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!

scmil95eg

Could be:
Broken cam
Timing chain skipped tooth (engine not mechanically timed)
Bent valve
Damaged rocker/roller

I recommend:
1. removing valve cover
2. take pictures with v.c removed
(if problem isn't obvious at this point):
3. post pics in this thread

RSX2nr

Update: I went to have the code read and it is coming back as a P0341 "Camshaft Sensor A Incorrect Phase Detected".

Does that help anyone?

Katman

the Tchain could be worn or 'stretched' as people like to refer to it as (the chain link pins wear eventually/over time giving a 'stretched' like chain result) which would/could throw off cam timing/phasing on the trigger wheels.

check the cam trigger wheels when set at TDC, see if there's any funkyness going on with them.

tchain tensioner failure could be contributing to cam timing going out of wack

803motorsports

sounds like its out of timing. due to the motor being run almost completely dry of oil ive seen k20's jump as much as 180 degrees off timing. either that or the tensioner malfuctioned and allowed it to jump timing.