Hi, I hope some of you Honda experts can help me. I bought a 1992 Honda Prelude 2.3i last November, and noticed after a while that the engine wouldn't start when it was hot. This usually happened when I'd been on a drive, parked somewhere briefly (e.g. to get fuel) and then tried to start it again a few minutes later. I'd generally only have to leave it for 5 minutes to cool down, then it would be ok again.

I mentioned this to the Honda dealer when I took it for a service and they said this was common with the older Preludes, and there wasn't a solution.

However, now that the weather here in the UK is finally turning warm, the problem is starting to become crippling... I don't have to drive the car anymore, just leave it sat in the sun for a little while and it will refuse to start. Since it's sunny most of the day, I basically can't start my car between about 10am and 7pm! This can't be "just one of those things" Prelude drivers have to accept, so I'm sure there's a fault somewhere that can be addressed. I'm not sure I trust the local Honda dealer to know what the problem is though, so I came looking for the experts

From the bits I've read in this forum and here:

http://www3.telus.net/public/johnings/MainRelay.HTM

It seems that it might be a problem with the alternator or the main relay.

When I turn the key you can hear the engine turning over, so it's definitely trying to start up, but doesn't "catch". Sometimes it will spark into life briefly, then die out again... once or twice it's done this and managed to recover before the engine shuts out completely.

Once the car is started and it's got past those difficult first seconds, it runs fine. I've never had it stall unexpectedly on me whilst driving, even when I've driven for 2 hours and the engine is presumably far hotter than it gets on a summer day.

This has me suspecting the main relay from the description above. Would other experts concur?