Hello everyone,
I want to see if anyone has any ideas of what may be wrong with my 99 Accord 4cyl automatic. I will list everything that I have done in the last 2 days. I changed the distributor cap and rotor. I changed the spark plugs. I also replaced the fuel pressure regulator. I want to mention that when I turn the car to the ON position I hear the fuel pump prime intermittently. Sometimes it will prime and sometimes not. All that is left to replace is the fuel pump and check the main fuel relay, but since the main fuel relay was changed only a year ago I was thinking that might not be the problem.Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

From your title, I suspected a starter issue, but from description, it sounds like engine turns over fine, but does not start. Is that correct? Remember we aren't there and only what you describe is known.

If you get no-start when you don't hear the fuel pump run for 2-3 secs, either faulty main fuel relay, despite it's replacement, or intermittent fuel pump.

I had an intermittent fuel pump that was only fixed w/ replacement of pump. Very tricky to diagnose since it has same symptoms as faulty Main Fuel Relay. I rigged a "tell-tale" light to the fuel pump power supply line to confirm that fuel pump was not starting and power was available.

I found that when pump would not engage, it would start after "bumping" the pump w/ repeated on/off/on... of the keyswitch.

good luck

 

One way for the actual pump to fail is a bad pole on the motor. So if it happens to stop in the wrong position, it won't start. Often you can get it going by smacking the bottom of the fuel tank with your hand or something.

 

Hi Texas/ Jim

Thanks for taking the time to write regarding my issue. The engine turns over and the car does start but it has been taking longer and longer to get the car started almost to the point where I feel that I maybe doing damage to starter or battery. Then I will immediately retry and the car fires up immediately like what I am use to. I haven't tried smacking the bottom of the fuel tank yet.

From your experience on a car that has never had the fuel pump changed do you feel that maybe that is the issue seeing that the car is 14 years old? I dont know what to think since sometimes I hear the fuel pump prime and other times not. Thanks for your input. I am going to buy another main relay just to have it on hand and take out the older one and look at the solder points and let you know what I find.

 

No way to be certain. Since the MFR has been replaced, it may be slightly more likely to be the fuel pump. However MFR is much more frequently cause of failure than fuel pump and MFR is much easlier to replace than fuel pump.

You could perform the diagnostic I described in my first post to this thread to isolate fuel pump or MFR.

When I replaced fuel pump, I probably spend 8-10 hrs total.

good luck

 

Hi Texas,

So I went and bought a new MFR and installed and it and nothing still have the same problem. I guess it was the fuel pump all along. It doesnt look like too bad of a job to do it myself. I will report back late Sunday or Monday with the results. Thanks for everyones input.

 

Hello everyone,

I wanted to report back and let everyone know that after changing the fuel pump the problem has gone away. So it seems the fuel pump was the problem all along. It was quite a job seeing that I had never attempted this before but I got it done.

A note about the Bosch Pump that I thought I should mention. The connector the Bosch pump brings does not fit into the assembly portion of the original so you have to cut and spice into the original factory wiring, something I wasn't crazy about but I had no choice at that point. I think this is probably a part you want to buy from Honda for anyone thinking about doing this job.

Thanks for everyone's help and input.

 

Thanks for followup report.

Fuel pump is a no-fun job of crawling around underneath vehicle and muscling the tank down/up. I found a large box was helpful to provide temporary support. A helper would be even better, but most of us are solo diy'rs.

good luck

 

TX - I think the 99 went back to the "panel".....no need to drop the tank. Open the trunk, clean everything out, open the panel, remove pump.

 

Poorman you are correct. No need to drop the tank I had access to the panel through the trunk but still it was a no fun job because the Haynes book left out an important part and well after messing with it a little bit I figured it out. All in all its not a terribly bad job. Thanks and Happy 4th to all.