94 No start, gas cap related
 

Hi,

Car is a 5 speed, 4 cyl Accord with 225K on the clock.

For a long time I've had an intermittent problem with starting. My commute is 23 miles, and therefore the car is fully warmed up. What happens, maybe 2-3 times a month is that I'll stop somewhere on the way home, and if it's a very quick stop, the car will crank, but not start. I've never had a problem if the stop is more than about 5 minutes.

This happened the first time at about 175K miles, at my gas station where I had stopped to check the air in a tire. When I hopped back in, the car wouldn't start, and the gas jockey heard the cranking, came over and told me to loosen the gas cap for a second, retighten it, and hit the key. Fired right up.

So....every time this has happened since, I loosen the gas cap, hear a "whoosh" of air being sucked in, hop back in and it always fires right up.

Bought a new cap a month ago, and it still does it.

Any ideas as to what's going on?

Thanks!

Do you have any stored codes?

What is the age of the tune up items (cap, rotor, plugs, ect)?

Humor me next time this happens. Turn the key to on/pos II and watch the CEL. It should come on for 2~3 seconds and go off - durning this time, listen for the fuel pump to run....you'll have to have the radio off, blower off and anything else that makes noise.

Sounds like you're getting a vacuum in the tank and it's affecting the fuel flow to the engine. I would guess it's related to the EVAP system (which includes the gas cap). I took a look in the manual, and the system description is very weak. To make matters worse, the schematic symbols are not what I'm used to (AS1290). The gas cap looks like a double check valve with each check valve going in opposite directions but I think it should allow air in and prevent fuel tank vapors from going out. Did you buy a Honda fuel tank cap?

I'll study up on the EVAP system some more to see if I can make sense of it. In the meantime, have you tried Eric the Car Guy? He's got lots of youtube videos, most are for Hondas.

Eric the car guy does have some excellant videos and information..give him a try out..

WheelBrokerAng :)