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So I was driving home from work (am) and I felt a jerk and the engine light came on but I still made it home. Took it to work that night and got there fine, in the morning going home again I felt a jerk again and 5 seconds later the car shut off, so I waited about 2 hours and the car started on the first try. Whent to work again that night and the next morning coming home from work It jerked again this time sooner than yesturday and the car shut off again, waited 2 hours and the car started on the first try and got it home. I replaced the Main relay thinking it was that, and now I whent to try it wout and it wont start. Took the battery to get it checked.
P.S.
On park, I would rev the car to about 2k and let go of the gas the revs would go down to 500 or so, and the car would seem like it was going to turn off then go back to normal
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I have a 94 accord, and my first repair was replacing the distributor assembly. I did not verify that the ignition system was bad, I just replaced the entire assembly. This is not a good way to do things, but I did it anyway and gambled $150. Before the repair, the car would just cut out. No CEL that I can remember. It would just die. I could restart the car after 5 minutes. After the replacement, the engine never cut out again.
There is a particular 94 Accord that belongs to my girlfriend’s father I’m very familiar with that has given me a lot of grief over the years. The last problem was the car did not want run at all, idled horribly, etc. Turned out the injectors somehow went bad. A rail/injector combo from a salvage yard made it run like a new car.
It wouldn’t hurt to check all the grounds, check the positive cable for corrosion like Eric has said. If you can duplicate the CEL, try to get the code as that may help.
Checking all the ignition components is a good idea. Look around in the engine bay so you can see if any sensors are loose or damaged.
My friends 95 Civic started turning off and doing strange things. Turns out the bolt that secures the rotor to the distributor shaft backed out and the rotor was just kind of floating around. I’m amazed he made it to my house. It kind of chewed up the wires that went to the ignition module somehow.
I like to replace the fuel filter if it has never been done on the car before, although Honda put the Accord’s in a very stupid place, so it will cause some frustration
Quoted From twiggy02919:
Did pull the code for the CEL yet?
My sentiments exactly. Don’t just throw parts at it pull the code and find the effected system, only then will you be able to diagnose what the problem is.
I took the car to a mechanic that charged me 80 bucks to diagnose it, and all they told me was the O2 sensor was bad, and that they had no idea why it was shutting off while driving. Where or how can i pull up the CEL?
Usually you can bring it to a shop and most well-known places will pull the CEL code for free. Or you can invest in a scan tool and do it yourself.
A bad O2 sensor may be to blame I suppose. I’m not sure why the car would shut off, but I guess if you had a bad O2 sensor, then that could be why you felt the jerking. It may be giving false readings to the computer and therefore creating a sudden lean or rich mixture.
Quoted From blinkskaterkc:
Usually you can bring it to a shop and most well-known places will pull the CEL code for free. Or you can invest in a scan tool and do it yourself.
A bad O2 sensor may be to blame I suppose. I’m not sure why the car would shut off, but I guess if you had a bad O2 sensor, then that could be why you felt the jerking. It may be giving false readings to the computer and therefore creating a sudden lean or rich mixture.
I guess it is possible that the O2 sensor could cause it to do that.
It might be switching to full rich or lean real quick and that is causing the engine to cut out.Intermittent problems are really tricky. Since you’re driving the vehicle, you are in a clever position to investigate at the roadside when the car shuts down. I would take as many diagnostic tools you have, and be ready to study the problem at the roadside when it happens next. Go back to basics. Do you have spark, do you have gas, write down exactly what happens and what stays on, what shuts off. When the car dies, do all the interior lights die? What else doesn’t work? Think of simple things like an intermittent bad ground connection at the engine or battery. What is happening at the dash (system voltage, lights, etc) when the car dies? I’ll go out on a limb and say that I doubt it’s just a bad O2 sensor by itself. Although it’s appealing to just replace the sensor, it you haven’t solved the problem you could damage a new sensor by not finding the problem that caused the sensor to die. It sounds like an intermittent electrical problem, but that assumption may be dead wrong. Can you start it with engine start fluid sprayed into the carb?
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