First of all thanks to everyone on here. I've been able to narrow down many issues with my car from here!

One of those problems has been the main relay. Like others, my darling would not start in hot weather. A few weeks ago I crawled under the steering wheel and pulled out what I thought was the main relay. There were several joints that needed to be resoldered. I managed to accomplish this and the car seemed back to normal.

The other day my running lights wouldn't come on (same thing as before with the relay) and I was hoping things would go well and the car would not cut out on me while driving... oh if only it was that easy. It was a warm day and alas, as I was sitting in the turn lane with a bunch of cars behind me, the car DIES. Perfect. Rush hour traffic. She started, then stopped. Started. Said **** OFF, and stopped again. It's amazing how compassionate (insert sarcasm here) your fellow drivers are when you're in trouble and have your hazards on. I didn't know a guys voice could go that high when they yelled. Being the lady I am, I promptly flipped him off and went back to concentrating on my car. I managed to get it going and cranked up the air conditioning at the feet. The car worked fine on the way home but I had frozen feet.

Now, deciding it would be really cool to tackle this tonight, I crawled under and pulled out the main relay... Main Relay A. This was not the part I previously touched, however this Main Relay A is in perfect condition. Started to wonder how many relays are down there...

Here are pictures of the part I took out and you can plainly see needs a little loving. As this would be my second attempt at soldering the contacts, I figure it might be better to just go out and buy a new part (wouldn't want to disrupt rush hour traffic anymore). Problem is, this part does not have Main Relay written anywhere on it.

All I see is two black parts with:

H009/01CY
-01A-015
9814 A
Malaysia


Is anyone able to identify this part? (hoping the pictures turn out ok)




[IMG]local://upfiles/8314/01749266052047E8B25847280F3B28CB.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/8314/B6E9B2F1274E461594BF26159B5002F7.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/8314/FDEA97C225934C92B8144118A68E5939.jpg[/IMG]

 

Not that these will turn out any better, I'm hoping they will show the general location of where this part is.

In the third picture, you can see that this part goes to the left of what's in the picture.

Hope this helps


[IMG]local://upfiles/8314/BDE8588AAF94419895E98C0BE4B8F3EC.jpg[/IMG]



[IMG]local://upfiles/8314/B76CB05394474FD5BBD597AD7ECF48DB.jpg[/IMG]
This is where the Main Relay A was found.

[IMG]local://upfiles/8314/9AD5845C558A418ABA6C2F6D48CD14FD.jpg[/IMG]
This is where I pulled the part from.

 

My guess will be the daytime running lights control unit.

 

The pictured relay has far too many parts for the Main Fuel Relay. In previous years it was an 8-wire connector w/ 7 wires in the harness to the connector. You need to find a wiring diagram and get the wire colors to help find the relay. A manual is essential when trying a repair such as Main Fuel Relay.

In 94-97 Accords, the relay is under the dash on the driver's side to the inside of the steering wheel, mounted on a steel bracket. Remove the knee bolster and cross-member behind the knee bolster to access (still a bit hard). Your 98 may be similar.

good luck.

 

On the 98-02 Accords, the main relay is located near the pedals on the driver side floor. Here's a link to the part (if you want a new one): http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...IT+%28CABIN%29
The main relay is # 13. Maybe the pic will help a little on locating it

 

I don't know if it is the running lights unit. It has to be a main control of something simply because when it gets hot, the whole car stalls, powers down/flickers, etc.


Texas: I've got a repair manual and will have a look at the diagrams in the back later tonight. They always looked alien to me! The Relay which I pulled out and noticed it actually said Main Relay A did have numbers on it and looks exactly like one on here which has instructions on how to find it and resolder it.

Accord: Thanks, appreciate it. This part is higher up into the console from the pedals (which is where I pulled the Main Relay A out of).

At least the car started this morning! Getting home might be a different issue....

 

From your first post, it sounded like you found the main relay when you first looked for it.

Here is a link that pinpoints your relay, just scroll down to find the MFR for a 98-02 Accord.

http://techauto.te.funpic.org/mainrelaydefine.php

Try resoldering the joints first to fix the problem. The relay can fail internally and cause the same problems, so you might have to replace if soldering doesn't help.

 

Ding ding... you got it.

I stumbled across http://www.nyx.net/~smanley/hondadrlfix/index.html

It's the same piece. So alas, I was tinkering with the daytime running lights unit--not the main relay. lol

I'm going to pull the main relay A out tomorrow and have a look at it in better light. Maybe I missed something the last time. Lord knows I have now.