1989 Accord stalling problems
Glen Mathews
at any given time
begin to lose power and will gradually slow down till you come to a complete
halt. If you shut
the car off and let it sit for a couple of minutes, you can start it up and
take off at full power.
There are no conditions that I could tie to it as a cause(i.e.
hot,cold,wet,dry,ugly). I have changed
the alternator, fuel pump, rotor,wires, coil, both filters and every part of
the cooling system
except the motor itself. Honda mechanics(alias partschangers) don't seem to
have to have a
clue what's wrong with it. One so called mechanic did offer to try by saying
" Leave it with me and I'll just keep changing parts until I find the
problem."
If you are driving 65 mph you will gradually slow down to about 20 mph. You
can only accomplish the 20 mph by keeping your foot to the floor. At this
point you can only get 2000 rpm. Shut the car off for a couple of minutes
and you can take off at full power.
Another thing that happens is that it will start to miss and the car will
literally be shaking. If you take your foot off the gas the car will stall
and glide to a halt. You have to sit for at least 5 minutes when this occurs
but it start and allow you to drive at full power.
This can occur 4-5 times in a row about 15 minutes apart and then it will
not re-occur for a couple of months.
I like the car and the fuel mileage is still pretty good but if this keeps
up I going to introduce it to the car crusher. if anyone can help I would
appreciate it. thanks
JC
vacuum is screwed up somehow, but so far, no one has been able to
track it down. The idle sometimes goes bad when braking so just maybe
it has something to do with a bad brake booster leaking???
Stu
- Test vacuum system and ALL hoses. Especially the one responsible for
advancing your distributor (I think that particular Accord uses vacuum
advance on the distributor.)
- Test crank angle sensor. <--- This made my '91 Civic LX stall once every
few days.
- Test master relay.
- Since it only seems to happen after the car is running for a while, and
since shutting down for a while seems to alleviate it, check the
thermostat and everything connected to it.
- You can try resetting the ECU (don't know if your car has one but you
can give it a try anyway). I got this info from civic.vtec.net:
1. Turn on the car and let it idle for about five minutes. (Do not rev the
engine.)
2. Turn off the car and pull the ECU fuse. It will probably be located in
your underhood fuse box, and be labelled clock, backup, or something
similar.
3. Keep the fuse out for at least 5 minutes.
4. Reinsert the fuse and close the hood.
5. Start your car. Make sure you don't tap the gas!
6. Let the car idle (again, NO GAS) for about 3-4 minutes.
7. Shut off the car, wait a few seconds, and then restart it.
8. After starting your car, the computer will automatically reset itself
and recalculate the proper air/fuel mixture.
Resetting the ECU is usually only done after modding the engine, but it
is not inconcievable that the variables it stores could possibly get
corrupted by a random surge of electricity.
- You can actually have someone check the ECU itself, or order a new one.
(Again, this is only if your car really has an ECU to begin with. I
assume it does.)
- Check your oil level. Once, I put in too much oil, and it wound up
seeping into one of the cylinders, gumming up the spark plug, eventually
resulting in a "dead" cylinder. Had to get the whole thing cleaned out.
- Last, but CERTAINLY not least, check the radio condenser! If it is not
storing energy at the proper capacitance, it could very well be the
culprit. On my Civic, it's supposed to be 0.47 microfarads. It might be
different on your Accord. Carry around a multimeter and test it right
when this happens to be sure.
Most of these suggestions came from my Haynes Automotive Repair Manual,
obtained for $12 from a local Pep Boys. They almost certainly have a
similar manual for Accords!
Good luck.
Gennady P. Samokhin
> I've got an 1989 Honda Accord LX 5 speed that is driving me crazy. It will
> at any given time
> begin to lose power and will gradually slow down till you come to a complete
> halt. If you shut
> the car off and let it sit for a couple of minutes, you can start it up and
> take off at full power.
It may be not your case but the symptoms you are describing perfectly fit
classical case of carburetor icing. I would suggest to begin with the check that
the hot air duct (the pipe going from exhaust manifold shroud to underneath of
air filter duct) is connected properly at both ends and the air control flap
inside the air duct (it is controlled by vacuum diaphragm on top of air duct
where it connects to the plastic pipe) works. Usually icing is more probable in
the humid weather.
Gennady
Grier, Brian
>
> I've got an 1989 Honda Accord LX 5 speed that is driving me crazy. It will
> at any given time
> begin to lose power and will gradually slow down till you come to a complete
> halt.
You have received some good advice so far. But I would
suggest that you have your catalytic converter inspected,
and your exhaust system backpressure checked.
If your converter internal mesh has come loose you can
experience exactly what you describe. To check this
simply hit the pipe in front of or behind the converter
and listen for a rattling noise in the converter.
You may need to secure the heat shield to be sure that the
internals are what is loose.
Good Luck,
Brian
'82GL/302/T-Tops (original owner)
JC
misfired badly on steep hills, and eventually died. By turning off the
ignition, immediately restarting the engine and flooring the throttle,
it runs perfectly once again. Is that weird or what? This might be
purely coincidence, but the first time it ever stalled on me was the
day after changing the oil. (the front of the car was up on ramps)
Thanks for the suggestions.
>On Mon, 28 Jun 1999, Glen Mathews wrote:
>
>> I've got an 1989 Honda Accord LX 5 speed that is driving me crazy. It will
>> at any given time
>> begin to lose power and will gradually slow down till you come to a complete
>> halt. If you shut
>> the car off and let it sit for a couple of minutes, you can start it up and
>> take off at full power.
n...@mail.address
filter which can get clogged over time. when you shut off the engine,
and let the car sit for a couple of minutes, the pump stops working
and releases the crap in the filter. this can explain why youre able
to drive on again. then again, it may be just carburetor icing, like
the other replies said.
On Mon, 28 Jun 1999 21:31:33 GMT, "Glen Mathews"
Robert Pardee
other small opening in the carb. Although I doubt that something as easy as
carb cleaner (fuel additive type) would do the trick. You may need to have
it taken apart and cleaned if this is the problem...or even to find out if
this is the problem. Good luck!
Robert
JC
thing that has not been suggested is to run a long vacuum hose and
guage into the passenger compartment, drive normally and watch how it
behaves when the car begins to stall. Some likely places to hook it up
would be at the EGR valve (should have no vacuum) idle boost throttle
controller (inside hose should have vacuum) throttle controller
(should have vacuum coming from frequency solenoid valve C)
May be a little unconventional but lack of proper vacuum at precisely
the right time will shut the carb down.
.
Robert Pardee
anyway. If you take the carb off yourself MAKE SURE YOU LABEL ALL OF THE
HOSES AND THE FITTINGS THEY CAME OFF OF! For example, when you remove a
hose, use a permanent marker to label "1" on two pieces of masking tape.
Put one piece on the end of the hose and the other piece on the thing it was
attatched to. If you screw up your vacuum line routing, your car may never
run right again.
Again, best of luck!
Mr Dirtyfingers
>Seems like this stalling thread has been going on for months. One
>thing that has not been suggested is to run a long vacuum hose and
>guage into the passenger compartment, drive normally and watch how it
>behaves when the car begins to stall. Some likely places to hook it up
>would be at the EGR valve (should have no vacuum) idle boost throttle
>controller (inside hose should have vacuum) throttle controller
>(should have vacuum coming from frequency solenoid valve C)
>
>May be a little unconventional but lack of proper vacuum at precisely
>the right time will shut the carb down.
Only one solution> Rebuild the carb. These cars are notorious for
this. Also replace any questionable vac lines. I did mine and never
had this problem since. Also went from 18 mpg to close to 30 mpg.
Tuned er up and replaced the O2 sensor.
Good luck..... good luck getting the carb off, that is :-D
Jeffrey Teasdale
vacumme actuator on the air intake.