motormanSR

I have a 1995 honda accord EX, she's got 246k and she's been running good till now. it's a manual.
here are the symptoms
In low RPM (while driving) the whole car jerks and looses power. i will floor it and i get now power and the car acts like it's stalling. If i run the engine ( not moving) when i floor it the engine sounds smooth..it goes up in rmp just fine
i am going to start with the basics.. i am going to do a air filter change, feul filter change,spark plug change. My distrubutor cab is only 70k old (i will check that as well)...could this be the distribuer it self...would a malfunctioning TPS cause this
looking for ideas

Obsidian

Sounds like you have the gist of it. Although for it to rev smooth in neutral and jerk with a load...

Maybe your spark plugs and plug wires. Try those first.

You can clean your distributor without needing to replace it. If you want to know how then shoot me a PM.

You should still change the air and fuel filter just for routine maintenance.

BaddMo2002

Have you ever replaced your fuel filter? If not, replace your fuel filter with an OEM honda one and then use some injector cleaner. Also, like obsidian stated, check your spark plugs, wires. Take out the wires out , one @ a time and check if there is oil in there. If there is oil, replace the valve cover gasket, o-rings, and the plugs.

motormanSR

i have replaced the feul filter about 50k ago..it was an antozone filter that i used...
i don't think that a vanve covel gasket leak would give me those symptoms..could be dead wrong.
any say about the TPS?
here is another sympton...when i turn air on(inside the cabin) it smells liek something is burning..rubber or oil ..not sure. also realized yesterday that if left to idle long enough the car will shudder and the RPM falls slightly( not necessarily at the same time it shudders)....
my plug wire is as old as my distributer cap (70k) but i will check those as well...

dvsOasis

I had a problem similar to that a couple of years ago. I don't remember what the problem was...I think it was my ignition coil...it was having problems
creating spark for the spark plugs

TouringAccord

I would say your ignition coil. Check your plugs to see if they are fouled and the wires to make sure they have the correct resistance.

I had a similar problem with my hatch late December. On my way home from work, everytime I would go to accelerate it would shudder and have no power. But it would cruise just fine as long as I didn't give it gas. Later that day I was waiting to turn left and at idle it got real ruff and then stalled. Took a little to get it to start back up and it was a little ruff then smoothed out. So I turned around and went to go home to check it out more. Got a mile from home and heard a **puff** out the exhaust and the car was dead. Called AAA and had it towed home and found out I wasn't getting a spark. Pulled the coil and saw that it had arched. You could see a white flash from it arching. I replaced the coil, rotor, cap and wires all with OEM Honda and it fired up right away and has ran fine since. Here's a picture of the flash mark I was talking about.


If you do plan on replacing the fuel filter, make sure you have a set of "crow feet" on hand. Thats the easiest way I've found to replace the fuel filter on the Accord because of it's tough location.

BDietrich84

246k. id take it to the dealership and get the tranny fluid changed. i do believe honda recommends this every 50k or so.
My automatic had a problem where when i would go up hill or put a little bit of a load on it, it would shift back into neutral or stay in neutral. turned out it was out of fluid even though the dipstick read full. just a small leak from the axle seal, but over time drained me of fluid completely.

TouringAccord

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BDietrich84 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">246k. id take it to the dealership and get the tranny fluid changed.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't know how much the dealer charged you but you probably got ripped. Not trying to be rude, just saying. If you can do an oil change you can change tranny fluid, it's not hard at all.

I don't think the tranny fluid is his problem but it's not a bad thing to do if you haven't changed it in a while. I don't remember the recommended mileage though.

motormanSR

i cahnged my tranny fluid about 20K ago so i know that's good... i will check the trans for leaks and see what i come up with

motormanSR

just though i'd let you all know.....i just found out that my exhaust manifodl is bad ....i think that's the root of all my probs....thanks for the advise...
anyone have an exhaust manifold selling...95,accord,ex

sj993

I have my 94 EX exhaust manilfold here. I'd sell it to you. It had about 100K on it when I took it off. I just have to find it.

RUBZERK

well if you get it fixed, let us know what you did to fix it

motormanSR

is there anyone out there that can ship one for $35 ? if so hit me up at exec1979@hotmail.com

arielb1

Okay, I have to ask because...well I am still learning and having similar issues with my Civic. Hope I am not deviating from his thread.

How did you know it was the exhaust manifold? Please give details.

Was there a visible crack on the manifold? How does a cracked manifold cause the issues you are having?


Second, TouringAccord wrote "I wasn't getting a spark. Pulled the coil and saw that it had arched. You could see a white flash from it arching. " Can someone give me more detail? Is this the coil that is located at the center of the dist cap? What picture is he showing? Where is it located on Accord?

Thanks all for teaching me.

JimBlake

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by arielb1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... How does a cracked manifold cause the issues you are having?</TD></TR></TABLE>I'll believe it when he says it's fixed. I think a cracked exhaust manifold can leak & make noise, but I don't think it can cause this.

Exhaust leaks around the O2 sensor can throw off that measurement, but I don't expect it to behave the way he describes. I'm expecting it to be ignition wires or coil or plugs or something like that.

TouringAccord

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by arielb1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Second, TouringAccord wrote "I wasn't getting a spark. Pulled the coil and saw that it had arched. You could see a white flash from it arching. " Can someone give me more detail? Is this the coil that is located at the center of the dist cap? What picture is he showing? Where is it located on Accord?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The way I found there was no spark was... I took one spark plug wire out from the valve cover/head and held it to a ground. I then had my girl turn the key like she was starting the car. If I was getting a spark I would have seen a spark jump between the wire and the ground. I didn't see anything. I did this to the other wires just to make sure and the same result followed for each one. So I pulled the wires, cap and coil and brought them inside. Upon further looking at the coil and from some help on H-T I saw the flash marks on the side of the coil indicating it had arched.

On cars with internal coils, the coil is located under the distributor cap. You remove the distributor cap and you'll see a black box held in with two screws that has two small wires going to it and a post that goes into the distributor cap. It's a good size, kinda hard to miss.

Hope this helped with your question.

Are you having trouble seeing the picture?

arielb1

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TouringAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

The way I found there was no spark was... I took one spark plug wire out from the valve cover/head and held it to a ground. I then had my girl turn the key like she was starting the car. If I was getting a spark I would have seen a spark jump between the wire and the ground. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks again for taking the time to teach me. However, I am only half way there. I dont understand fully. You took one spark plug wire from valve cover, did you leave the spark plug in place and just removed the wire from the valve cover? Your term held it to a ground, does this mean you hovered the wire (without the spark plug) over any ground on the car like a strut bolt head?

I have a picture in my head that you held only the wire end that came off the spark plug and held it over a grounded bolt head. As she turned the key, a spark should be seen arching from the bolt head and the end of the wire (again without a spark plug). Am I correct? I am anxious to get home and try this. Hey, isn't this dangerous? I like it!!!!

Filthy Focker!

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by arielb1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I have a picture in my head that you held only the wire end that came off the spark plug and held it over a grounded bolt head. As she turned the key, a spark should be seen arching from the bolt head and the end of the wire (again without a spark plug). Am I correct? I am anxious to get home and try this. Hey, isn't this dangerous? I like it!!!! </TD></TR></TABLE>

What touringAccord said is this:

1.Remove 1 plug wire from sparkplug
2. remove that sparkplug from the head
3. Stick the removed sparkplug into the sparkplug wire
4. Stick the sparkplug, that is connected to the wire onto the block
5. Crank and observe if you see spark
6. No it is not dangerous.

fs

arielb1

GOT IT ! ! ! I will try this weekend. THANK YOU

fluxion

happened to me a couple times, it seems like it's fine but you damn near gotta floor it to keep it up to speed. and it happens erratically at around 60mph. did a ecu reset and it hasnt happened since. not sure what the issue was though

TouringAccord

thanks fs. Sorry for not explaining it better.

hawkimport

I had this happen to me once when my O2 sensor fouled.

I had reset the ECM several times til I just said forget it and replaced it.

Have not had it happen again. Oh and used the Bosh universal replacement for 4 wire systems. Works equal to the OEM one w/ a small increase in MPG. (compaired this to a friend of mine with same issue that replaced theirs with the $200 O2 to my $43 Universal one)