wayne.goodrich

I have an 03' Accord, manual transmission. Starting this winter (cold mornings), the engine light would come on. The engine would not go above 2800 rpm (hard limit) and would not respond to throttle until below 2500 rpm once this limiter was hit. After only 1-2 minutes, if the ignition was turned off and back on, this would go away and run normally. This is getting worse as time goes by (warm days now). The code from the engine light says it is for a stuck cam up/down, but the behavior seems to be computer or sensor related as performance is nominal after a reboot. Maybe it has Windows running under the hood. Any clues???

Tech5

what was the code?

justinsbg

Sounds like a VTEC issue. Make sure your oil level is fine, as well as clean. Usually on the newer Accords that's the most common problem I see. The other common problem I see is the VTEC pressure switch failure. If the ECM stores a code for the VTEC system it will apply the limiter. The ECM will leave the MIL light on when the switch is cycled off, but when its cycled back on it will run as usual until the problem occurs again during that "trip". Since that is a 1 trip code the ECM will continue to test that system each new "trip".

wayne.goodrich

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into the switch. The problem showed up after I accidentally put in 5-30W oil instead of 5-20 one time over a year ago. That's what happens when you change the oil in two cars at the same time.