My Honda Accord (1990) won’t start. When I turn the key in the ignition, it’s like the engine doesn’t “catch”. We’ve replaced the starter, but the problem still exists. Any ideas as to what could be going on? We really need to get this car working again!
Could it possibly be the timing belt?
Try the main relay (fusebox under the dash).
Are you getting fuel? Are you getting spark?
Those main relays go bad all the time on 1990 accords( I owned a 1992). 65 dollar part, 15 minute install.
It’s under the dash behind the cruise control box I believe.
However, I think you’re going to need to describe the problem with greater detail.
Do you think this because the starter turns very fast? Does it grind?
What originally happened? Did the car stall while running? Did the car ever work properly after replacing the starter?
Try to give as much detailed information as you can about what happened in order to get a diagnosis on a message board.
Funny, but I have a similar problem on my 1990 Honda Civic wagon. Mostly it happens when I stall (and I try to be very careful not to), but the first time it happened it was on a cold start. My mechanic replaced the fuel pump, but it still happens. What happens is that the starter motor turns over normally, but the engine never “catches”. No amount of turning seems to help. What does help is sitting there (maybe blocking traffic) for 2 or 3 minutes and then it starts right up as though nothing had happened. It is as though there is a some interlock somewhere that prevents the starting and takes a few minutes to release. I am so fed up that I am thinking about replacing it, even though it has only 106,000 km on it. Since they stopped making the Civic wagon, I am thinking about a Fit. Or maybe give up on Honda. Oh yes, as it happens the timing belt was replaced just a couple years ago.
This happened to my 89 CRX and my boyfriend’s 91 Civic- both times replacing the relay fixed the problem.
Boyfriend (shadetree mechanic and electronics whiz) would like to add some info- new relay also repaired a 91 Acura and another Civic- relay fuse can be checked with visual, multi-tester, or replaced at little cost
Well, since the starter we just put in was $300(!) I’ll try really hard to explain in better detail to hopefully save us a gigantic repair bill.
(I’m a chick, bear with me, I have no idea how to describe mechanical stuff).
Not sure if this is relevant or not: a few months ago we noticed that if we were going up a hill, when we slowed down to take a really tight corner, the car’s battery light would come on and it would sound like it was close to stalling. Since it’s a manual, we’d just put the clutch in, downshift, and then it would be okay. The car’s electrical IS a bit screwy, so we thought maybe it was just something new & weird & wonderful with that. Hubby tested the battery and it tested just fine, and it happened so rarely that it didn’t concern us.
For the past few weeks, hen I turn the key in the ignition, it makes a nyeeenyeeenyeenyeeeh sound - almost like a horse whinnying. At first it was just for a few seconds, and then it gradually increased each morning. It made that sound and then “caught” - it’s the only way I can explain it - the engine turns over and starts, and the car is running. I optimistically chalked the delay in “catching” up to the cold-ish weather. Once the car was running and we drove to the grocery store, for example, we had NO difficulty in restarting the motor after it was parked. As the days went by, it took longer and longer for the engine to actually start in the morning, but then again, even after sitting for 8-9 hours while I was at work, it would start fine afterwards. Using our Haynes manual to diagnose the problem, we replaced the starter last Monday and the car seemed to start a bit better, with less delay, but still not 100% right. The weather was also a few degrees warmer this past week.
Today it was a bit colder, and we hadn’t driven it for about 24 hours, and this afternoon it wouldn’t catch at all, just made the whinnying sound until I was worried about completely draining the battery, so I turned it off.
Does this help at all?
Open the hood and have someone crank the starter. While it is NOT starting properly, are the belts and pulleys moving? If so, that rules out the starter. That leaves the fuel and ignitions systems to check.
Oh yeah -my husband just reminded me that we replaced the main relay a couple of years ago.
Not sure about now, but I know back in the early 80s, the starter switches (the part you put the key in) were CRAP and they had a tendency to break under the weight of a keychain with more than a few keys on it.
My dad had an '82 Civic Wagon and he had a dozen keys on his ring and he noticed that sometimes, the radio would shut off and sometimes, all of the lights on the instrument cluster would light up. He’d bang on the dash and all would return to normal. Finally he figured out that jiggling the key was just as effective.
Then it would just die for no reason. It would start right back up for a while. Then it would crank but not run. The contacts in the “on” position had stopped making contact.
The Honda dealership replaced the ignition switch (which forever after involved two identical keys, one for the ignition and one for the door) and told him not to put any keys on the ring with it or the same thing would happen.
I believe 1982 was one of the first years that Honda used a steering lock on the ignition switch…maybe I’m wrong but I think the 1979 CVCC Civic had a dashboard starter with no column lock.
I’d hope they’ve improved the ignition switch since then, but it’s worth a shot at checking out.
I’m sorry to say the symptom still isn’t clear. The critical thing for us to know is whether the starter is cranking normally or not. If the starter is cranking normally, there’s an engine performance problem - fuel or ignition system. If the starter is not cranking normally, in most cases there would be a starter/battery/cable type problem, though in this case I would suspect something else (mentioned below). There is no type of no-start symptom that could be caused by either a starter or a fuel pump. So to not waste time and discussion on a set of possible causes that would be totally inapplicable here, we need to know how it’s cranking.
I describe normal cranking of the starter as a continuous ruh-ruh-ruh sound, with a pulse of 2-4 times per second. Now, this might be what you’re describing as “nyeeenyeeenyeenyeeeh” - but two things make me question that. One is the use of the word “whinny” - most people wouldn’t hear it that way. The other is that you had some reason to replace the starter, which suggests that it wasn’t cranking normally. But because these things can be hard to describe, and we all have internalized assumptions, it’s not a sure bet either way. MC$E’s question is a very good one here - if the belts and pulleys are moving when it acts up, that tells us the starter is cranking.
Now, if the starter is cranking okay (which, by the way, is the proper meaning of “turning over”), the main relay is the most common cause, as mentioned by others. And while having replaced it two years ago reduces the likelihood, it does not eliminate the possibility. Still, there are many other possible causes - igniter, fuel pump, fuel pump relay, crankshaft sensor - unless you want to risk a small fortune doing diagnosis by parts replacement, the best strategy is to have it evaluated by a competent professional.
The other possibility here is that it’s not cranking normally, and I would gather not cranking at all when you hear the whinny. In this case, I would guess that the problem is worn ring gear teeth on the engine’s flywheel (these mesh with the teeth on the starter’s drive gear). This can be determined by removing the starter and slowly rotating the engine to visually inspect all of the ring gear. If some teeth are significantly worn, the cure involves removing the transmission for access, and replacing the ring gear.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the ring gear is worn and the starter’s not engaging it, the car would still start by push starting it. The OP mentioned that it’s a stick-shift. It might be worth a shot to narrow down the problem, assuming that the belts aren’t moving while the starter is being cranked.
You’re right, if the starter’s not cranking for any reason but all else is okay, a manual-tranny car can be push started. However, doing that won’t narrow anything down if it’s already determined the engine’s not turning over.
Personal experience from a couple of mid-eighties Accords. Have the fuel pump checked. If this is a carbeurated engine, you could check that the engine is getting spark and trying to turn over after you put a couple of table spoons of gas down the throat of the carb. It’ll catch for a couple of seconds until it uses up the gas.
I had a friends Accord die on us at 11PM on a Saturday at another friends house. We were lucky that it didn’t die on us a couple of hours earlier when we had crossed the border to the States. It was the fuel pump.
My Accord died during rush hour in Toronto…once downtown on Yonge Street (as I had the hood open a cop came by and told me I couldn’t park there :rolleyes: ), and once on the Gardiner (cars honking as they went past me pushing it off to the shoulder…very helpful since I wasn’t aware that it was inconvenient :rolleyes: ). It was the fuel pump.
We had it towed this morning; the mechanic’s first guess was the distributor cap needs replacing - it was visibly sparking after they got the engine going ???
That was going to be my suggestion once I read your discription of the problem. Here’s a quick and dirty explaination of how everything works:
The cylinders in an engine have to fire in a certain sequence in order for an engine to run properly. The distributor cap sits basically on something that works like a watch. There’s a little arm under the cap that spins around and makes a connection between each plug wire that runs from the cap to the cylinder, when the arm touches the wire, it sends an electric charge through the wire, which goes to the plug, makes a spark, and ignites the fuel in the cylinder.
If the cap is cracked, moisture can get in there and cause the spark to fire at the wrong time or not at all. When the cap is dried out, the engine will run normally. (Had this happen on a car I owned once.) It’s a fairly inexpensive repair and a quick one. It does need to be done by someone who knows how to adjust the timing properly, as the timing can be thrown off by a broken cap and if you have the engine firing at the wrong time you can seriously damage it. Most likely the cap cracked due to age and not because anything hit it.
Many cars have a switch that switches off the fuel pump in an accident (to prevent spraying fuel). Sometimes a good bump will do the same thing (one car I had tripped the switch when a branch fell on the car). That will cause the symptoms you describe. There is usually a button hidden somewhere in the trunk that needs to be pressed to fix this. Look for it in your user manual.