I've noticed that my 94 prelude VTEC seems to have lost it's pep. I've given it a tune-up within the past few months but still no help. I need to change the fuel filter i know it has never been changed. I also noticed that i have miss match revs i think when driving in 3rd gear at 30mph i'm already at 3k rpm's. Any help will be great. If you need more info just let me know.

 

any CEL? bad gas mileage? hesistation? noises?

mileage? does the car have oil in it?

 

The car does have oil. I replace every 3-4k miles. The car has 118k miles on it.
The car does tend to hesistate every once and a while. There aren't any noices that i can hear.

 

so nothing else other than hesitation sometimes? what makes you feel that the car is slow? ,

 

i guess that info would help. Well there is no pick-up. I don't really feel the VTEC anymore. This is in every gear that there is no pick-up no matter what speed i'm driving. Oh another thing i noticed about a week ago i was using cruise control and hit the accel button to speed up and the car really had some pick-up to it, then i took it off cruise control and tried just stepping on the pedal but nothing still just a slow pick-up. I really feel that all the accelaration is gone in the car. I hope this helps.

 

are you sure that the CEL light is working and isn't burnt out?

have you changed plugs wires air filter fuel filter cap and rotor recently?

if you doa basic tuneup and it doesn't help then you could have other intermitiant problems

 

Have you checked the slack in the throttle body cable?

 

what and where is the CEL light? Sorry little dumb with cars. Yes i have given it the whole tune-up just a few months ago.


No i have not checked the slack in the throttle body cable how would i go about doing so?

 

It is the cable attached to the throttle body. Use your fingers and push down on the cable and check your deflection. I usually just leave about 2-3mm of deflection on the cable.

 

will go check it now. If it needs to be tightened how would i do that.

 

There is a 12mm lock nut on the throttle body cable holder. Just loosen the lock nut towards the driver side and then use the 12mm adjusting nut towards the passenger side to tighten/loosen the cable. Once you're done adjusting, tighten the 12mm lock nut, check your slack, and you're finished.

 

I just checked it and i can pull up on the wire about 3/4 to inch on it.
I will try and adjust it tonight when i get home. Thanks for the help i will write back to let you know if it works out for me

 

Well i did tighten the throttle cable and it seems to pick up a little better but now seems to hesistate more. any thoughts?
The fuel filter has never been changed in 11 years could that cause the car to hesistate because of bad fuel flow?

 

i'll point ya to my old post aswell...

here it is https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1090957

for me - my issues ended up being timing... and as you'll see i tried a lot of stuff (;

 

does vtec sound really really loud?
do you have any mods?

 

Well the old post was really good reading and should help me in my findings (hopefully). This weekend i'm going to change the fuel filter and also check the timing and let you guys know if anything gets better.

About the VTEC being load i would say no I don't really hear it when it pops. Is this something I should also be looking at?
No I don't have any mods on the car it is fully stock

 

Do you think the hesitation is in the motor or tranny? Usually you can kind of feel out the general source while driving it. Slipping clutch maybe? fuel filter should be changed regardless.

 

I don't think that it is the clutch slipping even though the clutch is original. its more of a bogging out hesistation.

Can anyone tell me how to findout if the ECU has any codes stored in it without buying some crazy device?

 

you will have a little orange light with a engine symbol on it that appears in your guage cluster. You can replace this bulb if you think it may be burnt out. If you do not have the light, you don't have codes.

 

does it stay lit the entire time your car is on or does it just come on when you first start your car?

 

it will come on for a moment during it's 'self check' then go off. If you see this, then your bulb is obviously not burnt out. If you throw a code, it will come on solid as soon as the sensor detects the problem, and stay on until you turn the car off. Some codes will cause the CEL to stay on when you restart, and with others the CEL will disappear until the sensor detects a problem again.

 

good to know. well the light comes on when starting the car but dosen't stay on so maybe that is a good sign. Thanks for the info.

 

when you did your tune up, what did you replace?
plugs, wires, dizzy cap + rotor?
If you got all of those, get some fuel injector cleaner and replace the fuel filter.

 

I did the whole tune-up thing about 3 months ago (plugs, wire, rotor, distrub cap, and air filter). I also had my injectors cleaned about 6 months ago. I am replaceing the fuel filter this weekend because it really needs it. the fuel filter is original

 

I just want to thank you guys for all your input. The car seems to be running pretty good now that i changed the fuel filter and advanced the timing to 20degrees.

Oh yeah the damn old fuel filter was so heavy . It feels pretty good feeling the power again

Thanks.


Modified by stringcheese840 at 8:38 PM 5/22/2005