I've got a '97 Honda Prelude 5spd with 145k miles.

It's been acting kind of strange lately. Last week, it started making a very strange noise. Whenever I would accelerate/deccelerate in any gear from 0 to about 3500 rpms, it would sound like something was rattling/grinding beneath in the engine bay. Past 3500 RPMS, it didn't make the sound.

Then, it stopped doing that for a few days, and I felt better.

However, on Friday, things got worse. I had to drive from San Antonio to Austin, which is about a 100 mile trip. Things were going fine until I hit IH-35. All of the sudden, my car lost all power. It simply refused to rev above 4000 RPMs in any gear. Hitting 4000 RPMs was an achievement in and of itself, too. I would estimate that from a dead stop, it would take about 20 seconds to hit 60 miles an hour. Then another minute or two to hit 80. When I would accelerate, the air-intake sounded like it had a sore throat. When deccelerating, the rattling noise came back.

Once I arrived in Austin, however, it ceased. The car started driving fairly normally. However, it does not feel as powerful as it should. It will rev all the way now (though I haven't braved going past 6k for fear of it happening again), and it accelerates decently quick again.. just not as quick as I feel it normally is.

What happened to my car? I'm thinking it could be cat failure, but ultimately I have no idea. I'm fairly certain it's not the transmission, as the engine refused to rev past 4k even when it was in neutral.

 

Check your timing. I'm guessing one of your cam gears jumped a tooth or two.

 

my guess it is somethign electrical that is shorting out. The cat would have nothing to do with how it would redline. Whenever you are at high speeds or movement, then it is causing something to short. What exactly, i do not know. I have somethign like this happen before and one of my spark plug wires was like halfway off, however it didnt stop me from redlining my normal 8k. I had my intake on it then and it sounded really ragged.

 

could be tensioner problem. might account for the rattling.

 

Your Cat is an EXCELLENT guess. The rattling sound could very well be the usual sound that comes from the honey comb that starts to degrade and fall apart/seperate. It's a hideous rattling sound. It can be intermittent like your problem because the peice that's broken off might have gotten lodged in a good spot. then when you either got on it too hard or hit a bump, you knocked it loose and sideways blocking the exhaust.

Quick fix... Just get underneath there and unbolt the bitch. If it works, go get a high flow cat for about half the price.

I hope that's all it is.

 

Bad Cat would'nt affect performance that bad.

 

Do you guys have a clue?

Even if this isn't his problem. A clogged cat will KILL your engines performance. Fight me on this. GO AHEAD>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by limpmode &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Bad Cat would'nt affect performance that bad. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I've seen a clogged cat cause a rod to come shooting out of the side of the block. You sure it won't effect performance that much?

The cat sounds like a good place to start

 

wasn't really thinking about it clogging up. ah well f me.

 

i have the same thing except without losing power...that worries me. when i rev down from 3500-to idle it makes that clicking/rattling noise. thats only when i drive it hard and it will stop if i baby it for a day. i thought it was the cat to and honda put in a free one for me (cat was f'ed) but when i got it back the sound was still there. This is like the mystery problem with 5th gens i cant figure it out.

 

tensioner could screw up the timing which could account for performance issues. not sure how it would correct itself tho

 

my guess would be timing belt tensioner.. iv'e seen many of those hydrolic ones go out, and do exactly what your describing.. i would not drive it back to SA, if your still in austin, park it, get it towed, have it checked

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jdmlude_dude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my guess it is somethign electrical that is shorting out. The cat would have nothing to do with how it would redline. Whenever you are at high speeds or movement, then it is causing something to short. What exactly, i do not know. I have somethign like this happen before and one of my spark plug wires was like halfway off, however it didnt stop me from redlining my normal 8k. I had my intake on it then and it sounded really ragged.</TD></TR></TABLE>

It doesn't sound electrical at all to me.

I'd check the cat first, and the timing if you got the wrenches and a gun.

Yes, if the cat gets turned from coming loose, it can cause major power loss. Has anyone noticed your car spitting out hot coals from the exhaust?

 

all the same symptoms i had when my cat went out....and apparently Honda will replace it for free....definitely the first place to start

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Kronn 98SH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">all the same symptoms i had when my cat went out....and apparently Honda will replace it for free....definitely the first place to start</TD></TR></TABLE>

There's a TSB on the auto tensioners of the 5th gens.. atleast I know the 97-98 had one.

Also, IIRC all the emissions parts on ours cars are warrentied for 10 years because of some law the EPA has. This applies to like all OBD-II (prolly for earlier cars too but not sure) but I can't recall exactly if it was just critical emission parts or what.. you may have to do a search.

When my brother first put his turbo setup on his 97 prelude the cat got all clogged up and the brick sorta melted together from the heat. He dyno'ed it and it wasn't putting down the gains it should have for 9 psi. After sticking a high flow in he gained something like over 50 hp all because the cat was jammed.