Occasional starting issue - any suggestions?

[Setanta]

I have a problem with starting with my SiR. It seems to be more of an issue when the temperatures are high 28-40 degrees Celsius although quite often it isn't an issue.

Occasionally the car will either crank but not fire or briefly fire up and then shut down. On cranking there is spark through the leads but spraying aerostart down the throttle body won't kick the engine over. Repeated attempts have the same result. After leaving the engine for 15minutes to an hour it can usually be started. Engine bay temps at the time of cranking range from high to cool (black car, it can build up a lot of heat under there even if the engine hasnt been used in hours). Interior temps on the other hand can be quite hot.

It really is an occasional issue but it's got me beat (and stranded) when it happens. It seems to be a day thing not a night.

Engine is a B16A from factory as are all the electricals. Battery is new, starter motor works fine, alternator has been rebuilt and the car is regularly services. The spark plugs have about 10,000kms on them.

I've never experienced the issue before but am thinking its the main relay if the solder has dried up. Does that sound about right?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers
Pete

[Rowie]

Can you roll start the car when it happens?

[Setanta]

no mate - it's not a starter issue, the engine cranks just fine and a roll makes no difference.

[McChook]

Sticky Thermostat

[bennjamin]

Id be checking your main relay Pete , or igniter or coil or even the cap and rotor inside the dizzy....

apparently a common prob with older hondas- weak internal coil.

[Redteg]

Yee, I've heard te Main Relay is a common problem. Solution is to either get a new one or open yours up and fix up all the solder joints.

I have a spare here which I have fixed if you wanna try it out.

[Setanta]

yep - but I'm getting spark down the HT leads which rules the dizzy etc out.

I'm starting to think relay is what it is.

LOL McChook - "thermostat"???

[majic777]

yep i agree with redteg and the others... 99% sure it's the main fuel pump relay.. my car does it occasionally too.. re-soldering seemed to help a bit, but you really need to buy a new one from honda to totally eliminate the problem

good luck with it!

[Setanta]

hmm - I wonder if an auto electrician can source one - the problem with my car is that it never came out in Australia - and compatibility with the Aussie ED of the same time period is minimal :?

[majic777]

i'm not totally sure about this... but i'm pretty sure that most of them are the same for different honda's... only the mounting bracket is different... or something...

[madgrk]

Couldnt you get a relay off, say an EK VTiR if your engine and ECU are the same? I'm assuming they all run the same ECU since they both run B16A's. Or maybe even one off an EG6 which could be a little easier to source than your EF9.

Just a thought, i'm not too in depth with the electricals of Hondas but I would assume that the relays between the years shouldnt differ.. ops:

[bizee_1]

The ECU's are different.

I had a similar if not same problem. Although i had other related problems too. Like my rev tach kept jumping after 5krpm without affecting the engine's output.
Then, engine would idle really low on hot days, sounding like i had performance cams in it. would be fine after warming up. on a few of the really really really hot days, car idle once warmed up would be very low to dying. had to turn on a/c just to keep the revs without manually tapping the gas.
Then, rev tach started to jump from as low as 3 grand, this time affecting engine output. starting to hesitate etc really really bad ! On hot days, car would start and sometimes die. but would always eventually start.

my mech earlier suspected the main relay, which played to be right.
not sure what he did. spraying something, fixing the connections or other.
but, no problems at all now !!!

might even be pulling an extra kw ! :P lol

http://www.hontoys.com.au/
i haven't been there, someone else mentioned them in a post.
They are like situated behind GPC.