that with this swedish car we initially thought it
was related to having an intermittent fuel pump (hence my reluctance to
tell you to replace it).

Have we for for sure determined that your problem is a fuel delivery
problem? Non spark is easier to check for.

Remco

Dear Mister Beets:

Thanks for your response. My car has 221k miles and is going strong.
The fuel pump has never been replaced. I don't know if you followed
the thread, but I had another problem, which I don't know is related.
On starting, the car sometimes starts, runs great--for about 10
seconds, then dies, after which it won't start (although if I keep
trying, I can usually get it to catch). The other day, when it would
not start, I finally had someone to crank while I checked the spark
(which looked fine). I then shot some starting fluid straight down the
throat of the carb, and it started up beautifully. That the starting
problem is a fuel problem.

Thanks for your input.

Dear Remco:

Thanks again for your input. I am pretty sure it has an electric fuel
pump since I have never seen one under the hood in all the times I have
been under there. I'll look into this suggestion.

Do you recall my other problem? On starting, the car sometimes
starts, runs great--for about 10 seconds, then dies, after which it
won't start (although if I keep trying, I can usually get it to catch).
The other day, when it would not start, I finally had someone to crank
while I checked the spark (which looked fine). I then shot some
starting fluid straight down the throat of the carb, and it started up
beautifully. That the starting problem is a fuel problem. Maybe
they are related.

Thanks.

wrote:
> Dear Remco:
>
> Thanks again for your input. I am pretty sure it has an electric fuel
> pump since I have never seen one under the hood in all the times I have
> been under there. I'll look into this suggestion.
>
> Do you recall my other problem? On starting, the car sometimes
> starts, runs great--for about 10 seconds, then dies, after which it
> won't start (although if I keep trying, I can usually get it to catch).
> The other day, when it would not start, I finally had someone to crank
> while I checked the spark (which looked fine). I then shot some
> starting fluid straight down the throat of the carb, and it started up
> beautifully. That the starting problem is a fuel problem. Maybe
> they are related.
>
> Thanks.

It could be related -- if your car has a main relay, that can indeed be
a symtom of having a bad main relay. Look at the tegger.com site and
see if the main relay problem describes what's happening to you.

Tie a small lightbulb or voltmeter across the fuel pump and see if you
have power when starting and running. It would be that the power is
fine when starting (actually priming the pump), but then drops out when
the car starts running.
A main relay can be repaired under most circumstances as they are prone
to having dry solder contacts -- also described on Tegger.com.

Hope you get it fixed soon.
Remco

im having a problem starting my hondaaccord lx before it kept on turning
over and would not start i changed the distibiror and the points i think
at least that what the place i took it to said. now its doing the same
thing. i looked at the spark plugs and they were black and burnt out do u
think changing them would help. any help in this matter would help thank
u Pabloonya

Remco wrote:

> It could be related -- if your car has a main relay, that can indeed be
> a symtom of having a bad main relay. Look at the tegger.com site and
> see if the main relay problem describes what's happening to you.

I thought only fuel-injected Hondas had main relays? This Accord in
question has a carburetor.

pabloonya wrote:
> im having a problem starting my hondaaccord lx before it kept on turning
> over and would not start i changed the distibiror and the points i think
> at least that what the place i took it to said. now its doing the same
> thing. i looked at the spark plugs and they were black and burnt out do u
> think changing them would help. any help in this matter would help thank
> u Pabloonya

What year? It has points?
Go to www.tegger.com and see how closely your no-start condition
matches the descriptions. It also has somethings to try.
Then return here with your findings.

Remco

Oh the same old Honda starting problem. I posted starting problem
message
fews time before. Ok all the starting problem from Main Relay, Fuel
pump, starter,
I did not believe my worst starting problem was on fault alarm system.
My car did not start in the morning all the time in past 3 or 4 yr. I
never find out what
the real problem was. Someone suggested changed the Main Relay so I did
that.
I accidently discovered I had the fault alarm starting system that
caused
the car not to start up in the morning. See before the starter to run,
the alarm system must check on
right. I got the false alarm system check. I luckily find out where the
alarm problem coming from.
now finally all the starting nagging problem is gone. The car starts
all the time first try in the morning.
My point is this: look for any fault alarm system.