Kustom X

Drove the all day and right before I pull up to my house cel came on. It flashed codes 72 and 74 misfire on cylinder 2 and 4. I had a misfire on cylinder 3 and 4 a couple months ago and it was from the intake manifold gasket. so what would make it misfire on 2 and 4?

Kustom X

reset cel by pulling 7.5a back up fuse for over 10 sec. let car run and in about 2 min. cel came back on this time flashing 74 misfire on cylinder 4. wtf is going on. could it be compression?

motegicivic

How old are your wires?

Kustom X

5 months old wires, plugs, cap and rotor. checked plugs and they are clean just a little red oxide color on the plugs but im 99% sure its from the fuel additive I put in the gas. could a clogged up cat cause this?

Kustom X

I let it cool down and then went back out fired it up and seamed to be running better so I turned it off and reset ecu again then fired it back up and let it run for about 10 min and no cel. does anyone know what the hell is going on?

beecee18

fuel additive IMO is no bueno.
obviously your problem is cylinder 4,
swap the plug wire with another cylinder thats not on the same stroke as 4 which would be 1,
I would swap it with cylinder 3 honestly and drive about life as normal, If CEL comes on make a note of which cylinder is now misfiring, you can also do this with injectors which you should.
Fuel additives are the most dangerous for vehicles with high mileage that have never had a treatment to the fuel system.
You will soon find out just dont touch or try to better/fix unless broken.

Seeing how you got cylinder missfire 2 and 4, shows random multiple misfire to me, cause both cylinders are on seperate crank strokes, and sometimes the crank signal has a hard time taking feedback from the cam signal to determine which cylinder on that stroke is the culprit.
Driving with misfire is detramental if done so for more than a week or so as it will load the catalyst up with unspent fuel from that cylinders lack of proper combustion and turn it in to a incinerator. cooking the catalyst out and clogging it, ect.
Now if the car is shakey and stubly like its really missfiring, the swap out shown above will be easy to troubleshoot, just pull wires one at a time until the stumbling doesnt increase and thats your problem, I would swap injectors first if it was me, good luck OP

Kustom X

It was stumbling when at idle but seemed to quit when you give it gas. now its not throwing a cel and running better. when you say catalyst do you mean catalytic converter. So fuel additive is not a good idea? i used it cause it sat for six yrs and used it as another step to clean the injectors.

civicexkid1

iTrader: (1)

the car sat for 6 years?!!!!!! how long have you been driving it since it sat? i see you replaced the wires and plugs and all. i would switch the wires and see which one makes it run better or if you switch wires to a diff cyl and now it happens on the cyl id replaces plugs and check points in the dizzy and all that. injectors would be towards the bottom of my list. if your getting terrible gas milage then id look at that but if it sat for years it could just need to be driven hard and get a tune up(fluids filters etc)

Kustom X

I started working on it over 6 yrs almost 7yrs when I think about it. Then my daughter passed away and had lost all interest. so it sat. then in October 2011 I decided it was time to get it back running. I changed the tranny fluid, oil, new brake pads and rotors, fuel filter, cap and rotor, pcv valve and hose, battery, tires, some vacuum lines, throwout bearing, timing belt, did a valve adjustment, and made a home made thing that you hook up injectors and spray throttle body cleaner through them. I will swap the plug wires tomorrow and give it a try.

beecee18

Ok well this is worse than injector cleaner on high mileage motors.

Expecially when nothing but the cheapest gas in town has been ran through the car.
Deposits inside the injector, yes very small deposits, and the deposit on the tip of the injectors," which ends up being a small crusty dried up drop off the tip of the injector" breaks off and any other residuals inside the combustion chamber are now on the move and have a better chance of doing slight harm to the motor.
basically if you have used chevron, shell or premium gasolines with the detergent additives, guess what?

The injector cleaner persay is part of that formula, hence techron, v-power, ect.
Thats why upon inspection of combustion chambers from cars running premium gas vs. cheapo creepo gas f$#%rs wait minutes in line for to save 10-15 cents a gallon would blow your mind!

a car sitting that long is going to exibit somekind of problem after sitting for that much time, you need to check all seals, belts, hoses packings, o-rings ect.

and if the tires are that old drive 120mph to test them.

beecee18

j/k duder,
yes catalyst is the material inside the catalyc converter.
If your problem went away I wouldnt worry until its return and troubleshoot accordingly.

beecee18

And sorry about your loss.

beecee18

put the points on the list even lower cause our vehicles do not use points in our distributors.

Kustom X

its baaack!!!! ran fine for a little over 500 miles then today misfire on 2 and 4. swapped plug wires around and same thing. checked spark plugs they looked good. idle seems a little low. is that from it misfiring? and it seems to run better when givin some gas. but you can really feel it at idle. Need help. Im goin f'n nuts.

motegicivic

Have you checked the timing?

Kustom X

You think it could be the timing just had a new timing belt installed

DEPintheCurve

Hey Kustom, did you get this fixed? I have a 97 hatch that threw a CEL this morning, threw a CEL two months ago while I was at school and the mechanic told my girl he changed the plugs... I'm thinking it may need a tune up because my girlfriend has only had the car for maybe 10 months and it has 200k on the clock... Please update?

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Then do the tuneup. You should have done that when she go the car along with every other maintenance item you could think of. And when you bump a thread to say "me too" at least say what you have already done and what CEL you are actually getting.

DEPintheCurve

Ok, my bad.

I've changed out the wires, cap, rotor, air filter and spark plugs. The car runs a whole hell of a lot better. Before it would start up and idle fine, but after ten minutes of driving, especially if I hit the interstate, it would idle extremely low, and even stall in neutral. It was also very sluggish before, whereas now it picks up a lot better. I was getting codes 71 and 72, random misfires in cylinders 1 and 2, before the tune up. I reset the ECU so keep your fingers crossed. I will update with result.

UPDATE: 6/6/12 I drove the car to work today. The tune up definitely helped with performance, but as I pulled in at my apartment I watched the RPMs dip way down again, to around 500. No CEL, but it idled low after about ten minutes of driving it. Any ideas?