Car starting trouble

In cold weather, I often havbe a bit of trouble starting my car. I turn it on - but it dies after revving up. Then have to turn it on again, and it starts up fine. I tried to porime it by pressing the gas pedal a bit before turning it on, but this doesn’t seem to help.

My car is a 92 Honda Accord LX. Runs pretty well, despite her age.

Is it fuel injection? There is no need to prime a car with fuel injection.

You might have a vacuum leak or an emission control problem.
I believe your car is fuel injected so priming it doesn’t help.

How long does it run before it cuts out? How many miles are on the car and is the check engine light on?

Change the fuel filter. I sell auto parts and this is my default diagnoses when there is not a lot of information

Sounds like it is emmisions/comp control related. Likey a bad sensor. The engine is meant to run lean when cold to help protect the cat convertor, and this is when things can go crazy. Really, see if you can get a free comp diagnosis somewhere (they just plug in your car comp). A code should indicate the sensor or setting that isn’t working.

Out of curiosity, try this next cold start: turn the key to accessory/fwd, but don’t crank the motor. Hold it there for 15 secs. Then go ahead and start it.

Thanks, I’ll give it a shot. Sometimes (like this morning) it starts, then the RPM drops down and it almost stops, then it move right back to its normal idle.

It’s got about 160K miles. I’ll try taking it in sometime. Thanks!

Early 90s Accords are known to have igniter issues. My neighbour experienced starting problems like this and then one day he stalled at over 100 Kms per hour on the highway. If you haven’t changed the igniter, do it now.

This is not true. The engine must run richer in order to start and keep running when cold. Liquid gasoline will not burn, only gasoline vapor will. Some parts of gasoline will vaporize very easily in cold weather, other parts won’t. So the computer must spray enough liquid gasoline into the cold engine so that there is enough of the light hydrocarbons to evaporate. Now the mixture will be rich enough that combustion will occur when the spark plug fires.

My vote is probably a vacuum leak. rubber hoses get old, air leaks into intake, computer does not see this “pirate” air and does not inject enough fuel. Car is lean, and tends to die or have idle issues. As the car heats up, things expand, and the leak is lees noticable. Also the O2 sensor can compensate for the lean mixture. The problem cold is the O2 sensor is not working yet.

I agree.
Further;
What parts of the emmission system can leak vacuum without an obvious vacuum hose leak? EGR, PCV, Gas cap, Oil cap, Vacuum Cannister?
Wouldn’t these normally instigate an ‘engine light’?
Could the OP also be caused by fouled injectors?

Thanks for the advice, dopers. Anyone know how much an inspection and check will run me?

On a '92 I doubt any of these could give a check engine light. On OBD I are pretty primitave in what they can check and report on. Not sure about Hondas, but on a Volvo OBD I car even if the mixture got lean enough to set a code, it does not trip a light.
As far as the list you posted goes:
EGR Not a vacuum leak, it is on the exhaust side. Note: if there is a leak between the valve and the intake manifold it would be a vacuum leak, but I have never seen an EGR system leak that way. Exhaust leaks in front of the O2 sensor can give drivability issues warm
PCV On some cars yes this is noticeable
Gas cap The gas tank is not part of the engine vacuum system, OBD I cars do not detect the presence of a gas cap.
Oil cap Again some cars this can cause running problems
Vacuum Canister If you mean a vacuum reservoir for the climate system, or cruise system, sure. If you are talking about the evap canister then the answer is no.
Other items to check brake booster, all the various vacuum lines on and around the engine, hoses to idle control valve, intake gasket, seals around injectors.

I own a 92 accord lx.

The ignition switch is a known problem. On my car i’d start the car, but then it’d immediately die. I’d have to try several times before the ignition would ‘hold’. Eventually it got the point where if I touched the key even after It was running the engine would die. Replacement just taking off the bottom half of the steering casing and pulling out the wires.

http://www.visualimpressions.ca/switch/

The other starting problem I had was the main relay. The relay would heat up and a soder point would stop conducting electricity. After a drive and when you do a quick 5 minute stop like at the gas station the main relay wouldn’t work(it among other things controls the fuel pump) and the car would crank and immediately die.

http://www.honda-acura.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-43947.html