I need some help with my accord--she's sick

ebpcivicsi · 03-21-06, 06:23

Hi all, any input in this matter would be *greatly* appreciated.

Here's the "story"..........

The car is a 93 accord EX wagon with 185,000 miles on the clock, I bought her used a few months ago. She runs strong and starts right up, untul last week.

I stop to get gas, turn key to "acc" to hear radio while pumping, finishing pumping gas, turn key over, car starts, runs for about 2 seconds, dies. Repeated attempts net the same result.

I leave the car, talk to a few people, decide to replace the "main fuel relay." I replace the part (under the steering column), the first try--still dies, second try--starts right up, was fine all week--no problems.

Today, here's where it gets interesting. I stop to get gas, turn the ignition to acc to hear radio, finish pumping gas, turn key over--starts, runs 1-2 seconds, then dies. I wait a few minutes, disconnect the negative nattery terminal (thinking it will reset the ecu if it's just a glitch??)--nothing. I then repeatedly try to start in "N" or "P" and finally I get it to start. I drive it home and turn it on an off *numerous* times and everything seems fine.

At this time I decide to drive it to work (40 miles), about halfway through the trip the needles fall to zero, but the car keeps running. They then come back on and it runs "normal" for a few minutes. A few miles up, the needles drop AND the dash lights and clock go out completely--at this time the motor dies, but comes right back on.

A few miles later--needles, clock, and dash lights all die, car keeps running. When everything comes back up (a few seconds) the "D4" light is blinking and the "ABS" light is on. I also see a tiny bit of smoke coming from the steering column. The ABS light later turns off.

As I am exiting the off ramp the all the dash lights die, the needls, everything is gone, the car acts as if it is starinig for fuel, then as I turn in to the parking lot, everything dies--motor, dash lights, etc. I still have headlights, power steering, and radio????

Now one thing to note: When I turn the key to "acc" I have no dash lights, I cannot turn on the fans, but the radio works.

Obviously this is electrical (I am thinking anyways?), but is there any known problem that it could be?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Danase · 03-21-06, 06:34

I would get behind the dash and start looking for burnt or melted wire. It might of been something someone did a crappy job on back there. Nothing really comes to my mind as to what it could be. Is the ECU throwing any codes?

twitch · 03-21-06, 06:36

the distributor igniter was notorious for going out on the Accords/Preludes. I had a 92 Prelude and fortunately when it went out my car killed and would not start again. I believe though that if they do not die instantly they can produce erratic happenings.

TigerMike · 03-21-06, 06:36

Sorry to hear you are having problems with your car.

Can't really say with any certainty that I know what is happening, but off the top of my head, you might replace the fuel filter and have the alternator checked. I would think that at 185k, these items might need replacing. At first I was thinking fuel filter until the electrical glitches. Then it either sounds like an alternator issue or a more advanced electrical problem with wiring. Has the car ever been wrecked? Any major repairs in its history?

Hope you get it sorted out soon!

Mike

rjstaaf · 03-21-06, 06:39

Look for the source of that smoke from under the dash. Sounds to me like a short. Did the previous owner install any aftermarket accessories?

Setec Astronomy · 03-21-06, 06:45

Yeesh. Hopefully someone can help you...don't overlook something simple, tho. I have owned my car since new and do almost all my own work on it. A couple of years ago I was getting weird intermittent stalling, dash lights, etc., was sure I had water in my tank or some incipient ignition failure. I did all kinds of stuff, and finally I was bitching at work and a guy who is like the least car-guy there says "are the battery connections tight?" Rather than call him an idiot and be dismissive, I decide to check, even though I always tighten my battery connections carefully (side terminal), and sure enough the positive battery connection was loose! Then I remembered I had brought my car in for some A/C service, and it never occurred to me that they might have disconnected the battery so I never checked it after...d'oh!

Yours sounds a bit more like a short...good luck on a used car like that where you have no idea what has been done to the car over the years. Hopefully as you said it's a known problem and someone will know.

ebpcivicsi · 03-21-06, 07:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Setec Astronomy

Yours sounds a bit more like a short...good luck on a used car like that where you have no idea what has been done to the car over the years. Hopefully as you said it's a known problem and someone will know.

LOL, that is *exactly* the problem that I am having....I have no idea what has been done. I planned on going through it this spring and doing all of the routine stuff that is needed at this mileage, but I was waiting on the time/weather to break.

I do know that it has never been modded, but the history of body damge I do not know exaclty. I know it has been wrecked, but to what extent I don't know.

The timing belt, water pump, etc was changed at some point, but I am not sure when (the reason I was going to do it this spring).

I did check the terminals--all tight.

Thanks so much for the help thus far guys.

Setec Astronomy · 03-21-06, 09:14

When I was 17 I got t-boned in my father's new car by somebody going thru a red light. Later on, that car developed a high-resistance short in the dome light circuit (which included all the courtesy lights, and some other stuff), which would blow the fuse instantly. Nobody could find it until I took it to a short circuit specialist...I wanted to ask him where it was, but he was gone by the time we got there to pick the car up. Years later, my brother wound up with the car, and the problem came back...never to be solved. Good luck, hope yours works out better.

BigChevMan · 03-21-06, 09:27

It's got to be a bad ground. Check all the grounds for secure connections in the car and underneath. I had the same thing happen to me in my old truck. A ground wire had rusted through. Took 3 weeks with a fine tooth comb to find out what it was.