The last two mornings my accord would shake when I started it and would keep shaking for about 5-10 mins till it warmed up. It's been exceptionally cold the last two mornings (about 15-20 degrees F). I wonder if it's a bad spark plug? But someone told me it could be a fuel pressure regulator?? The engine shakes harder as I rev up but smooths out like I said after a few minutes and continues to run just fine throughout the day. I could use some advice. Thanks!

 

did you notice what RPM it was running at? When you revved the engine a little bit did it smooth out at all or just shake more?

 

Well it shakes thru all the RPM's and yes it does get worse with more shaking as I rev it. But I mean once it warms up at idles at about 800 rpm and it still shakes...but give it about 5 more minutes after THAT point and then it smooths out and remains smooth indefinitely (at least throughout the day)
thanks sir_nasty

 

How old is the distributor cap? Plug wires?

I've had old cap & wires that would arc more when they were cold. Especially cold and damp. When they warmed up & dried out they were fine.

Cold start in complete darkness. Look for arcing - even a dullblue glow around the cap & wires. Any of that would indicate some of the spark is leaking out thru degraded insulation.

 

Hmm, I dunno where a dark enough place is...I don't have a garage . But thanks for the advice, I'll see what I can do; I might be overdue for a tune-up right now. I wanna get platinum plugs and good wires anyway.

As far as the distributor cap is concerned, I didn't even think about that but I'll get a new one if that's the problem. I'm thinking you might be correct though, cuz it warmed up after those 2 cold days we had and it's been steadily above freezing in the morning and she's been starting just fine.

Any other good advice/suggestions?


PS
This is entirely unrelated but I have megan racing header and catback exhaust...I had stock airbox for a while but just recently pulled it out and put an open air filter on the stock piping... it doesn't feel like I got much gain from it...I do, however, have a bit better response in low rpm's...but I wonder if the metal piping would help even more. That, and I don't have a mass air flow sensor so maybe that'll do me some good? or is that just hype?

 

Get up before light & start the car to look for arcing? Spray water from a windex bottle onto the plug wires to make the arcing more prominent?

Cap & rotor are fairly cheap, so judge that by how old or beat-up they look. Honda original plug wires are really good, a little pricey, so think twice ($$)about replacing them without proving the old ones are bad. But YOUR plug wires are either 14 years old or else they're probably not Genuine Honda? How do they look on close inspection of the insulation?

Stock plugs are probably copper NGK plugs. Get stock. Most Hondas seem to do badly on Bosch plugs.

No mass air flow sensor? You can't change that without changing your entire engine-management system. That's not something you can add like a different type filter.