I have a 90 Accord EX with 155K miles on the odo and cant figure out what the issue is i have.

Problem: The engine shakes bad all throughout the power band, almost feels like its a timing issue like when you have bad plugs. Its not drivable at this point.

Whats been done: I got a CEL last week and it was on for about 30 minutes then went off, i drove 2-3 days after that with no CEL on. The day the car started up in the morning and all this started. I changed the plugs (the old ones were drenched in oil, seems the valve covers are leaking down in there, actual spark was not wet)i changed the wires, and i put in a new distributor cap.

The car is a "little" bit better then before and it seems i regained the power i was missing when this started, but the bad vibrations are still there.

What else should i look for? troubleshoot? this is my daily driver and im borrowing a friends car for now till i get this fixed. I'm trying not to tow it to a shop for repairs for right now.

Thanks!

mike

 

First. Pull the CEL codes.

Then a visual inspection of the motor mounts.

THen come back here.

fs

 

I'll pull the codes tonight.

Its definatly NOT the motor mounts. The vibrations are more of a pulse, very fast and constant pulses that shake the car (the same feeling when you get fouled plugs). Its continous throughout the power band.

 

DO you feel this shake all over the car? Or only in the steering wheel????

fs

 

Oh its all over the car. When it first happened i noticed a loss of power with the bad shaking. Since i changed the plugs and other stuff the power seems to be back, but the shaking has not gone away. The car was perfect before this happpened. No signs of anything.

Like i mentioned, it feels just like when you have a fouled plug or bad ignition wire, but all that has been changed. I wonder if a bad 02 sensor could cause this.

 

Same thing happened to me one morning... Check the fuel injectors, then if you can check to see if you dropped a valve or valve spring.

If you remove the oil cap on the cylinder head while the car is running and feel the air coming out of the hole... if its sputtering then you dropped a valve or something more major like that... if its a constant pressure of air then it's not so bad!

Sorry about your troubles man

 

The vibrations you speak of sound like a piston not firing. Pull the plug wires one at a time and see if the engine runs worse. The engine should run worse in each case. If you have one or two cylinders that dont run worse with the plug wire off you have a bad cylinder. If you have a compression guage that would be a better way to verify the cylinders are in good shape.

 

UPDATE!

I pulled the codes off the ECU and i have a CODE 43. I know this can be one of many things but where should i start? new 02 sensor? something with the fuel system?

damn this code 43 is pretty generic.

 

Same thing happened to me. Car is in the shop as i speak because i could not figur it out for over a week. I will let you know when i find out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mk4life &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">UPDATE!

I pulled the codes off the ECU and i have a CODE 43. I know this can be one of many things but where should i start? new 02 sensor? something with the fuel system?

damn this code 43 is pretty generic. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I'd first start of by measuring the voltage going to the o2 sensor. THen i would verify if the 02 sensor is 'putting out' the correct voltage signal. Heat the O2 Sensor with the torch and observe the volt meter. You should see the voltage climb to .6V in 15 Seconds, then on up to .8V in the next 45 seconds. Remove from flame and voltage should drop to less than .2V in less than four seconds. Repeat this test two more times in succession. If it meets the voltage and time specifications, then this indicates the O2 Sensor is capable of communicating with the computer and giving fast and accurate air fuel ratio information. The faster the O2 Sensor responds, the faster the computer makes corrections.

fs