Ledbellyhead

First post, so please be gentle. I have searched on here and can't find anything as specific as my problem. First off the car was missing a lick every now and then around 1500-2000 rpm's. It has 175,000 miles, I decided a tune up was in need, changed plugs, rotor and cap. Ran well for a week, no lights thrown to this point. Then it started missing more often and at random and immediately lost power. The code I got was p1399, random misfire. I pulled injector plugs while running and noted that there was no change in idle on the second cylinder, pulled the plug wire and it was arcing like crazy, so I had ignition. Got a reman injector, assumed that was it, still the same thing after replacement, however cyl 1 was acting up and 2 that I just replaced was fine, tested with an O-scope and had normal voltage at injector. Shut car off reset computer and running rough, same code. For some reason the car is random shutting off a single fuel injector at random?
I have been reading about the egr problems but they seem to be 6 cyl and earlier models, us I can't imagine it occurring so suddenly. I do not want to throw parts at it more. Can any one offer any good advice? I have link in the mail for live monitoring, but it will not be here for a week and this is my main ride... Thank you in advance for any help!

MAD_MIKE

Start with the basics.
Do a compression check.
Is there any oil in the spark plug wells? If so fix the leak.

If the misfire only happens at part throttle, with 175Kmiles, it may just be the EGR system is begining to clog up. You will need a gasket for teh EGR valve and the upper intake manifold plenum, remove those two parts and clean the passage in the intake from the EGR valve to the plenum.

Ledbellyhead

Compression good, forgot to mention that, it is undriveable now, it started out at a few rpm's now everywhere, seems to run ok at higher rpm but I haven't really driven it. No oil either. Thanks

MAD_MIKE

Does it idle fine or does it stumble at idle?

Ledbellyhead

Oh, the exhaust smells like absolute death, rotten eggs, I think that is h2s?

Ledbellyhead

It stumbles bad at idle now, and seems to improve with rpm with no load, loaded it is very bad.

MAD_MIKE

Gaskets for the EGR valve and for the intake plenum is less than $10.

Have you checked your base ignition timing? Any oil inside the distributor cap? Fuel pressure? The rotten egg smell is from the engine running too rich. Look at your air filter, verify that your thermostat is working/thermosensor is working.

Ledbellyhead

I will check that this weekend when I can, unfortunately I'm working the next ten days and Driving a VW bus 80 miles a day at 60 MPH (down a hill) and 14 MPG till I get this thing back to going, thanks for your help, I just don't see how the EGR could become clogged to the point of not hardly running in an instant. I haven't checked the timing, my light is loaned out and is supposed to be back Monday... But if the timing is off why would it have been running great and then not? It still takes moments of clarity where it is normal for a second or two, seems to me like something has gone out or stuck open. There is no oil on the inside of the cap. I have been curious of the fuel pressure, but don't have a good way to test it. I may be able to conjure up something though. The thermostat must be fine, but I have wondered if the sensor is correctly I understand it is a different one than the one for the gauge, I can try and test that also.

Ledbellyhead

Ok, some fast checks. EGR valve is closed tight at idle, valve is not to bad dirty so there is no way this is the problem from what I have read. Fired it up this morning and it ran great for about a minute. I need to check the coolant temperature sensor, but I am leaning towards limping to a shop that can read all of that data live, I don't have much time and I am losing patience. I want to check the fuel pressure, even rented a gauge from auto zone, but Honda was nice enough to not provide any way to check it without their special tool adapter on the fuel pulsation damper... That's a week lead time.

tim73

When mine did this, it got progressivly worse. Eventually it would barely start/run. Turned out to the be the ignition control module. There was no ryme or reason to it, warm day cold day, warm engine cold engine. You can remove it, and have local parts store test it. Have them test it many times. I know on the 2.2 its inside the distributor, I "think" it is the same on the 2.3.

Ledbellyhead

This morning I replaced the ignition coil after a local shop suggested it, it runs wonderful now, I can't make any rational sense out of it being so intermittent, it ran fine above 3500 rpm's also, didn't know that until this morning.