91 Accord AT sputtering up-hill
 

This is kinda hard to explain but for the past few weeks i've had an issue when i go up a steep grade. When i'm going up a grade of 5-6% the car starts to sputter and lose power. The car shakes quite bad when this happens. When i get to the top of the hill it takes a few seconds but it seems to clear up. No problems any other time, just going up hill.

UNTIL TODAY ! ! !

I had to make a 12-15 mile trip to downtown portland today. I had no problems getting there but on my way back, going up a 6% grade i started having problems about 1 mile into the grade. It started doing the sputtering thing again and i lost most of my power. The speed limit is 50 through this part of the road but i could only manage 25 at best. I was worried i wouldn't even make it to the top. The car was shaking again and this time very bad.

After i got to the top i thought everything would be ok in a couple minutes. No such luck. The remaining 7-8 miles home was very touch and go. When i came to a stop the shaking was bad and it felt like the car was trying to stall. It never did.

When i got home i checked the oil (plenty), transmission fluid (plenty), spark plug wires for oil. (i've had a small leak in one of my spark plug gaskets). The one that sometimes has oil in it had a very small amount on the end of the rubber part of the plug wire.

Any suggestions?

thx,
Wayne


Modified by DjTrex at 12:05 PM 12/4/2006

Re: 91 Accord sputtering up-hill (DjTrex)
 

Pull the vacuum line from the EGR valve and go for a drive uphill. If the problem goes away you need to clean the EGR ports. hth

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering up-hill (DjTrex)
 

Throw us a bone here !!
Spark plugs ever been replaced?
Dist rotor ever been replaced?
How many miles on this creampuff?
Is the air filter so plugged up the engine is having a hard time breathing?
Check Engine Lite?
Does the engine rev out in neutral sittng still?

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering up-hill (DjTrex)
 

on top of other suggestions,,,,,

fuel filter ??

Yes,
Plugs replaced 8-7-06
Rotor replaced 8-5-06
Dist cap replaced 8-5-06
EGR ports cleaned out 9-28-05
New PCV valve 9-20-05
Air filter has been replaced and i checked it the other day, it's got a couple grey areas but not dirty enough for me to run and get a filter ASAP.

Creampuff has 208k

No check engine light

When i tried to start it this morning i opened the hood and i had my hand on the valve cover. It seemed to have a good knocking going on. It feels like the damn car is going to shake itself to pieces.

I'm not sure what "rev out" is so i can't comment on that.

Re: (DjTrex)
 

Check where the spark plug wires go. There might be oil in them which means you need new gaskets. Pretty easy to do.
I know mine did something similar.
My steering column would shake pretty bad because one of the cylinders were probably misfiring a lot, causing an uneven force on one side and then the engine shake.
Since uphill demands more from your car it's more noticeable and you have to press harder on the gas pedal.

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering up-hill (DjTrex)
 

I just took the plugs out and one of them was covered in oil. I know i need to redo to plug gaskets but even after i just put new plugs in the car runs the same. Also when i turned the car off after puting in the new plugs something was making a shhhhhhhhhhh sound like air breathing out of something. It stopped after 3-4 seconds.

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering up-hill (DjTrex)
 

Well does your distributor work fine?
Also maybe a motor mount?

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering up-hill (Homesickelian)
 

would the motor mount cause me to lose almost all power going up hill?

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering up-hill (DjTrex)
 

I don't think so.
It seems like you have a pretty hardcore problem if it drops in speed that bad. Not trying to scare you.
The car doesn't burn much oil ?
Also is there any oil in your coolant fluid?
I'm going out on a limb with some of these but it might be a possibility
(Also for the oil on the spark plug wire, stick a rolled paper or something into the cylinder and dry up some of the oil for maybe some alleviation. If the oil is touching the wire, the oil is probably pretty deep since the wires are few inches above the base of the spark plug.)

yes, it goes through oil quite a bit but not from leaking on the ground. I never see any drops or puddles. I used a shop rag to absorb all of the oil down in the whole but the new plugs had no effect on the problem.

I replaced the valve cover gasket on 9-20-05 wich included the spark plug gaskets. For some reason they are leaking again. I have purchased a new valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, timing belt but i have not installed them yet. Now this happens and i might as well fix these things at the same time. I just don't want to miss anything and have to redo the gaskets.


I haven't looked at the coolant yet.

I do need a new front motor mount. A checkup last year showed that it was worn. I plan on replacing it too but i don't think that is my current issue.

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering
 

I just took off the dist cap and here is what i found. Please see pictures at this link.

http://home.comcast.net/~cyber...p.gif
http://home.comcast.net/~cyber...g.gif
http://home.comcast.net/~cyber...r.gif

Do you think any of this could be my problem? Is that spring supposed to be like that?

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering (DjTrex)
 

I'm not to certain of its effects but pic #2 doesnt look to hot. Yeah the spring shouldnt be like that..

Update:
Replaced the plug wires yesterday
Replaced the PCV valve yesterday
Replaced the Fuel Filter today

No change! Same problems, It sounds like an air leak or some kind of shhhhhhhhh sound.

Re: (DjTrex)
 

"shhhhhhhhh sound" could mean a vacum leak, so you can check the vacum lines or spray around them with carb cleaner and listen for an idle change.

Re: (hondadude)
 

anyone know where i can find a diagram of where my vacuum lines are?

thx guys,
DjTrex

Ok, i found a 91 manual but how do i identify what version Accord i have?
I know so far that its a 2.2liter fuel injected but what are these designations?
KF, KG, KX, KS, KE, KY, KQ


Modified by DjTrex at 12:26 PM 12/9/2006

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering
 

Well here is the latest.

I found a coupon for a free fall vehicle inspection and so i dropped it off last night. I just got off the phone with the guy and he told me that they did a compression test and my #1 was at 185 / #2 180 / #3 10 / #4 185. They suggested an enigine overhaul costing $5200. So since the car is problable worth 1/2 that at most, what should i do? Is there a cheaper way to do it myself? If so, can someone please point me to a good step-by-step tutorial on how to do it?


Thanks guys for all your help,
DjTrex

Re: 91 Accord AT sputtering (DjTrex)
 

Go get a second opinion, and then a third. You could have a new engine put in for around 1200.