The original issue with the car was the main/fuel pump relay would only prime intermittently, therefore only run intermittently. The owner took the car to Honda dealer and they replaced the distributor, CYP sensor, main/fuel pump relay, and fuel pump. The intermittent priming issue persists. I have a spare ECU coming, but my question is does just the first set of numbers have to be correct? Such as this car the ECU top number is 37820-POB-A70. So the replacement the top number is the same but the bottom is a little different. I was also told I may have to demobilize it(?) what would be involved in that? And lastly, if anyone knows where I can get detailed electrical diagrams for this specific car, pease tell me where. I can’t find them online and would like to check the sensor in the distributor ohms at the ECU but have no idea which of the 4 connectors it’s on, let alone which pins they are. When I have reset the ECU, and had the relay working, the car would drive like a champ. No codes. When it’s acting up it throws the code 9. I have a feeling this is due to it running terribly though and that it’s the ECU. Thanks for any help you community can provide.

 

The top number starting with 37820 is the part number, so you are swapping with an identical part. The next number is the serial number, so it will be unique to the PCM.

The 96 accord has no immobilizer, so there is no programming involved.

There is a shop manual covering the 94-97 accords online. Just google cd7_cd9.pdf and you should be able to download it. The manual you get is for a 94 accord, and there are some differences with the 96.

I found a CD years ago on ebay that was specific for the 96 accord. You may even be able to find the paper version for the 96 at a reasonable price.

 

Thank you for that info. I was able to find a good online diagram. I have a feeling it’s going to come back to the ECU. When it’s working it primes like it should so it’s very difficult to troubleshoot being intermittent. I also found a fuel leak at the filter which fixed a seperate problem of the car dying when coming to a stop and the rpms getting so low the car would stall due to lack of fuel. I will see the outcome on Friday when the new ECU comes and I’m also going to ring out the entire ignition switch harness. I’ll pull it and check for resistance on each individual wire. These are the only things I can think of that I haven’t done yet.

 

I had a thought. I have another ECU on the way, be here on Friday with the identical part number. I noticed in the main/fuel pump 8 pin relay during testing that there is another pin on the relay that gets a switched 12v based on ignition position II. If the ECU doesn’t fix this issue, I could solder in a jumper (last resort) between the other 12v switched pin that consistently works to pin 7 (fuel pump). I know it would no longer prime for 2 seconds and stop at that point, but rather run all the time the key was on. I don’t see the downfall to this solution as the fuel system has a return, and if we’re ever involved in a crash SRS would still take out the main/fuel pump relay as it is set up currently and verified by Alldata electrical diagrams. The ECU should do it, it’s all that is left, but I can consider this as a last resort.

 

So due to the amount of wiring troubleshooting I’ve done, I’ve narrowed it down to the ECU. It came in the mail today and I will swap it out and report. Sometimes, even if the fuel pump primes like it’s supposed to, it still won’t start and will throw a CEL for the cam sensor in the distributor. Also, the fuel level sender doesn’t work. I think al these issues are relate and I’ll report back later today to share what I’ve found. Stay tuned!, as this seems to be a common problem with these generation Accords.

 

The new ECU did in fact fix this issue.