RSX2nr

Hi everyone, I'm hoping that you all can help me.

I have a 2003 Acura RSX-type S that has 189k miles on it chassis and trans, and about 89k on the motor (motor was replaced a few years back).
Anyway, a few weeks ago I had my clutch replaced at a local shop. Not a big deal, and the car ran fine after the work was done.

This past tuesday, I was driving the car around and it was fine, exceot that I noticed a valve tap had developed. I got home, shut it off, and noticed that when it shut off it did so extremely smoothly (rather than the usual stutter that most cars do). I didn't think much of it and went into the house. I came back out a few hours later to run to the store and when I started the car it started kind of slowly (ie it went around a few times before actually turning over) and then once it started it sounded as though there was a hole in my exhaust, and the car was idling very roughly. I thought that maybe it just got started weird and that it would recitfy after a minute or two of driving, and so I put it in gear and drove away.

...Well tried. The car bogged down under load, and would barely accelerate at all. After trying to give it some gas to actually get it to accelerate, I found that it would not rev past 4k rpm's, and would backfire and hiccup and drop the revs down to somewhere around 2.5k-3k rpms.

I quickly pulled back into my driveway shut the car off, and did the first thing I could think of...checked my oil. Which was very, very low. I ended up adding about 4 quarts of oil thats how low it was. I started the car back up again after adding the oil, and there was no change.

The next day I took the car to the shop that did my clutch to inquire whether or not the 2 problems were related. The mechanic there was nice enough to give me a free code scan (since mt CEL was on) and it gave back a "camshaft position sensor" error. He told me that the car had put itself into "Limp Mode" and that I was probably ok to at least drive if I had to. I left there to go to work a few miles away. The car began to drive even worse, limiting the engine revs at 2k rpms at times, and then began to overheat.

Using that information I went off and bought 2 new sensors, and installed them. I D/C'd the battery to clear the computer, and there is still no change in symptoms, and I am now at a loss as to what else it could be. My CEL is still lit, so I'm planning to head to autozone tomorrow to try and get it read.
Can anyone help? Please?

TL;DR: Car idling rough, no power when under load, no acceleration, limited at 4k rpms, backfiring and bucking/hiccuping at around 4k rpms, sometimes limiting at 2k rpms, overheating. OBD comes back as "camshaft position sensors". Both sensors replaced, no change. HELP!

phantom90333

Camshaft Position Sensor can mean the sensors have gone bad which is fairly rare. Usually this code means that your timing is off due to the timing chain tensioner failing. Mine did the same thing a few months ago.

It sounds like something else may have been damaged as well if your car is overheating. Possibly a bent valve or blown headgasket caused by the change in timing. I would do a compression test to make sure your valves are seated and your headgasket and pistons are ok.

It is somewhat difficult to change out the tensioner. It is a pain in the *** as there is not much room in the engine to work though. There are plenty of guide to help you with this repair. If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, take it to a repair shop. It will be a few hundred dollars.

If you would like to get a stronger tensioner with a better failsafe, both Toda and Hybrid Racing make aftermarket tensioner.

DecepticonDc5

if you were that low on oil for any decent time frame the tensioner and bearings are likely toast.

mezacruz30

so i had jerking problems on my 2003 acura tl type s and this is what i did in order to fix it:

1) change transmission fluid with honda engineered specific transmission fluid.
that helped out for a while but it came back, but not as bad.
2) changed IAC

that solved all my problems that included:
-engine light on
- not accelerating and jerking sometimes
-car would feel like its choking or powering down when lightly tapping on gas or on idle

phuggies92

VTEC engages off of oil pressure and if your VTEC happy like me you will run through a lot of oil quickly. If you were running low for any decent amount of time (about a day or two) you have probably spun the 4th rod bearing as that is usually the first to go and damaged the crank, rod, and cylinder wall. I just blew my third k20 because of this because I do a lot of racing and stay above 6k rpm for extended periods of time. If you did damage your block/crank now is the time to do a k24/20 build, that is if you are serious about tuning/ building. That is what I am in the process of doing.