94 EX 2.2L VTEC - I recall reading something about a long crank or no start conditon when the vehicle has been sitting in the sun on hot days. It had something to do with a fuse/relay or electrical connection if my memory serves me right. I searched the forum but came up empty. Does anyone recall this problem? If so, some info would be very helpful. Thank you in advance...

 

when it starts getting hot . we see a lot of main relays go bad,,
you need to diagnose if it is lack of spark or fuel when car will not start ,,
go to our DIY section there is a few write ups on diagnosing it

 

no its not hot soak, its not lack of spark or fuel. its just every once in a while... usually when i go to leave work after the car sitting in the sun for 7+ hrs.

 

This same thing was happening to me for a couple years. Usually, rolling down the windows let the interior cool down enough and in 10 minutes it'd start.

Last summer I finally had enough, and replaced the main relay. Problem solved. A friend w/ a '99 Accord had the same issue, and the dealer diagnosed and fixed hers, same way except a $100 more.

My guess is the relay develops cracks and the heat makes it expand to where the contacts or solder joints won't complete the circuit.

It's not a fun repair, laying on your back under the steering column, but way better than being stranded or paying a dealer to do it.

Peter

 

Geeze I'm glad that I never seem to have any problems with my cars...

WheelBrokerAng ..leading a charmed life I guess, now my Daughters car, tht's a different story [sm=boohoo.gif]

 

My '92 did just that on a hot day this week. I've only had it for a week, so I don't know if it's a new problem or not.

We took it to lunch, and on the way back, I stopped at a gas station so my friend could by a can of chaw. It was off for only 10 minutes or less. I had the ignition on w/o engine running, playing around with the power mirrors (which still don't work, heh). When he came back, I cranked on it and it wouldn't start. I popped the hood, pulled the coil wire out of the distributor, and it had plenty of spark while he cranked it. I then plugged the coil wire back in and he cranked it agian, and it started within a second. I just happened to be reading the archives here and ran across where others have had the same problem. Today, I pulled the master relay and sure enough, it had the typical cracked solder joints! I desoldered and resoldered all of them, and now I hope I never see this issue again.

It's due to temperature cycling of the relay. Solder is soft and develops stress cracks, which become intermittant open circuits eventually. When I was desoldering the joints, I found several more that were definitely bad but didn't look that way under a magnifying glass. I knew they were bad from the way the solder melted when I was desoldering the joints with my solder sucker. Common problem on single sided circuit boards.

If you can desolder and resolder well, do it yourself. The hardest part is getting the module out from under the dash and that isn't too bad if you're a contortionist (which I ain't!).

By the way, 88-98 full-size Chevy trucks have a similar problem with the windshield wipers. I've fixed quite a few of them, same intermittant cracked solder joints! Engine heat, bitter winter cold, repeat... = cracked solder.

 

On 94-97 Accords, remove the lower knee bolster and stiffner and access to the main fuel relay is better, not easy but better.

good luck

 

are you good with a soldering iron? save yourself the $$ and resolder all the joints on your current one. I charge $35 to do this which is half the price of a new relay.

 

thanks for the info... but exacly what relay is it main relay? fuel relay?

 

Honda "main relay" is a combination of 2 relays in the same case. One is power supply for ECU, injectors, and a bunch of sensors. Other relay is power to fuel pump. Power to fuel pump is sometimes flaky. What differs from 'normal' heat soak, is that it's located under the dash, way over to the left. It responds not to under-hood temperatuers, but to interior temperature.