How To Fix A Honda Engine Stalling. Honda Engine Hacks.

In this video, we're going to go over some troubleshooting ideas on an MITM power washer with a Honda engine that's been stalling and not running properly. I've got before me an MITM power washer with a Honda engine. And this power washer was acting up and it would actually die while we're using it. It's less than a year old. And it would actually act like it was running out of gas and then die and quit running. And we'd go check the engine and check the gas tank and it'd be full of gas or half full of gas and we couldn't figure out why it was not running properly and why it kept acting like it would it was running out of gas and it would begin sputtering and just like if it was running out of gas and just the engine would start to to miss and then it'd eventually die. We'd wait, go check, pull off the gas cap. We would actually check the gas. It would have gas. we'd pull it and it would start right back up and start again. Now, we'll discuss what could possibly be causing that problem and how to remedy it. So, we have this the Honda engine before us right here and two things that are actually going to cause that engine to start dying typically. And one of them is a faulty gas cap or right here on the engine, we got a yellow wire right here. This is actually an oil sensor and it senses the oil level on the engine itself and it's actually a kill switch. So, if the oil level gets too low, it's actually going to kill the engine and it's a safety mechanism that keeps the low oil level from ruining the engine. In this power washer, we checked the gas cap. The gas cap was functioning properly. And so, then the next thing we did was we checked the oil level on the Honda engine. And there's a oil level checker right here. You just unscrew it and you can check your oil level. And the oil level was extremely low. We've refilled up the power washer and it remedied the problem. So what happens is the engine as it utilizes oil. If it does utilize oil or if the oil for some reason gets low, this little switch inside here determines that the oil is getting low and it's actually going to kill the engine. So while we were running our engine, the oil was circulating through the engine and it would get to a point where it was a little bit low. The engine would die and then all those set the oil would settle back down into the bottom of the engine and it would retrip the sensor back on and then the engine would start back up and then the same thing would happen again. The the power washer would run for about you know 10 15 minutes and then it would act like it was running a gas. it would die and then we'd go check our gas and we failed to check the oil at that time and it was happening, you know, multiple times, but we finally checked the oil, filled it up full of oil, now it actually runs properly. Another thing to check is your gas cap. These gas caps right here on the Honda engines are special gas caps and they are venting gas caps and they allow air to come in. So, as the carburetor utilizes gas, the gas level in the tank is going to be going down. And if it doesn't vent, it's going to be creating a vacuum inside the gas tank. And eventually, the vacuum is going to be so tight, the gas won't lower, and it won't fill in the carburetor, and eventually the engine's going to die because it's not getting gas. So, what happens, you'll come out, you'll think it's running out of gas. You're going to open your cap. It's going to allow air to go back in. It's going to allow the gas level to drop and refill the carburetor and it'll start back up and you won't understand why it just started back up and why it died. And that's another possible cause is a bad non venting gas cap. These gas caps are pretty expensive gas caps, but they do go bad and you definitely want to check your gas cap and check your oil level. Make sure your oil level's proper so you keep your engine running proper. Don't ruin your engine. Luckily, Honda has these these sensors on here that if the oil level gets too low, it just won't allow the engine to run. Now, we got a close-up view. We've got our oil sensor right here. And those oil sensors do go bad over time. And if your engine's actually dying and acting like it's running out of gas and you check your oil level and you do have oil, the oil levels, the oil should come right to the top of that hole. You should be able to see that oil in there. And this is a little dipstick. You could just You don't want to screw it in. You would just set it in there, pull it back out, and the dipstick should actually have oil on it. If your oil level's full, you put a new gas cap on it and the thing is still dying. There's a possibility that this sensor has gotten clogged and is not functioning properly. You could bypass this sensor. You could just unplug it right here. Unplug it or cut that wire and if the engine starts back up, you know you got a bad sensor. These are three ways to determine and troubleshoot your Honda engine on a MITM power washer. Here's a close look at the gas cap. This is a vented gas cap and these things do go bad over time and you want to make sure that thing is functioning properly. Has little vent holes in it and you could replace that if your engine's dying acting like it's out of gas yet it's not out of gas. Also, you definitely if you're still having that problem, another thing to check is just make sure you don't have dirty bad gas in there. Our gases nowadays that have ethanol in them, the gases go bad, are really hard on small engines. So, make sure you empty out your gas, put new gas in it. And one other item just to check to make sure your power washer is running and functional.