PilotKD

A few months ago I tightened up my throttle cable a little bit since it seemed to have quite a bit of slack in it. I did this in Mississippi, where it was probably 75-80 degrees at the time. Well it seems as though ever since it has gotten colder (we had a few sub freezing mornings in MS a few weeks ago), my car has stumbled to a stall three times in the past 2-3 weeks or so during first starts in the morning. I have since moved to OK and it has done it twice in the past week that I've been here. Temps have been in the low 30's in the morning. After stalling, it took quite a bit of cranking, both times, to get the car to start and when it did start it ran rough for a few seconds while spitting some rich fumes out the tail pipe. Once it's warmed up, it doesn't do it anymore.

Do you think that I tightened the cable too much and the cold is contracting it enough to pull the butterfly open, causing it to flood overnight? It is not giving me a CEL with it. I tried to loosen the cable today, but I didn't have a wrench that fit. I'm here for a temporary Air Force training assignment and all my tools are in storage. I'll have to go to the autoshop for better tools.

Billman250

I highly doubt the throttle cable is the problem, unless you made it so tight it's actually opening the throttle plate (I have more faith in you than that). Sharp changes in temp can have a little affect on driveability till the ecu learns/adjusts....An ecu reset (pull the back-up fuse) couldn't hurt, but can start to narrow things down.

xviper

Were you "helping" it when it was stalling? That's the worst thing you can do. Keep you foot away from the gas pedal and just let it die on its own. Then try to re-start. Again, foot away from the gas pedal. Unless there is something else wrong with your engine, the ECU should eventually (after a few deaths) "learn" to compensate for the change in your operating environment. Mine did this every fall for the first 3 years at about the same time each year. It always learned after about 4 to 5 mornings, then in its 4th fall, never did it again.

PilotKD

No, I wasn't helping it like one would do with a carburated car. I just cranked until it fired and then once it did fire it ran rough for about 5 seconds before settling into a high cold idle of about 1800rpm. There have been a few times before that the car seemed as though it was going to stall after startup and it'd clear up if I caught it with some gas. I thought maybe I had a bad tank of gas, so I added some "Stabil" to the tank since it has a water remover and filled up at a different gas station.

There are a lot of stations down here with that 91 octane crap. I've actually filled up twice with it now. Once on the way here about an hour out of OK city and once here on base. I wondered why premium is so cheap here. $1.81 a gallon on base, but it's 91 octane. This is oxyginated, correct? I found a Texaco today that sells 92. I've never used anything less than 93 in this car. I doubt a few points of octane is causing my problem though. Maybe I'll try resetting the ECU. I just went out and checked the cable tension after letting the car cool off and the throttle body is no where near being cracked open.

xviper

I'm not positive if "oxygenated" means it has ethanol in it, but I'm currently using a brand of fuel here that has 10% ethanol and I have been doing so for my winters for many years. The car has never acted up because of this fuel. It runs like it does with "normal" premium fuel.

If you are going to reset the ECU, I would suggest you do the "MAP whack", too just for good measure. Have you seen the new thread about Honda's latest TSB on the MAP sensor fix?
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=253242

PilotKD

I had always thought 91 octane was oxygenated fuel. I have never seen 91 offered in the areas I have lived in the past.

I reset my ECU earlier and took the car for a drive. The car was cold and seemed as though it ran smoother. We'll see what happens tomorrow morning. I didn't do the "MAP whack" though because I just read your reply. I'll look into that TSB. The nearest Honda dealer is 50 miles away. I'll have to see if they can just give me the part and let me install it.

I'm not crazy about living on base (I'm in Officer Quarters) because it's too far to walk to class, but it's too short of a drive to allow the car to completely warm up. I've been leaving early and driving around base to let warm up before shutting it down. I'm anal like that.

Slows2k

In my experience, Oxygenated fuel is what you get in winter in all grades. It does have a lower detonation threshold, than summer grade fuels. But it should not contribute to a stumble/stall.

PilotKD

Update: It did the same thing to me this morning. It turned over for a second or so and stumbled to a stall. Started it a second time and it ran fine. Seems like it's running too rich right after start or is getting "flooded". Is there any way for excess fuel to leak into the cylinders overnight?

Slows2k

It may have a leaking down injector. You have to measure fuel pressure at the fuel rail, then pinch off the fuel return hose. If the pressure drops over a few hours, one or more of the injectors is not sealing.

webguy330i

Take it to the dealer man, even if it is a bit of a drive.