Video, Fuel Pump Hurt/Failing? Got some water in the tank. 😠 06 V6 Accord

[Gasbuggy]

I'm trying to hit the ground running on this repair while I'm still waiting on AAA to tow my car after over 5 hours...don't get AAA, it has seriously gone down hill in the past few years.

On the highway today I had a noticable pulsing at Wide Open Throttle in third gear. Later on the return trip home I noticed some power loss getting above 3000 RPMs in any gear. Not long after it shut off on me.

Started back up and ran ok for a mile then died again. Started to idle like it did in the video here before gaining some power back which allowed me to move it safely off the road, where it still is right now.




Here's the twist. 2 days ago I accidentally added something that had water in it into the gas tank. 10oz max. It was in a little gas can. My mom wanted to clean some sediment out of it, cleaned it then left water in it (do not try to make sense of this) coincidentally I went to fill all the cans up at her house while no one was home and dumped this little bit in my tank. My gas tank was already full. It was pretty immediate on my ride home that it was affecting the car but it was drivable and worked itself out in about 6 miles. Gave me some flashing CEL but never got close to stalling.

I've put over a hundred miles on the car since then with no issues.

This was a great running and well maintained V6 Honda.

I'm thinking fuel pump is hurt. Maybe the water ran the engine lean and commanded more fuel than it ever usually has to send and it's already on the tail end of its lifespan. I've got a Denso in my RockAuto cart right now.

Or maybe the H2O hurt an O2 sensor?

No CEL but I'm curious what is in pending if anything.

 

[Propflux01]

If it is still running OK now, and you have no CEL, My thinking is whatever water was in there got sucked up and that was your issue.

 

[Gasbuggy]

If it is still running OK now, and you have no CEL, My thinking is whatever water was in there got sucked up and that was your issue.

It's not. It will idle fine for a while then drop to 200rpm and stall. So I'm not so sure. I got the impression I got all the water run through it miles ago, water sinks right to the bottom of fuel. When I had the flashing CEL and it was running rough I knew that was the water. Then I had a 100+ miles no issues, only to have a decline in power today with no sputtering/misfires this time. The power loss is worse the more you put your foot down.

Still waiting on AAA.

 

[Propflux01]

Then if it is still doing it, then yes, a fuel pump or pressure regulator is where I would start.

 

[dumkid]

Does it have a fuel pressure test port? Sometimes you can stick a tire gauge (one of the mechanical dial gauges) on the fuel rail and see whats going on

 

[Gasbuggy]

Plugged the scanner in and have a P0174 (lean)

With all the miles on it, I won't sweat swapping the fuel pump assembly even if it's not the problem. Might save me a headache later. I need to run this car on a 400 mile trip in a week.

 

[Nukeman7]

On the Honda J35 V-6 engine, check the rubber intake bellows between the air filter housing and throttle body for large cracks resulting in a massive air leak. Also, clean the MAF sensor.

 

[Gasbuggy]

It was the fuel pump. Sock was seriously plugged up. A big hunk of this litter looking stuff fell on the ground prior to the picture. Much much worse than any I've seen, even my prior Accord which had 300,000+ miles when I swapped pump.

This car has almost always been filled up at Top Tier stations.

The pump seemed to be ok but it's got a whole new Delphi pump assembly now. Such an easy job.

The Delphi sounds like a Walbro unit when it kicks on.

I might hang onto the original for the sake of hoarding.

 

[Gasbuggy]

On the Honda J35 V-6 engine, check the rubber intake bellows between the air filter housing and throttle body for large cracks resulting in a massive air leak. Also, clean the MAF sensor.

Good thought, it already has an aftermarket cold air intake after the cracking issue.

 

[CharBaby]

Sounds about right!
I had a Honda Accord fuel pump cause intermittent starting/running issues before it finally died completely after about 1 week. This was at ~200K miles. My Accord was a fine running engine just before that. Replacement was easy in my car as there was an access cover in the trunk in order to get at the fuel pump. I didn't have to drain the tank.

 

[Gasbuggy]

Word to the wise, when Honda went away from actual fuel filters inline to just a pump filter, they must have gone to something more restrictive.

It's so easy to remove these pumps that I would change this pump filter out around every 100,000 miles as part of normal maintenance.