car gurus. need your input

[timaishu]

So my sister just called saying her car was dead.

I went to go help and the car was having trouble trying to stay alive.

It started fine but then it died immediately. Started it again while holding the gas pedal then let go and it ran fine for like 2 seconds and it then sort of sputtered about and died.

Restarted a thrid time and held the rpms around 1500 for about 5 minutes and now the car runs fine.

She followed me home and I put my volt meter on the battery and it was reading 13.1v at rest and the connections are solid. She said she just had the battery replace recently.

Feed back please

[tw33k2514]

Make/model/year?

could be a lot of things. Just need to narrow it down a bit.

[rwright]

Could it be bad gas? I got some bad gas one time and my car nearly shut down on my drive home. Picked up a can of Seafoam and got some gas from another station and it cleared up. Maybe try Seafoam first, $10 for a can.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

See what the alternator is putting out. Put the positive lead on the power side of the alternator and the negative of the battery. You should be getting better than 14.0 volts.

[1MZsLastForever]

Sounds like it has a dirty IAC valve. Year make and model would be helpful to know.

[timaishu]

Sorry.

Its a honda accord. I think its a 2002.

The car has been a lemon since shes owned it. I dont think it was having this issue till just tonight. She drove to the store just fine and came back out 5 minutes later and this happened.

[timaishu]

Thanks for the quick replies. :xyxthumbs:


Could it be bad gas? I got some bad gas one time and my car nearly shut down on my drive home. Picked up a can of Seafoam and got some gas from another station and it cleared up. Maybe try Seafoam first, $10 for a can.

She said she just filled up. She said she got the "good gas". I didnt think to ask, but I am assuming chevron as its just a block away.


See what the alternator is putting out. Put the positive lead on the power side of the alternator and the negative of the battery. You should be getting better than 14.0 volts.

Good to know, she has already gone home. So I cannot check. But her car has gone through I think two or three alternators since she has had it.


Sounds like it has a dirty IAC valve. Year make and model would be helpful to know.

Whats that? lol

[rwright]

Thanks for the quick replies. :xyxthumbs:



She said she just filled up. She said she got the "good gas". I didnt think to ask, but I am assuming chevron as its just a block away.


Mine came from a Texaco. It's not necessarily the brand or octane, it could be from too much moisture or even water in the tank at the station or the carrier. I would try a can of Seafoam first, you can get it at parts stores and Walmart. Pour an entire small can into the tank. I'm not talking about sucking it through a vacuum line, which couldn't hurt either.

[tw33k2514]

Idle air control. Which is very likely. But you need a hand vacuum pump to test it. I'm not a fan of diagnoses over the Internet, just seems to waste people's money. My honest suggestion would be to either find a friend who knows how to diagnose the problem. Or take it to a shop you trust. Because honestly we could guess what it is all day, and you still might not figure it out by just trying random suggestions. It is either Ignition, or fuel/air delivery. What part of one of those is the real question.

[timaishu]

We have a mechanic who we all go to. He is a good honest guy.

Wasn't really looking to fix it myself as Im not a car engine person. Was curious as to what it could possibly be.

:props:

[1MZsLastForever]

Thanks for the quick replies. :xyxthumbs:



She said she just filled up. She said she got the "good gas". I didnt think to ask, but I am assuming chevron as its just a block away.



Good to know, she has already gone home. So I cannot check. But her car has gone through I think two or three alternators since she has had it.



Whats that? lol

Idle air control valve. It basically controls the idle engine speed. When it's dirty or failing, some symptoms may include stalling right after starting, a no-start condition, or random intermittent stalling.

Idk how it is on an Accord, but on my car the IAC valve has a little hole right on the bottom of the throttle body. When I cleaned the throttle body a few months ago, I sprayed some throttle body cleaner all up inside of it, scrubbed it and carefully wiped away the gunk. I also carefully sprayed some TB cleaner into the IAC port. It took a few tries to start it, but once the cleaner burned off, the car idled much smoother than before.

Anyways, that is just my guess. It's hard to tell what the problem is because it could be anything really. But a common symptom of dirty of failing IAC is the symptom you reported.

[05rsx911]

Sounds like an idle air control valve to me, if ur lucky you can take it off and clean it with some carb cleaner or brake cleaner. Honda iacv are pretty expensive to replace close to 200(engine coolant run thru them on most hondas), so see if its dirty first n try to clean. One other thing is, the battery could be weak even if it reads 13.1 at rest, u need to see what it drops to when starting the car, it shouldn't drop below 10v. The whole thing of it not running right until you held the rpms. Up for an extended amount of time sounds like the ECM had to go thru a relearn procedure which means the ecm lost power, which could be a possible bad connection, bad battery, or sometimes a fluke, I seen it before.

Sincerely
Your friendly ase master tech

[DetailedByPrecision]

any codes? i also own a 2000 honda accord and have a good amount of knowledge about this particular car. visit my forum 6thgenaccord.com for more info as well.

[Setec Astronomy]

I'm with rwright, sounds like water in the tank. Does Seafoam work for that? I'd try some of the IPA Drigas stuff.