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Hiya. I’m researching an intermittent problem with my ’00 Honda Accord.
A detailed account of the intermittent problem I experience:
After the car is driven and the car has sat for several minutes, the engine idles roughly (sputter?) and immediately stalls;
– If I hold the idle at 2000 RPM or greater, the engine runs, though very rough, and it will stall immediately when I let up the petal;
– If I allow the car to sit after one of these occurrences for, say, 15 minutes, it starts/runs with absolutely no issues whatsoever;
– If, in the midst of one of these episodes, I toss the car into gear (with my foot firmly on the brake) as the car drops from high idle but before it stalls, the engine continues to run with with absolutely no issues whatsoever;
– Check Engine light may blink during one of these episodes, but it typically does not light. I see no OBD codes when I plug in my reader.Any thoughts on how I might begin to troubleshoot this problem?
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We need to figure out what the car is missing. I would start with vacuum leaks I’m also going to add the power balance test
When was the last time the car had a tune up?C8-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CPqbaSg … plpp_video vacuum leaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAOmUjAj … plpp_video power balance test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBUYs539 … plpp_video no start diagnostics
If this is the V6 model they are prone to IAC failures so you might want to tap on that with a screwdriver handle while it’s running to see if the idle changes if it does then I would recommend replacing the IAC.
Eric, et al…
Thanks for the suggestion.
This is the V6, btw…The most typical symptom of a problematic IAC is “idle hunting” (or whatever the correct term/phrase is) where the engine RPM cyclically revs from, say, 1000 to 2000 AND the engine doesn’t stall. Neither symptom fits here.
In my case the engine doesn’t hunt at all. Instead, it stalls in park/neutral, and runs rough when the transmission is engaged. Additionally my engine problem only occurs after the car has been started after the car has sat for a while after being driven–but not always (grrrr…) while a faulty IAC typically shows the hunting symptom at every engine start.
Do you still think the IAC is a likely culprit? Would you characterize what I’ve described as a problem with the idle?
have you checked for vacuum leaks? check your egr valveC8-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIUFw2KR6rU how to check an egr valve
Do you have access to a scanner that shows live data? It would be interesting to see what the PCM is ‘seeing’ when all this is happening – like fuel trims, ECT sensor, etc. If possible I’d get a snapshot of the PIDs when it’s running well and another when it acts up and compare the 2. If it’s a vacuum leak like College Man suggested then you would see a big compensation number in the ST/LT trims.
Typically a flashing CEL while running means a severe misfire.
I have also seen the IAC cause the condition you describe so don’t rule it out. The other possibility is the electrical portion of the ignition switch but I would check out the IAC valve first as in my opinion this is still the primary suspect.
I would check around for ignition leaks just to cover your bases.
I have the same car as you that i can safely say “had” this same problem. There are a lot of posts saying to replace the fuel reg with an upgraded oe and PCM. This is NOT the case. I found this out accidently by dis connecting the vacume hose that goes to the fuel pressure regulator when this happened. Doing so made the car run like new while idling, as soon as i hooked up the vacume line back up the car sputtered and stalled. The fix I did was I ran 91 octane gasoline along with some fuel injector cleaner and left the vacume line disconected. I also plugged off the vacume port where the fuel reg hooked up to with some tubing and a plug so dirt did not get into the intake. I ran it like this for about a week, hooked the vacume hose back up test drove it, bam! Problem solved. The fuel injectors were just simply cloging up from “Heat Soak”. Your welcome. 🙂
I have exactly the same issue with my 2000 Accord V6 — and it seems only to occur on a hot weather day; intermittently.
I’m going to try the vacuum-less fuel injector cleaner trick.
@lothian did you ever find the solution? Would love to hear from others who solved this frustratingly difficult troubleshooting issue – especially since it only happens once in a while; the rest of the time she runs perfectly!
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