TypeRod

Very weird issue I'm having with my R. It always seems to happen at the same point on my commute to home from work. I'm driving about a steadily 50 mph, and I reach a slight incline on my way home from work and I get a very quick loss in power and then its back to normal again. Its really noticeable at this same point in my commute home at this point where the road has inclined for a about 30-50 ft. I don't really notice it at any other inclined roads I frequently drive on. The grade is not very steep. I feel like its a loss of oil pressure? I can't say for sure, but being it happens on this incline I feel that the oil shifts in the pan? LOL! I have a feeling my R will be dead soon, I'm pushing about ~247K miles on it now, still stock motor, only owner. Maybe I should either get rid of it now, or start a go fund me page for a basic rebuild! lol! If this thing dies on me, it'll just sit in my garage b/c I don't have money for a rebuild. Bought the car when I was 20, I just turned 38 about ten days ago, now married with 2 kids, on a tight budget. I was hoping to be able to pass it down to my son, in running condition, when he starts driving, he'll be turning 9 this year, LOL!

Any suggestions on what the issue could be would be greatly appreciated, I wanna keep this thing running as best as I can.

RTW DC2R

Mine will do a little stutter thing sometimes but usually with a steady light throttle but on a flat road (minimal load on the motor). I tend to think its TPS or MAP or some kind of sensor on its way out. Not too worried about it unless it becomes more frequent or while accelerating.

When it happens, are you increasing throttle for the incline when it happens or have the throttle steady? Highly doubt its anything oil related, your oil light would probably come on.

TypeRod

Thanks for the input! I'm not increasing the throttle any, just driving a steady 50 mph or so. It made me think it might be oil related only b/c in previous years, I had to do some frequent passing on a two lane road, which was my main commute to work, and I remember 2 times on separate occasions, that I dropped down to 3rd gear from 5th to pass and got on the throttle and a major dip in power happened, scared the poop out of me, lol. So when I got home after the 2nd incident like that, I checked the oil level and it took about 1.25 qts to fill up to the proper oil level. And I never had any oil light come on either time.

But when this happened yesterday, the oil level was topped off last week. If it is a sensor issue, TPS or MAP, would it eventually throw a code once it completely fails?

dpine

247k miles.
When was the last time you did any kind of basic maintenance (Cap, rotor, spark plugs, fuel filter). I agree in most cases if you were having oil pump issues I would think the light would come on the gauge cluster (has for me in the past).

What do the gauges do when this happens (RPM, oil, coolant, gas) if you have the lights on does the lights on the inside dim? Just general questions to rule out stuff.

Its not far off that with the mileage your engine is using oil. If the level is low that could be a problem. If the level is fine you would need quite a bit of force to make the oil do funny things in the pan to starve the motor.

TypeRod

I maintain the engine and its components very well. I just did the "60K service" @ 240,000. I changed the plugs, wires, distrib cap, and rotor, and the coil (since it was badly corroded). Fuel filter was done last summer-ish or fall-ish.

Oil was topped off last Thursday. The engine burns up about 1.25 qts/ 1500 miles. I'm not sure what the gauges do while this issue occurs, I'm just busy looking at the road. Plus it happens so fast, like half a second, by the time I look down at my gauges, which I do everytime it happens, I don't notice anything out of the ordinary. I'm guessing a small dip in RPM gauge, but no other lights come on, that I can notice in that short period of time.

97CWITR

Because the age of the motor I would try a leak down and compression test to see how the engine is doing.

CW-ITR

iTrader: (11)

I have a hunch that your ignitor is on it's way out. Over 100K mile tune up of a Honda distributor should always include replacement of the ignitor.

dpine

Thats not a bad hunch.

OP do you have a spare Distributor laying around? You could try another ignitor. You could also purchase one online. They are less than $30 for a non OEM one.

TOO MUCH TORQUE

Wouldnt suggest using anything other than OEM for honda ignition system. Here is a very good alternative:

Honda CRV NEC MC 8541 Ignitor Igniter Ignition Control Module ICM 30130 P75 006 | eBay

I bought a used OEM ignitor(NEC/ELESYS) from this ebay user. It's been in my friend's car for a year now and no problems. Much cheaper than a brand new one at close to $200. My order did not come with the ignitor heatsink, but you can just transfer your old one. You will need thermal compound. I just used some computer artic silver compound lol

TypeRod

I wish I did, but I don't have a spare one lying around, or know anyone who may have one. I would hate to spend any money on a spare one, lol. I did price a new ignitor and its about $213 w/o shipping on acuraoemparts. So I just may have to wait until the car fails completely, lol.

Thanks for the link! For a part like this thats being questioned, and its uber important to the reliability of the vehicle I will always go OEM. There is a reason OEM costs more than the cheap china made bs from advance auto, besides dealership markup, lol. I'm on a super tight budget, so what I will try first is this trouble shooting procedure for the ignitor posted on another integra site, even though nothing has failed entirely. I'm not super knowledgeable, but I can follow a well written procedure, lol. Maybe something will rear its head during this troubleshooting.

And just to put it out there, when I did my 60K tune up last summer @ 240K miles, my ignition coil had really bad corrosion where the coil was, I think I may have posted a thread about it with pics. Nothing else jumped out at me when I had the distributor cap off. But maybe some corrosion migrated to the terminals on the ignitor.

Thanks for the help guys!

97CWITR

Are you having any fuel consumption problems and less mileage? I'm having a similar problem but with poor mileage.

TypeRod

ummmm.....not that I can tell. Its kind of hard to say.....for the past 2.5 years my commute to work which is where I drive my R mostly has reduced quite a bit, it went from ~72 miles round trip to only ~11 miles round trip. So all I do now on my commute is all city driving, and no highway at all. So of course my typical fuel tank mileage went from ~400+ miles a tank (and thats running it quite low, well past the fuel low light coming on), to about ~280-320 miles a tank with the new commute.

It varies greatly these days on how much mileage I get per tank, but so does my use of my R.

Long story short, I don't think I'm having any fuel consumption issues. Also, it could be that most gast stations here in Northern VA are still on the winter blend of gasoline, which may reduce fuel mileage.

EDIT: Dude I think both of our Type R's are twins or something, b/c wasn't it your R having an issue in the past similar to mine where, if the car was started to just move it a short distance and turned off immediately (like just quickly moving the car from the garage to the driveway), that the next time you started the car, it would have a hard time starting and stay running? Its almost like the cylinders were flooded or something. And you have to just rev it out a little bit, then it will idle normally.

I could be confusing you with someone else here on HT, lol. I feel like we shared another similar on something with our cars, lol.

97CWITR

On my old ITR I did have quite a bit of fuel issues. 1 of them was was where 2 of the injectors were stuck open and filling the cylinders with fuel until it turned over enough to burn it off. Because of that it also had an idle problem and terrible mileage.

I have a different itr now and having some mileage issues. The joys.

TypeRod

Ahh, I knew it was you, just didn't know it was a diff. R, lol. I hear you on that, I wish there was an "easy" button for my R when something is wrong with it. lol. Good luck with your issue!

wunfstgsr

Try adjusting your valve lash !

TypeRod

Just had a valve adjustment last summer...car has only been driven maybe 4500 miles since then.

j13

iTrader: (2)

Check your spark plugs, I really believe plugs don't last very long on the vtec engines. Soot and carbon build up and even sometimes corrosion and rust makes them go bad . Were they double platinum? Those are the best to use for these engines. Take them out, and clean with with a fine wire brush. When they get old, it'll cause a hesitation

RTW DC2R

He recently replaced the plugs. And what evidence do you have that says "double platinum" plugs are best? Platinum plugs may last longer but that doesnt make them better.

These engines work perfectly fine on copper plugs, naturally aspirated or boosted. Personally I view them as a wear item, and prefer to swap them often since its so easy, especially after events like track days. Doing that with platinum plugs would be a small fortune.

TypeRod

Yes, as RTW mentions I did replace the plugs at their normal 60K interval @240k which was some months ago. Car has ~247K on it now, if I'm not mistaked. I only use the factory OEM recommeded plugs. My R is stock as can be as far as the engine goes.

My coil was replaced at that time as well, it was badly corroded. I think I made a thread about it, I can't remember though. I would try to post pics of it, but I'm visiting my folks and their computer is jacked ever since my mom upgraded to windows 10, lol. So I can't even upload pics from my phone. Let me see if I did make a thread about my coil.

EDIT: heres the link to my 60k tune up thread if anyone was interested: https://honda-tech.com/acura-integra...rning-3251110/

j13

iTrader: (2)

I believe Oem plugs were double platinum, the ngk laser platinum were double, but at 9$ each everyone puts cheaper quality ngk's then complains about performance.. I'm actually speaking from experience myself lol. I completely burned up the cheap 3$ plugs believe it or not, went double and never looked back. I actually had a very bad sputtering issue on acceleration with load and that cured my problem.

O2 sensor is another place to look at, even though their might not be a cel, they can get "lazy" and not perform well, plus not many people know that the primary O2 is a maintenance wear item, most people use them until they fail. Engine timing, bad gas, check fuel pressure, clogged fuel injector(s), map sensors usually just fail all together. Intermittent issues with no cel's are bad

TypeRod

I do have the O2 sensor spacer cheat in place, my cat conv. is bad, but the catalyst is broken and vibrating around, so I don't think air flow is impeded too bad. The O2 sensor is the original one.

j13

iTrader: (2)

Replace the cat and take out the spacer lol even though the secondary O2 does nothing for the air/fuel ratio the catalyst is broken and could be clogging it up intermittently.. Chocking the engine.. not saying theirs your issue, but it can for sure possibly be it. Or you can just get a test pipe with the spacer but I personally don't like test pipes for DD's since it takes away the bottom end power and theirs already not much power there on the lower revs

TypeRod

Thanks for the advice! If I could I would do a test pipe, but the county I live in has emissions testing, and VA has safety inspection, both of which they check for cat. converters. I would replace the cat conv. but I don't feel like spending another $200+ on a aftermarket cat. conv. for it to only go bad quickly due to all the oil burning my engine is doing, lol.

pogeeboy27

iTrader: (3)

I'm with this suggestion. I doubt it's anything mechanical. If your TPS or MAP sensor is going bad, your ECU will read faulty info and cause your car to stumble or hesitate. It's not the ECU's fault, but rather the sensor that's on its way out.

TypeRod

Is it safe to say a CEL will come one once the TPS or MAP sensor croaks?

To answer RTW's question, I feel like at the point of the incline I have already increased my speed to compensate for the incline and then once I'm holding the pedal steady, it then dips in power.