I have a 95 accord station wagon with 312,000 miles on it. I have had a series of intermittent starting problems that have got me stumped. When this first happened I replaced the fuel pump. The starting was still intermittent so we replaced the main relay (twice), and the problem seemed to go away. When the key is turned on, the fuel pump will sometimes take ten seconds or so to turn on. On occasion, it won’t come on for thirty seconds or more. A week it would not start after numerous attempts, eventually had it towed to shop, where it started right away. Eventually it did the same thing for them, ie. the fuel pump wouldn’t come on for a long time and then when it did turn on it would it turn back off after a second or two. They replaced the main relay (third one) and they pronounced that it was fixed. But five days later, it was back to intermittent starting. Most recently the fuel pump did not start for 20 seconds or so, and then it would turn back off within a second or two and it would not start. After numerous tries, the fuel pump would kick on within seconds of turning the key on, but would kick back off within a second or two. It was a humid dewy morning and when the sun rose and the car was finally in the sun, the fuel pump kicked on, stayed on and the car started. Any ideas? Is it possible to diagnose the problem when it is working, only when it is not working?

 

Do you notice when no fuel pump noise is heard whether Check Engine and Alt lights come on? If not, the ignition switch assy may be intermittent.

Other possibility is flaky ECM which is denying ground to enable the MFR. We have been seeing more ECM problems recently. If ECM mistakenly detected no engine activity it would disable the MFR and fuel pump.

Difficult to isolate an intermittent problem, however neither one of the above is very expensive.

Ignition switch is about $40 and a very easy installation.

A used ECM should be < $100. Check ebay and car-part.com. Make sure to match your ECM part number (37820-P??-???).

good luck

 

No. The Check Engine light and Alt lights do not come on.

 

If Check Engine and Alt light are not coming on when you turn keyswitch to on and no fuel pump sound is heard, then ignition switch assy may be the problem. Sometimes wiggling the key can resolve the problem and confirm the ignition switch problem.

good luck

 

Open up the plastic shroud around the steering column & check the switch. It's mounting screws might be loose? Maybe a wiring problem that can be seen & fixed with soldering iron? If you can't make the problem happen by wiggling the key, that DOESN'T prove the switch is good.

 

I had a similar problem on my 1998 and it was the ignition cable.

What I did when the key was at the position On, (It's position II on my accord) and the lights did not come on ... I turned the key just a little more and then the light comes on. After that I got the fuel pump sound then the car started.

But it got to a point were the engine stop working while I was driving.

Since I changed the cable everything is OK.

 

I have a 1995 honda accord lx and i had the same problem. Mine started the same way then it would also stall while i was driving it. I changed the fuel pump and ignition and everything else people told me to change. the last thing i changed was the ignition modul inside the distributor . That was abou a year ago ad no problems .