I've read a ton of topics by searching for "hesitation", and it looks like lots of people have the same or similar problem. It happens when the car is warmed up, at about 2800 RPMs in every gear.

In my case, I feel like I'm missing a whole lot of low end torque at all RPMs below VTEC. My question is, do all of the people that have this problem experience a pinging type sound? I haven't heard pinging before so I don't know what it's supposed to sound like, but mine sounds very scratchy and sounds like there's something bouncing around in the motor. The sound gets worse the more I open the throttle.

My question is, is this what everyone else normally experiences during the hesitation? In all the threads I've read nobody talks about this sound.

 

something bouncing around in the engine? sounds very bad. more like a bent or broken valve by my guess. but pinging would be a different kinda of sound that goes along w/ the revs. a bent or broken valve would prolly be an intermittant sound. are you hearing valve tap? is you timing belt loose and slapping against the cover? just some ideas.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bluedlude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">something bouncing around in the engine? sounds very bad. more like a bent or broken valve by my guess. but pinging would be a different kinda of sound that goes along w/ the revs. a bent or broken valve would prolly be an intermittant sound. are you hearing valve tap? is you timing belt loose and slapping against the cover? just some ideas.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Broken valve? Are you serious?

 

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

Broken valve? Are you serious?</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah forgive me for trying to explain something in an understandable way. not everyone knows about everything like yourself. so where was your input on this, or do you just like to post?

 

Have you tried cleaning the throttle body and intake mainfold, using seafoam, dumping a bottle of Redline Synthetic Fuel System Cleaner in your gas tank and then changing the spark plugs, distributor cap, and rotor? That usually takes care of the usual hesitation problems. Also what kind of gas are you using? I just moved from FL and there are a lot of shi^^y gas stations there. Go with Amoco premium.

If anyone knows where I can get some good gas without nasty ethanol here in Cali please let me know.

 

I also agree with him^
Try a good gas before you tear things up, sometimes you might have gotten a bad tank and not known about it, causing the ECUto pull timing, which can turn preludes into auto civics.

Cleaning up everything ie seafoam and injector cleaner is not a bad idea either, and both won't run as much as a new knock sensor.

 

I always use 92 or 93 octane, whatever they sell when I get gas. It's been doing it for 2 or 3 months now. The only reason I described it as something bouncing around in the engine is because I heard pinging described that way before by someone else on H-T. I don't know how to describe it really well. It's kind of like a mix between radio static and one of those metal wire scrub pads brushing against aluminum...if you can imagine that.

From all the threads I read, they suggest replacing the knock sensor, replacing O2 sensors, distributor cap, rotor, spark plugs, plug wires, clean IAV, clean EGR. I cleaned the EGR and IAV, which were both pretty dirty. I ran some seafoam through my gas to see if that would make a difference, but it didn't. It's not like I have money to go replace everything right now, so I'm just trying to determine what to try first, which is why I ask about the "pinging" noise. Maybe that will determine where I should start. BTW, the sound gets worse the more I open the throttle, but it also happens when I'm not giving any throttle and slowing down while in gear. It always happens in the same RPM range though.

Another thing I'm gonna do is clean the O2 sensors with carb cleaner and see if that does anything. I used to get a CEL for secondary O2 sensor slow response, but I haven't gotten that since before the hesitation started up. The CEL just went away without me doing anything.

 

Start by replacing the dist cap, rotor, plugs, wires, fuel filter since they're standard maintenance anyway.

fwiw, i am battling this problem too with intermittent misfires.

 

you might want to try running a third of a bottle of seafoam through the brake booster vaccum line. follow the directions on the bottle. that will clean up valves and tops of pistons etc. after that you're going to have to get help from the more experienced guys here.