At a high level, this is the issue my 44,000 mile, 2016 Honda Accord EX-L V6 is having. Intermittent long cranking time when the engine is warm’ish. The normal cranking time is 1 - 1.5 second duration. When it does exhibit the issue, the cranking time is about 4 - 5 seconds. The issue is getting worse and happens on a weekly basis now.
From the internet, I’ve compiled a short list of possibilities and my thoughts on them.
I’d rather not take the car into the dealer before I make a respectable attempt to avoid a 4-digit repair bill. Dealers are good at installing new parts, but not always the best at diagnosing. I’d also rather not prematurely wear out my starter since they can be expensive and not something I think I’d enjoy replacing myself on this car.
If women cannot find you handsome they should at least find you handy. Therefore, I’ve become respectively handy under the hood. I’m willing and able to try some repairs, but I need wiser minds to help me find a starting point and prioritize my work.
Thank you for reading this far.
- Occurs when the engine temperature gauge reads just right in the middle between normal operating temperature and the cold mark. This seems to be a key point. Granted this may be a narrow temperature range because the temperature gauge is one step above an ‘idiot light’.
- Normal (full) operating temperature starting is just fine.
- Cold (ambient temp) start temperature starting is just fine.
- 10k miles ago it used to have what seems like a slight cylinder misfire once in a long time for a few seconds after turning over when cold. Haven’t noticed this misfire for thousands of miles and no code was ever logged.
- The battery was replaced by the dealer just under 2 years ago.
- The starter cranks the engine as fast as it ever has, so no starter performance degradation.
- TBS performed for fuel system reprogramming probably over 2 years ago. No engine stalling or loss of power had happened, so the dealer didn’t replace the fuel pump, per TSB instruction.
- I run either Quik Trip, Costco or HEB gasoline. QT and Costco are “Top Tier”, for what that’s worth.
- Been running VCM Tuner II to disable the VCM for about the last 7K miles. However, for the last 2 months, I’ve had the unit turned off. The way the unit is designed to work, it shouldn’t affect what the engine computer reads except right at the point the engine reaches full, normal operating temperature. Otherwise it sends the real temperature reading to the computer.
- I can sometimes notice a stronger exhaust smell right after a long cranking event. Then again, the car has always seemed to have a slightly stronger exhaust smell upon startup for about 15 seconds. I don’t go around sniffing the exhaust, but it has never failed to Pass annual emissions testing.
From the internet, I’ve compiled a short list of possibilities and my thoughts on them.
- EGR system. Unless the engine is running out of spec, the EGR passages in the intake shouldn’t be clogged by this point (44K miles). The EGR likewise shouldn’t be failing this soon.
- Battery ground (-) terminal. The battery is grounded to the front top crossmember. As finicky as electrical systems are in modern cars, all sorts of strange things can happen if electrons cannot flow just so. The connections seem fine, but I’ll take them off and clean them anyway. People suggest running an additional ground wire onto the engine.
- Leaking fuel injector. From what I’ve read, this can cause a loss of fuel system pressure after the engine shuts down and potential rich F/A reading (when starting).
- The loss of fuel pressure could potentially cause a delay in the engine firing over while the fuel system re-pressurize. If this was the case wouldn’t I also see long cranking time when the engine is cold?
- As for a really rich F/A mixture sitting in the intake manifold or in one cylinder, I’m not 100% sure how that could affect the ability to start. I don’t think the engine could detect the condition and not fire the spark plugs since all the sensors are up wind of the intake manifold. Maybe the F/A mixture is too rich for the ignition of the fuel? Since I don’t think this is a “direct injection” engine, I supposed that the rich F/A mixture could flood the entire intake manifold and result in super rich F/A in all cylinders, thus preventing combustion for 4 seconds while super rich mixture is cycled out of the cylinders.
- Check valve failure in the fuel pump. Like the leaking fuel injector, this could result in a low pressure scenario that takes a few seconds to build back up before the engine gets the necessary fuel squirting into the engine. Again, wouldn’t this happen also on cold starts, not just warm’ish starts?
I’d rather not take the car into the dealer before I make a respectable attempt to avoid a 4-digit repair bill. Dealers are good at installing new parts, but not always the best at diagnosing. I’d also rather not prematurely wear out my starter since they can be expensive and not something I think I’d enjoy replacing myself on this car.
If women cannot find you handsome they should at least find you handy. Therefore, I’ve become respectively handy under the hood. I’m willing and able to try some repairs, but I need wiser minds to help me find a starting point and prioritize my work.
Thank you for reading this far.
