Questions and Answers

Accord Died And Won't Restart Q. Desperately seeking help!!!! I'll try and make this as short and sweet as I possibly can. Daughters' car, 1990 Honda Accord. EX. On the freeway going home when she attempted to pass another car, (until this time it's been running great.) She said the car just shut down, stopped running. She pulled off to the side and managed to get it started and made it home.

Since then it hasn't started. She lives in Camino, CA. approximately. 50 miles from Lake Tahoe and about the same distance from a Honda mechanic, with no tow service with her insurance. The way she explained it to me I took a chance and bought an electric fuel pump, fuel filter, and relay.

I checked to see if it was firing, which it was. So installed the pump, filter and relay, didn't start. Turns over nice and easy but doesn't even sound like it wants to start. Since then I've replaced the ignitor, coil, rotor, distributor cap, plugs and new wiring.

Timing seems to be in time, lines up. I did notice the timing gear on the camshaft was one, maybe two teeth off, and also know the timing belt hasn't been changed since she bought it, approximately 10 years ago. (or I bought it.) Passed through one or two major tune-ups? Also replaced PCV valve, and noticed that now it does seem to crank over a little stronger, more like its closer to starting than before (like more compression?) than just spinning the crank? But it also seems like there isn't enough juice in the battery, (little weak) so my next step is to charge the battery after that??????

I did buy a new timing belt but haven't put it on yet. Am I in to deep to pay the tow to have it repaired or should I spend that tow money on another part that I need that will solve my problem? Stuck in the hills alone, running out of parts to buy and or money to buy them with. Appreciate any advice or help you can send, and thank you for your time

Thanks again,
BSF

A. If you have good spark then the next thing to check would be the fuel system. If you spray some carburetor cleaner into the intake while someone cranks it over, and it runs, then you have a fuel delivery problem.

You can unplug the injector connectors and plug in a noid light and see if it flashes when you try to start it. if it doesn't, then the problem is in the power to the injectors or the ground side. If you don't have a noid light, put the tip of a long screwdriver on the injector. Put your ear to the handle and have someone crank the engine. You should hear each injector click.

In this car, power comes from fuse 28 to the Main EFI relay and then to a fuel injector resistor. This car has 3 volt injectors, not 12 volt. Direct power will fry the injectors instantly. Then from the resistor to the injectors. Then the ground is through the PCM.

So, if you have 12 volts at the red wire of the fuel injector resistor and 3 volts at the red/black wires on the injector connectors, power side is good. If you don't have 12 volts at the red wire, then it's probably the main relay.

If you have 3 volts at pin 1 (brown wire), pin 2 (red wire), pin 3 (blue wire), and pin 14 yellow wire), of the PCM connector, then you have a bad PCM.