Accord Cold Start Condition
05-27-2010, 09:33 AM
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Accord Cold Start Condition
I have a 96 accord ex w/AT. I had an earlier post that talked about similar problems.
The latest is that when I startup the car first thing in the morning on a cold morning, it will idle ok for 15-20 seconds and then start to run very rough... sounds like it is missing regularly on 2 cylinders, barely staying alive. 15 seconds later it comes out of this and idles well. Drives fine for the rest of my trip.
On warmer days, the rough running will start immediately when I start the car. same 15 or 20 seconds of shaking then ok.
On hot mornings (75+degrees) the condition is hardly noticable.
I put a timing light on several of the cables and noticed that the light would skip when the engine was running rough, leading me to believe it is an ignition issue.
180 K on engine, new plugs, wires, cap, coil, igniter within past 20K
Thanks for any suggestions
The latest is that when I startup the car first thing in the morning on a cold morning, it will idle ok for 15-20 seconds and then start to run very rough... sounds like it is missing regularly on 2 cylinders, barely staying alive. 15 seconds later it comes out of this and idles well. Drives fine for the rest of my trip.
On warmer days, the rough running will start immediately when I start the car. same 15 or 20 seconds of shaking then ok.
On hot mornings (75+degrees) the condition is hardly noticable.
I put a timing light on several of the cables and noticed that the light would skip when the engine was running rough, leading me to believe it is an ignition issue.
180 K on engine, new plugs, wires, cap, coil, igniter within past 20K
Thanks for any suggestions
06-02-2010, 09:15 PM
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not really sure where it will be on your car but i think if you follow the upper radiator hose towards the head, you will see it, i believe it will be only 2 wires. if you have a voltmeter, one of the wire will start at 4.8 volts and will slowly go down as the temperature increases which could go down to .5 v.
another thing to check is a stuck open egr valve. you could take it out and plug the hole temporarily with a cut out soda aluminum can before starting up the car.... but be ready with a new egr gasket if you will try to do this as mostlikely you will break the gasket that you have in your car when you take it out.
another thing to check is a stuck open egr valve. you could take it out and plug the hole temporarily with a cut out soda aluminum can before starting up the car.... but be ready with a new egr gasket if you will try to do this as mostlikely you will break the gasket that you have in your car when you take it out.
Last edited by cruzalekz; 06-02-2010 at 09:17 PM.
12-30-2011, 07:45 PM
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I found that my problem was in the distributor. My original ICM/Coil may have been damaged by a set of badly fitting OEM spark plug wires. Over time the seal at the top of the spark plug tubes pushed the wires off one plug and I think this may have caused an issue with the ignition components. Both ignitor and coil were replaced with aftermarket and this helped, but the cold start issue was there. I now have a new set of good fitting OEM plugs and also just recently replaced the distributor with one from a junkyard 97 Acura CL. Car runs fine now and no cold idle issues.