honda accord itermittent stalling/no-start

"RayV" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:

When the car won't start and you try to crank it, does the tach needle jump up and down the tiniest bit? Or does the needle remain perfectly still?

Does the car ONLY stall while driving?

I haven't checked it out yet so can't say about the tach.

Sometimes the car won't start after being shut off. One check I found in another forum was this: "To make sure it's a bad main relay, do like this:

Turn the key to II, listen for a humming sound from behind you. It is a fuel pump working. You should hear a click from under the dash after it. It is a main relay click. If you do not hear a click, your car will not start. If you do hear a click, your car will start.

Fix is to take the relay out, resolder the joints and put it back in."

Does that sound correct?

"RayV" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

That's pretty important. If the tach needle is perfectly still when the car won't start, then the igniter is bad. If it jiggles a bit, then the problem lies elsewhere. If there is in fact NO spark but the tach needle moves, then it's your coil.

PLEASE, AN ACCURATE DESCRIPTION! Does it fire up, then stall once you release the key?

You need to be very precise about the EXACT details of the problem.

Help me help you.

There are THREE clicks. The absence of ANY ONE is a sign of trouble.

A more accurate description is on my own site:

In any case, the Main Relay is not the usual cause of stalling when the car is already running. Once it's up and running, even a bad Main Relay will allow it to keep running until you shut it off again.

Took me driving the car for twenty minutes then starting it up and shutting it off about 20 times before it failed to start. Still had the 3 clicks on the main relay Power at the fuse box for fuel and ignition Fuel pump still goes through priming cycle No spark with a non-HEI spark gap tester(

)Power to the center lead of the coil with ignition on (there are twoblack w/yellow leads to the coil only the center one had power with theignition on, blue wire nothing)Tach needle does not move when cranking>

When it won't start, the position of the key has no effect. Tried several times to find the 'sweet spot' and wouldn't even begin to start. When the problem began (months ago) it would stall out while driving and usually start up right away, sometimes it would take a few minutes. When it failed to start on Friday it took at least an hour before it finally started again.

I had to go before checking it out further but I'm assuming it is the ignition module, I want to make sure though since he was already soaked by the dealer for $550 on this problem. Your site is very helpful and I just looked over the section on testing the module. I've always just replaced them but it was a no-brainer since most of my cars had HEI and it was either a complete failure or failure when hot. The module for the Accord has got to cost a lot.

"RayV" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

Igniter is dead.

Isn't this the standard "main relay" solder joint problem, there is LOTs of info on the web about this.

Mark