Gas in Accord crankcase, no explanatin

I have a 96 I4 Accord LX. It has never had anything go wrong
and has run perfectly until this morning when I attempted to start
it. When I first turned the key I heard a "pop" and it cranked but
wouldn't start. The car has less than 50K miles on it.

I tried it a few more times, and seeing that it wasn't going
to turn over, had it towed to the dealer. They found a lot
of gas in the crank case, and so changed the oil, but they
couldn't find anything else wrong. They say it has good spark,
and the fuel pressure is fine. They mumbled something about
"bad gas" which sounds bogus. I'm sceptical that this would
happen without warning, and am concerned about this episode
repeating. I'm convinced there must be a mechanical cause.

Does anyone have any idea what it might be, that the dealer would
be so clueless about?

james sends.
--
james lee peterson
dept. of computer science
colorado state university
ft. collins, colorado (voice:970/491-7137; fax:970/491-2466)

james peterson wrote:
> I have a 96 I4 Accord LX. It has never had anything go wrong
> and has run perfectly until this morning when I attempted to start
> it. When I first turned the key I heard a "pop" and it cranked but
> wouldn't start. The car has less than 50K miles on it.
>
> I tried it a few more times, and seeing that it wasn't going
> to turn over, had it towed to the dealer. They found a lot
> of gas in the crank case, and so changed the oil, but they
> couldn't find anything else wrong. They say it has good spark,
> and the fuel pressure is fine. They mumbled something about
> "bad gas" which sounds bogus. I'm sceptical that this would
> happen without warning, and am concerned about this episode
> repeating. I'm convinced there must be a mechanical cause.
>
> Does anyone have any idea what it might be, that the dealer would
> be so clueless about?
>
> james sends.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

When an injector is sticking open, overnight, all the gas in the fuel
rail drains into that cylinder. Car is totally FLOODED. It eventually
slips past the rings and ends up in the oil.

Read the part in your manual that describes "starting at high altitude /
cold temperatures" You can start it by holding the pedal to the floor
and it will start / smoke / sputter for a few seconds.

Cure is to run Techron or a good injector cleaner thru it. I just filled
the tank with gasohol and it cured itself.

-- 'Curly'

Coincidently we had the same problem with our Integra '94 a couple of
days ago. Got it running today by this trick, "holding the pedal to the
floor until it gets going".

While driving I now hear a consistent clunking sound (about once a
second), seems to be coming from the back but not sure. My wife (the
regular driver for this car) says that it wasn't there before. Is there
anything that could be related to this situation?

Regards,
--
Haider

Haider Rizvi wrote:
> While driving I now hear a consistent clunking sound (about once a
> second), seems to be coming from the back but not sure. My wife (the
> regular driver for this car) says that it wasn't there before. Is there
> anything that could be related to this situation?

Could be that your muffler/tailpipe attachment has come loose and that's
what's clunking as you go over bumps in the road? That's an issue with
my 94 Civic.

Abeness > writes:

> Could be that your muffler/tailpipe attachment has come loose and that's what's
> clunking as you go over bumps in the road? That's an issue with my 94 Civic.

I assume you are talking about heat shields, have already removed
them. And my muffler/tailpipe is brand new, replaced it earlier this
year. It is possible that it has suddenly come loose, visual check
suggested that wasn't the case.

Any other thoughts.

Regards,
--
Haider

Haider Rizvi wrote:
> I assume you are talking about heat shields, have already removed
> them. And my muffler/tailpipe is brand new, replaced it earlier this
> year. It is possible that it has suddenly come loose, visual check
> suggested that wasn't the case.

No, I meant the bracket that holds up the muffler/tailpipe, which is at
the right rear on the Civic. Someone did suggest to me recently that an
aftermarket pipe might not have the same fit as the OEM pipe, and in
fact I think it rattles against my gas tank flange now and again, now
that my bracket has come undone on one side. If that ain't it in your
case I'm out of ideas (not surprising, I'm no expert).

Abeness > writes:

> No, I meant the bracket that holds up the muffler/tailpipe, which is
> at the right rear on the Civic. Someone did suggest to me recently
> that an aftermarket pipe might not have the same fit as the OEM pipe,
> and in fact I think it rattles against my gas tank flange now and
> again, now that my bracket has come undone on one side. If that ain't
> it in your case I'm out of ideas (not surprising, I'm no expert).

That's useful information about the OEM pipe vs. aftermarket, I'll check
it out.

Thanks,
--
Haider