Engine Won't Start!!!

[cats_on_ice]

My dad's 91 EX-R Wagon (F22a6) has, very suddenly, decided not to start.

It drove puuurrrrfectly yesterday, but when he went to start it this morning, here's what happens:

Engine cranks over perfect, starts up immediately every time, and then quickly dies after about 2 seconds.

All i know is that the problem isn't the Main Relay, but maybe it's the fuel pump? Fuel filter? Something else? Know how/what I could check?

Oh yeah...it's definitely not out of gas!

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

[CrazyHondaOwnR]

i'd check the fuel filter, and pump ... then the plugs ,plug wires and then start moveing to bigger things

[rbrousseau23]

i'd check the fuel filter, and pump ... then the plugs ,plug wires and then start moveing to bigger things

What he said.

[CallMeRay]

didn't think it would fire up so easily if it was a fuel/spark problem...sounds electrical...does the car die as soon as you let the key snap back from the start position? for the 2 seconds its on how does it run? it never hurts to check what the other people said, but i would avoid pulling spark plugs cuz after a while those threads might come out with them , if you do pull them use some antiseize

[cats_on_ice]

As far as I can tell, the engine runs fine (for the brief period it does); and, no, the engine still runs (for a couple seconds...) when I let the key snap back from the start position.

It starts up great, I let go of the key, there's no real warning the engine is gonna die (no wierd sounds or other behaviours that I can detect), and then it just super quickly bogs down and dies.

But regardless, I will check the fuel pump and filter, etc.

Thanks guys! Any more tips are greatly appreciated as well!

[CallMeRay]

another item to add to the check list, check for any lose connections on the injectors or any of your sensors..i'll ask my instructor maybe he'll have a tip for ya (if i see him , :P, schools out right now)

[92DX]

Possibly either the valves shutting or the distributor. Same thing happened to me couple weeks back. It was like that for half a day. It stopped after I rev'ed the engine to 4-5,000 rpm and held it for a couple of seconds.

[Otto]

Could be water in the fuel. Normally it causes starting problems too, but:
Mine die once right after I took a corner, did almost the same thing as your dad's, but would only run for a second. I had it towed home, and after checking different things to no avail, I dumped a bottle of dry-gas in, primed the fuel pump a few times, and off it went with no further problems.

[cats_on_ice]

Okay...get this:

My dad put 20 litres in the tank (and, no, it wasn't empty to begin with, he had only gone 450 kms, which is about 100 short of what he normaly gets, and the fuel gauge was just barely touching the red line, facing slightly downhill), and it started right up, and kept running until he moved it into the garage and then eventually shut it off, with no issues whatever; it ran like a champ.

So, this must (?) mean that the fuel pump is having difficulties picking up the fuel when it gets kinda (but not at all unreasonably) low. Perhaps??? Which seems to eliminate any possibility of the problem being electrical.

Does this clarify anything??

And thanks guys!

[Otto]

Could be...fuel gauge may be getting inaccurate, maybe build up of crud is impeding it.

Check the fuel pressure and check for spark.

[rlyons]

I had one do that and it was water in the tank. When it was pointed downhill and the fuel was low it would die. I had to remove the tank and wipe it dry with a rag inside and then put fresh gas in before it would run.

[Losiracer2]

well weird stuff like this started happening to me back in mid november. I had to replace the main relay, distributor, cap, rotor, ignitor, plugs, wires and got a new valve cover gasket because oil was leaking into the spark plug chambers. Also had the valves adjusted for valve leash and they most were tight (bad). oh and also check your battery, my yellow-top optima was also not producing enouch CCA and would cause the car to die, luckily it was still under warranty. So check all those things with multimeters and voltmeters and see if they are up to specs, its probably one of those thats causing your problems.

[BoxxCuttaz]

Well i may have a similar problem. My 91 coupe is not starting, i just got a swap done nothing major, f20 motor and when I was driving it home from the shop it suddenly died two blocks from my house while going into 5th. I checked the distributor and it seems to be fine. I have yellow top optima battery as well, wondering if i may have the same problem as Losi? One thing i did notice is that when I try to start the car I don't see the cams trying to turn over. Don't know what to do? Any advice?

[Otto]

Cams not turning = BAD. Mine as well start your own thread BoxxCuttaz.

[Losiracer2]

im not saying that optima batteries aren't worth it, i will always use them, but mine apparently had something wrong with it. I purchased it in sept. of '04 and it died in nov. of '06. Also living in AZ might have something to do with it (2yrs of 100*+ heat maybe killed it), but the battery i have now is the red-top one, it has more CCA and is meant to start cars as its sole purpose. It isn't deep cycle but i figure im really not into audio for my car so it didn't matter that much. But have someone run a test/cycle on your battery to see if it puts out enough power.