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Hey all, my friend just bought a '93 Del Sol to replace his 350z. On the test drive it seemed ok. The thermostat was stuck open and the valve cover was leaking. No big deal right? So, driving yesterday it lost most of its throttle response and it idles rough. Nothing special before it happened. You can mash on the throttle and it will slow down up hills. When I can manage to rev past 4k and let off the gas, it will not respond at all for at least 5 seconds. I notice more throatyness coming from the intake since this started too. Its not throwing a CEL. I read that air in the cooling system can cause some issues with hondas, so I went ahead and changed that thermostat and bled the system properly. I also changed TPS, cleaned both idle control valves, checked for vacuum leaks, cleaned the contacts on the distributor cap & rotor, checked all grounds and electrical contacts. I'm leaning towards a bad cat because I hear a slight rattle, but I can't be sure if its coming from the cat or not. Any help on where I should look next would be greatly appreciated
Just about all the symptoms you described here with the exception of revving past 4k (i had no problem with that), and no cel, are what was going on with mine during my TPS/MAP sensor issues. The car was in limp mode due to those particular pins failing in my ECU. I replaced my ECU and she runs like a scalded cat now. Not saying that will fix your problem, but I would definitely start doing some voltage checking among those components.
If you feel the cat may be bad, unhook the exhaust from pre-cat and try it out.
Well, I disconnected everything from the cat-back and there was no improvement. Cat is good. I found the engine code to be D16Z6 and the numbers on the ECU that I could read are on the attached picture. I checked for codes again, but the cel stayed constantly lit, no codes.
time to run down the basic honda "my car runs like crap" checklist.
1. fuel. not the most common problem, but filters are cheap and a maintenance item
2. mechanical timing. not a very common thing to jump time out of nowhere, but free and easy to check
3. my personal favorite- the distributor. SO MANY of the cars I have had the displeasure of working on have had bad distributor components. Honda's internal coil distributors fail- A LOT. verify spark, check the coil per the fsm. the ICM is not bench testable, but some auto parts stores have the equipment to test them.
4. compression. check it.
Well, I finally got a chance to dive into it again, and it looks like the timing is off. I lined the cam pulley up with the head and none of the marks lined up with the point on the belt cover. So, I'm in the process of resetting it, but I can't imagine why it would've jumped. The PO had the timing belt done in February of THIS YEAR with receipts to back it up. I'll get a picture to show where it's currently at.
Is there an easier way to release the tensioner that pulling the crank pulley off and then the lower cover?
There is a round plastic cap in the lower cover, just above the pointer, that can be pulled out to reach the tensioner bolt. However if the belt has skipped, its teeth are likely damaged and you should put a new belt on.
Check that the crank pulley is on properly by removing spark plug #1, put a suitable metal rod in the hole to probe the top of the piston, and turn crank by hand to verify that the single notch in the pulley lines up with TDC. It is possible to put the crank pulley on without the key and then the timing marks will be wrong.
Turned out to be the timing. Using MK378's TDC method I figured out that the key was reinstalled, the belt just jumped a few teeth. Thank those guys over on that island for making this car a non-interfearance head. What do you guys think would cause the belt to jump 2 months after replacement?
04-11-2016, 02:55 PM
93 Del Sol - Severe Loss of Throttle Response
