1990 rt4wd : find my main relay

AldPixtoAldPixto Band Wagon
in Electronics, Fueling & Air Conditioning
car: 1990 honda civic wagon D16A6 AT RT4WD (unmodified)

I suspect the EFI Main Relay is causing my intermittent start problem : car starts when cold but intermittently won't start after its just been driven. The car will restart after its cooled; this could take one minute on a cool day or an hour on a hot day. I've done soldering before - so I'm comfortable with re-flowing the solder joints on the relay board to see if that will cure my problem.

I know what a relay looks like, and have seen photos of the main relay on this board, but I can't actually locate the relay under my console. Is there some carpeting or plastic covering I need to remove?

Here's a link to some 'panoramic' photos I took:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20947021@N08/6277645967/in/set-72157627846099271/

Can someone point me in the right direction? Like drawing an arrow on one of the photos I've posted.

Thanks in advance,

Ald

Comments

  • AbideAbide Council Member
    its pretty much right under your left vent to the left of the fusebox kind of a pita to get to i just let mine dangle in there now just in case
  • 90shuttle90shuttle Senior Wagonist
    It also has black and brown on it...to help narrow your search.... it really is a pain in the butt to get to lol. Good luck!
  • AldPixtoAldPixto Band Wagon
    I removed the fuse panel cover but I haven't removed the knee crash bar or pulled back any carpeting or insulation. My head is down around the brake pedal looking up between the fuse box and the hood release lever and I'm still clueless. I'm just reluctant to disassemble more than I need to because I don't want to accidentally break something and the car does drive now.

    Do I need to remove something to see the relay?
    Do I need to remove something to touch it?

    here's another picture of what I can see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20947021@N08/6278518761/in/photostream/

    Finding this relay may be obvious later on, but for now I'm reminded of a VW service manual saying to "rotate the nut counterclockwise then remove the fan". The service manual neglected to mention a 4-ft breaker bar might be useful because the engine cooling fan on the VW bug is really held on there.

    Honda's factory service manual has a line drawing showing the relay is somewhere between the fuse box and the body. Honda's electrical troubleshooting manual has a useless very tiny picture showing the relay with no clue as to what perspective the camera is looking from. I don't know if the relay socket is parallel to the ground or whether it is on the top, bottom, or side of the relay.

    thanks
  • 90shuttle90shuttle Senior Wagonist
    Up...wayyy up by the release lever... it should be directly above there... you just have to pull back the dash a little to get your hands in there... keep looking lol.
  • JDMWago666JDMWago666 Senior Wagonist
    its being held into place by a 10mm bolt. i used a atchet wrench to get mine off.
  • HaydzHaydz Moderator
    Up up UP!

    You will have to feel like you're artificially inseminating a cow before you're close.
  • bam-bambam-bam Council Member
    In the picture you linked, look directly beneath the h int the word "the". See the gold-colored bolt head up behind the plastic of the dash? It's holding a bracket that's attached to a black box above with a bunch of wires plugged into it? Bingo.
  • AldPixtoAldPixto Band Wagon
    Found it, removed it, re-soldered it (although I didn't see a very obvious cold solder joint) and put it back*.

    I had to loosen the dashboard cowl and separate it from the driver's kick panel area to see the EFI main relay.

    * I made the mistake of unbolting the relay mounting tab from the car and later found that I couldn't hold the 10mm bolt straight enough to reattach it. I ran a zip tie through the hole in the mounting tab and the threaded hole that originally held the screw. Sigh.

    My repair passes the smoke and burn test. Since I never bothered to try to scientifically reproduce my problem (e.g. like using a heat gun or hair dryer to force a failure) I'll just have to wait until the next big heat wave (or cold wave) to see if my intermittent problem has gone away.

    relay location photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20947021@N08/6284393311/sizes/l/in/photostream/

    Thank to bam-bam for my getting warm clue and general encouragement from everyone else.
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