Hi guys,
My car is still running like crud. I've taken it to a specialist and they told me they have no idea what's wrong with her.
It's intermedialy misfires now, but only when idling... they told me to check my ecu and replace it... what do you think??
if it's just an intermittant misfire... i wouldn't worry about it... my old accord always did that at idle, but it never had any trouble. i raced it all the time and it ran fast.Originally Posted by hondaluvva
I seriously doubt you have an ecu problem.
87 hatch (stolen)
88 lxi 4dr, 5spd, threw a rod... in process of swapping engine from my 87 hatch (police recovered what was left of the car).
the fucker that sold me the 88 is lucky he lives 500 miles from me...
Well I am actually having a lot of trouble with it.
It's misfiring so bad it stalls all the time, even with idle adjusted to above 1200rpm (which is just noisy and shitful)
I pulled my seat off, opened the ECU cover to check if the capacitors were burst, but they look ok to me - actually for something that is 17 years old, they look pristine!
Anyhoot, I can't drive it while it's running like this, so I'm trying to source a new ECU for it now. It seems Australia is bloody shit with getting parts for a 17 year old honda, so I hope I don't have too much trouble...
Shep, if you're reading this, what do you think???
Have you checked your distributor if the bearing is worn out it may not run to well. At least mine didn't when i swaped to efi. But hours of trouble shooting later and $200 for a rebuilt distributor and it ran great.
well, a few things you should check.
1. check distributor. make sure it doesn't have any play in the shaft or any red dust. otherwise it will cause missfire.
2. check the ignitor, make sure you are getting a good spark.
if you have spark, it is time to move on to fuel.
I just yesterday my car ran like crap and it almost died on me when i was driving. The problem was the cloged filter at the end of the fuel pump. mine was so cloged up that it wasn't sucking any fuel through. check yours and make sure it is clean. If it is dirty, get a new one or use carb cleaner to clean it (that is what i did, runs like new).
if you are getting spark and you have fuel, i would suggest to check the timing. make sure the timing belt didn't skip and make sure distributor is adjust to factory specs.
if that checks out, you may want to get another ECU and see if it will help. Around here ECU is easy to find.
if you need more help PM and we can talk more.
Alex.
After replacing/checking everything mentioned. Maybe see if the TPS (throttle position sensor) is working properly. Just a thought.
.
Hi guys,
Thanks all for you help and feed back.
The missfire is really getting to me now.
I've pulled the seat off, opened the ecu cover and looked at the motherboard. To me it doesn't look suspect, but as you all may know, that means shit when it comes to a computer. I get no ECU codes, and my PGMFI light has never come on whilst driving. I think I've got a fuel block somewhere.
I'm heavily leaning towards fuel now.. fault finding is taking me forever.
I have a question for yu shep, when you say check filter do you mean the actual fuel filter or did you say you had a blocked hose? I have a new fuel filter on there.. and distributor and sparks are all good. Real strong spark on all 4 cyls.
3 of the 4 injectors have been replaced and the 4th was cleaned.. Vacuum is good and sparks are strong. Timing is good, distrubutor is good, rotor good too.. to me it just has to be some bloody fuel problem... if not the ECU.
How much is ECU over there?
Any suggestions on fuel faults, where to check? what to clean? I'm more electrical than fuel, but i'll give it a go! hehe
I can't possibly fuck it any more than it already is.
lol
best thing to do is to check the fuel pressure. if it is off start working on the problem.
i would recomend removing the fuel pump out of the fuel tank and look at the sumpfilter. it is attached to the pump itself. that is where my filter was dirty and my car ran like crap.
replace the main fuel filter and give another test.
if you still have some problem, it is probably in your fuel lines.
Alex.
ok, thankx shep,
i'll give it a go... at least now i have some idea on where to start. diagnosing fuel faults isn't my high point, so i really appreciate your help.
i'll keep posting to let you know if i find the fault.
;-)
wasn't the filter connected to the fuel pump.
i cleaned it, put it all back together, connected my compressor up to fuel lines and blew em clean but it didn't make any difference.
think it's ecu... i don't give a shit any more i'm sick of it,
going to buy a new car
not a honda
if you are going to sell honda you will be very sorry. i have seen many people who switch to other cars and come back to honda later just because they were wrong.
did you replace the main fuel filter?
download the shop manual and start trouble shoot the problem.
go to junk yard and get yourself another ECU.
Alex.
Alex,
perhaps what I said was very rash, I just get very frustrated. I have spent so much of my time and effort on this car and it really erks me when I can't fix something that should be so simple.
I just can't see what could possibly be wrong with it now, except the ECU... all fuel, electrical and everything mechanical on my poor old girl is perfect, it just has this crazy ass idle problem.
I just find it strange that when the fuel injectors were cleaned and replaced, and I had it tuned that the ecu on the car told the diagnostic machine it was plugged into that it was running perfectly, when clearly it wasn't.
has the ecu for the accord changed over the years?? or is it still exactly the same just manufactured at a later year?
I get roughly 230 miles to a full tank of gas, and about 190 if i drive it with the A/C on,
It idles at 3000rpm doing 55mp/h which i think is also too high but don't know of any other person with the same car to compare it to.
between 50 and 60 mp/h its idle drops and rasies between 2500 and 3000 rpm constantly, depending how far i push my gas pedal down. if i push the gas pedal to the point when it stops fluctuating i end up doing 70 m/ph.. which is too fast on our highways and i'm likely to get booked.
I'm just really frustrated and I really do not want to sell her. I just want to be able to fix the old bitch.
Another thing too.. when I replaced my air filter on back of TB it was very dirty, but not cleanable. It had oil in it... is this really bad? I thought it was just blowback. It had only been on there for about 20,000 miles. didn't think it should have oil it it but.
I've looked at the manual 1000 times and it just stumps me what's wrong with it. I'll go to a junkyard and get an ECU as a last resort, but if that doesn't fix it, i'm sorry to say i will be completely rebuilding the motor. I'll just strip it bit by bit til i find the cause.
Thank you very much for your help, alex. I do appreciate it.
Jeff
Addition to my last.
I just went to junkyard and picked up a new ecu for old girl. Got home, put it in, started it up and.............. not a single sausage of a difference.
There must be something vacuum or mechanical that I have missed. I just don't get it. If I bump my idle up real high, about 1300rpm at idle, the amount of misfire is significantly decreased, but it is definately still there.
Perhaps its distributor or something? anyways, just thought I'd let you know I did the ECU and that wasn't it.
BTW it cost me 150 AUD... about 80 USD.. bloody rip off merchants.
hehe
well, at least you know that mechanics are bunch of rip off people.
do you have black emission box under the hood like US models have?
if you do, you problem may be with some solenoids inside that box. your shop manual should explain how to check them.
Alex.
Alex,
if I have this charcoal canister where will i find it? I don't think my model is fitted with it, but I may be blind.
Wish I knew what was wrong with it. I just want it fixed. If I pull the air intake out of the front of the TB, is that the only opening where I can clean it with Carby cleaner? I honestly don't think it's a fuel problem any more.
I've checked and re cheked everything I have done to this car and I just can't stop it misfiring. I just don't get it.
I'm thinking perhaps there must be something suspect with my distributor or rotor, I know it's not the computer any more.
When the car is under full load ie. with air conditioning on, it will NOT misfire even once, until the air con cuts out, and it idles normally. Doesn't that sound like it's electrical to you? I can't srive it around all the time with the air on, i'll freze my ass off and it chews petrol bad when it's on... lol
Stumps me bad. I've read the manual again and again for troubleshooting and I just can't see any thing that I may have missed.
Let us know what you think.
Jeff
Just a thought ( I am no expert, as I have enough problems of my own) but you say that the "check engine" light has never come on...does it come on for about 2 seconds when you start the car. It should, if not it could be the wiring to the ecu. The ecu itself could be fine.
Best of luck to you
Yes, the ecu light posts when ignition is turned on........
but now for the piece of beauty i have been waiting for......
I FOUND MY PROBLEM!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO
I got to thinking today whilst I put my last post up, what if the dumb ass mechanic was wrong... perhaps my distributor or something electrical was actually stuffed....
Wellllllll, it wasn't... LOL but I re checked vacuum on the car, and when I pulled the top vacuum hose from the TB to the rotor off, it stopped misfiring. My idle went up a hell of a lot, but I just adjusted my screw and it came good.
Does this mean I have a vacuum problem, or is it the rotor, like I first expected??
I'm so happy... she's running good, but I don't think I should drive it without that top vacuum hose connected for too long..
Jeff
sounds like you have a problem with vacuum on distributor.
get vacuum pump and check the distributor. if it doesn't hold the vacuum, you need new vacuum advance. i have the same problem.
Alex.
cool bananas. that's what i thought.
thank you so much for your persistance here... i'm glad i got to the root of it at long lonng looooong last.
Jeff
I wonder, now that I've fixed my ever so long standing vacuum problem that I didn't know about... Can anyone help me with Brake Calipers???
It just seems to be one thing after another lately.
I blow 8 hoses, all at once.I Fix That. I then crack the thread on my oil sump.
NOW I drive my car to work today and she's screaming like crazy for me to change her brake pads... grrr
The question I have is this: How do I adjust my front calipers on the car? When I brake she swerves violently to the right, then straightens back up and brakes evenly... The front left brake pad is metal on metal and the right pad isn't far behind.
I only got roughly 13,000miles to that set of pads on the front,
I'm about to replace the front pads again but I need to know how to adjust the caliper so it brakes evenly and doesn't wear unevenly again... I looked on the how to section and did a search but I can't find a link. Anyone have one? Would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
Jeff
well i think you should start a new thread in technical section. since this doesn't relate to you original question.
and to answer to your question, you can't adjust from calipers. they are free flow calipers. which means they adjust by themselfs to how much the brake pads wear out.
if you have metal to metal sound, you may as well replace the rotors for a new ones. i am sure they are scuffed up to hell.
If you have brake pads that wear out after 13000 miles, you may want to consider changing the habits of braking or getting more agressive brake pads that would last a little more.
Alex.
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