Honda Help...Stalling Out!

[Davo53209]

Today I plan to pull out the fuel pump relay. So far, I've seen enough picture & videos over the internet to know what it looks like if in fact it's gone bad. More updates to come.

[Davo53209]

I just removed the fuel pump relay from it's housing, and from the looks of things, all of the soldering joints appear to be intact, without any cracks. Each soldering joints appear to be identical to its neighbor, leading me to think that this is not the problem. At this point, I'm still open to other suggestions.

[benfrogg]

The un-trained eye will likely not be able to recognize the cold solider type joints. You'd probably easily see the underfilled joints, but maybe not. Either way, you have textbook symptoms of the problem.
Next time it stalls and wont start, listen for the three clicks I told you about before. Take a listen to them now, while the car is working. Put your hand on it when you turn the key so you can feel the clicks.
The next time the care dies, listen for the clicks. If any are absent, this relay is undeniably the problem.

Oh, and by the way; even if the joints look identical to their neighbors doesn't necessarily mean they are a okay. All joints could have been slightly underfilled from the factory.

Anyway, good luck. I hope you figure it out soon!
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[GasSavers_Erik]

I agree that it could be the relay but maybe you have two issues- your car should not shut off because the key is wiggled up and down (as you described in post #4) while it is running- this points to the ignition switch.

[benfrogg]

Missed that. Yes, agreed, could be a wild goose chase after two issues. It could also be just the ignition switch; that feeds the relay.
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[Ford Man]

I'm not a Honda person, but if the ignition switch isn't the problem test the ignition coil. Usually when a coil goes out it acts up after it gets hot then after it's had the chance to cool back down it will work again until it heats up again. You said your codes pointed to misfires on cylinders 1 and 3. Not sure how the Honda coils are set up but on my '97 and '02 Escorts they have a two part coil one side of the coil fires cylinders 1 and 3 while the other side fires cylinders 2 and 4. I don't know what this would have to do with the speedometer, but certainly makes sence about the cylinder misfires. If you have a service manual Haynes/Chilton's it should give specs for testing the coil.

[Davo53209]

I don't think that it's the coil, due to the fact that over the weekend, I'd installed a completely new distributer. Plus all of the fault codes cleared out after the installation.

[benfrogg]

Is it still stalling on you? Did the distributor swap fix the issue?
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[Davo53209]

Today, my back was against the wall, and given that I ran out of time (i.e. due to the fact that I need my car to get to work), I had no choice, but to bite the bullet and take my car into a Honda specialist. Up to this point, I had solicited the advice of many people, both over the internet & at the auto parts store. None the less, I am grateful to you all, and given more time, I'm certain that I would have taken a chance at choosing between the fuel pump relay, the ignition switch, the ECU etc.

So as of this afternoon, I begrudgingly took my car into the Honda specialist. Initially, they'd offered me a ride back home in their shuttle; but for what I was about to pay for the diagnostic, I decided that it would be best if I'd sat there with my laptop, so that they couldn't add more time to the bill. Well it took them a half hour to diagnose the problem, & for all those who are interested, the verdict was.....IGNITION. In fact, I was told that I needed to replace the entire ignition.

It was good to finally get a confirmed diagnosis; but then the next thing that the man told me from behind the counter was most shocking. He then quoted me a price of over $700 for both parts and labor, estimating that it would take over 2.5 hours to complete the job. I looked at the man and politely said," I don't have $700 at the moment, so I'm just going to have to live with it for awhile"-when truthfully, I said in my own mind...."HELL NO, I WILL DO IT MYSELF"! That's when I went to Autozone, and got the part for significantly less.

I told the guys at Autozone what I was quoted, and they absolutely agreed with me that this was a highly inflated quote. These guys were great, they absolutely went out of their way to show me what I needed to do to install the part. It looked like a simple plug-and-play operation...with the exception of drilling out the rivets. That was something that I wasn't looking forward to doing.

When I first got home, drilling out the rivets was no simple task. Given the tight clearances that I was forced to deal with, both my drill and the Dremel tool were way too big. I was force to go back to the hardware store, where I found a drill attachment called a "Universal 90", which allows you to utilize your drill at 90 degree angles. Without this little gadget, the job would have been impossible.

As soon as I came back home, I used a center punch, followed by a 1/8 drill bit to start my pilot holes and then finished out with a 3/16 to drill out both rivets. Like the guys at Autozone said, the old ignition dropped out and that's when I installed the new ignition. Just as I predicted, the operation was simple. After everything was tightened down & all of the wires were neatly tucked away, the moment of truth finally came. I reconnected the negative battery cable, turned the ignition, and the car turned over like a champ. From there, I took to car out for a test drive, which lasted for about twenty minutes, whereas the car ran perfectly, without any stalling.

[benfrogg]

Excellent! Glad to hear you cleared up your issue. Also glad to hear it didn't cost you $700. I wonder if thy were quoting replacement of the lock mechanisms in the doors too, so your ignition key would work for the doors? I believe you have a hatch, thus there would be three additional door locks to replace. That sounds more like the price they quoted to me.
Anyway, happy motoring.
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