I recently bought a 95 Prelude SI, at first everything was fine with the car but now theres serious lagging going on 1st through 5th gear, and it pops/backfires at idle. I've had people look at it and tell me its my timing belt not being aligned with my cam gear, but I'd like to have another persons opninon.

Any info would be extremely helpful.

 

1) Any mods?
2) Did you change anything prior to this happening? New timing belt? New cam gears?

If it's still bone stock, I suggest getting new spark plugs, distributor cap and rotor. And maybe even pitch in for a new Oxygen Sensor if it's got some mileage on the car.

 

If you can remember any event that caused the beginning of this problem we would be able to help you more. Though it does sound like a cam timing issue....

 

Why don't you just pop the valve cover and check your timing??

 

I did pop the valve...all the valves are adjusted to stock specs.

The cars completely stock, but it does have 153,xxx miles on it

 

line up the marks on the cam gears, the lines horizontally and point the arrows straight up. then look in the hole right next to the engine code and make sure the tdc line is in between the pointers.

 

the exhaust cam is pointed to the left alittle more than the intake

 

The main thing I wanted to know was, if this sounded like the problem and what I can do to fix it without paying Honda to do it for 750

 

you can try using a 14mm wrench on the bolt on the cam gear to line them up correctly. key word = try.

first you need to make very sure that it is at TDC using the method i described above. it could be either cam gear that is off.

when you try to fix it, just give a quick, hard, POP on the end of the wrench, doing it with a hammer would be optimal, you're just trying to get the belt to skip teeth on the gear and let it turn to line it back up.

 

haha sorry, i'm new to this. Could you possibly explain to me in retard terms.

 

you got AIM?

mgags7

 

If it's a bone stock block, with no mods whatsoever, then it's a different story. Sounds like a tune up thing.

But if it happened after some modifications, we can narrow down the diagnosis.

 

dude did you read at all? his cams are misaligned.

 

I initially read it as him stating it was bone stock and untouched. I didn't see where he said the exhaust camgear was a little off.

He still never mentioned if he put in a new timing belt, installed aftermarket camgears, etc.

 

Yeah, fix your cam timing and go from there. There are lots of write-ups and threads about how to do that, just search a little bit.

 

well thanks for all the help guys. Get back to you guys when its done!

 

Do you guys know of anything else that could cause the studdering/lagging and backfiring/popping while idling?

 

Another quick question

Since my cam gears just need to be adjusted, should I go ahead and buy another TB?

 

Anyone?

 

sure why not but to change the timing belt on the car isnt that easy if you dont know what your doing. i did it last week on my car and it took 2hrs but i wouldnt suggest you doing it if you dont know what your doing but its not that bad

 

oh I dont plan on doing it myself, I plan on helping and learning while its being done.

 

Could anyone tell what would cause my cam gears to suddenly be out of line and just now cause these problems?