Dizzyman

Hello All,

Im after a bit of help and some diagnosis on the Honda we have. Its been a brilliant car and never let us down until 4 days ago.

Its a Honda Accord 2.0 Petrol Vtec, Automatic 2004. 76k mileage

We were driving down the motorway and had done around 60-70 miles of travelling when i went to overtake and the gear dropped down and i was hitting around 4500 rpm when all of a sudden the engine management light cam on and the vehicle started to judder and shake. I released the acceleration and once the vehicle dropped below 3000 rpm was fine again but the light stayed on. We continued travelling with the light on as the vehicle seemed fine even though the management light was still illuminated and thought would get it into the garage when we got home.

It was then around 30 miles later the engine just cut out, no warnings or anything just died as we was travelling around 70 mph. After coasting over to the hard shoulder i tried to start the car but it wouldn't start, it was like the battery was dead, and really struggled to turn over, i tried again and then wouldn't even turn over even though all the ignition lights were lit. At this point i gave in and called the breakdown company.

When they arrived they checked the battery, oil, water etc and all was fine. He then plugged it into the ob11 reader and it came back with the following codes.

P2646 Rocker Arm Actuator
P2A00 O2 Sensor
P0135 O2 Sensor Heater
P0341 Camshaft Position Sensor

He cleared the codes and got the vehicle started, and all was running again and he thought all the codes were related to the P0341 Camshaft position sensor due to the loss of power etc. So he advised to get it into the garage as soon as we got home. He followed us for around 20 miles heading back home and the car run perfect. Then another 20 miles down the motorway bang, loss of power again, this time the car started again with great difficulty and once started the engine stated tapping really bad and then just cut out again. So we called the breakdown up again who instead of looking at it again just took us home.

I have since taken the vehicle to a local garage who also said it sounds like the camshaft sensors too. They replaced both these sensors and not a cheap cost :-( to then find that it didn't solve the problem and the error codes are still active. The engine turns over nicely now but still tapping like crazy. The garage told me that the engine is past it and needs replacing. They told me that its the drive tran sensors that have gone which means a new engine. Im not that mechanically minded so i asked them to explain and its the sensors that feed back to the ECU with info on where the heads are or something.

Im just after a bit of advice really and get opinions of others on here if they feel that the garage is correct with a new engine or if its repairable in other ways and obviously without the cost element of a new engine. Or even if they feel all the garage are saying is incorrect open to all options, would just like the motor to be up and running again.

Thanks in advance for your help and sorry for the long post.

Andy

tomcatter1962

Just curious, did the mechanics do a cylinder compression and differential check? The P2646 code for the rocker arm acutator for the VTEC system was it checked out as well?
Respectfully