Honda Is At The Doctor's.

On Friday morning the '89 Honda performed perfectly, as it has for months. I went downtown, shopped, came home and parked. Friday afternoon I tried to go to the store and it made a horrible noise starting, ran really rough for a few seconds and stalled, refusing to restart.

I called my mechanic on Monday and Wednesday morning he came over and checked a few things. It had fuel, fuel pressure and spark, all the necessities of life but would not start. I told him that I know nothing but the first thing I thought of was that the 200,000 KM old timing belt broke. He admitted he was thinking the same thing but he had to have it in his shop to check.

So I called BCAA and got it towed to his shop. He should have a report later today. We discussed retiring the Honda and buying a "new" $4000 car but like he says, unless it was a car he knew and had worked on I could just be buying another car with a timing belt ready to go and he knew of no available cars at the moment. At least the Mazda is running well.

'89 Honda Part II

My mechanic just called. The timing belt is fine so he started checking more and determined it is an electrical problem with the fuel injection which is controlled by the ECM (Engine Control Module) which is screwed to the floor under the driver's seat. He reached under the seat only to find the ECM half submerged under water from the damn leaking sun roof! He is going to try drying the ECM out in front of the heater overnight and if that does not fix it there is one available from a wrecker in Victoria for $250.

The sunroof no longer works and has leaked for years. He has some magic gasket sealer that he is going to put around it to try to stem the tide. He will also drill a couple of drain holes through the floor under the ECM and remount it raised a little above the floor. Redneck solutions! Probably more to report tomorrow. I suspect and hope the ECM will start functioning when it is dry. It is an electronic device with no moving parts so we might get lucky!

Update:

The ECM is fried, replacement on order. He has sealed the leaky sun roof and will mount the ECM above the floor with some drip drain holes drilled underneath it. In all probability it will run. He says he vacuumed about three litres of water out of the carpets. They were soaked!