My 96 Accord EX V6 will be running just fine, then the tach will bounce around and even drop to zero and stay there. When this happens, the engine will give a continuous minor hesitation like it's not getting sufficient gas or like the ignition is shorting out. When I put the pedal to the metal it has lots of power. The plugs are all new, the fuel filter is fine according to a Honda Dealer where it was in the shop for 2 hours. They gave it an electronic diagnosis while looking for anything obviously wrong. I needed to get home, so mainly wanted to make sure it wasn't going to die on the 10 hour trip home. It ran fine all the way home, but a couple of days later started acting up again. Anyone ever have the same thing happen? If the tach is bad, will that affect engine performance?

 

That's alot of symptoms. We need more info:

Miles?
auto/5spd?
How long have you had the car?
Any accidents?
And flooding/salvage?
Anything out of the ordinary that we should know about? (ie one year we found a hornets nest that had started living under the hood)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RotaryBzzzz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That's alot of symptoms. We need more info:

Miles?
auto/5spd?
How long have you had the car?
Any accidents?
And flooding/salvage?
Anything out of the ordinary that we should know about? (ie one year we found a hornets nest that had started living under the hood)</TD></TR></TABLE>
Miles: 104,000
Auotmatic
I've owned the car since March, 2006
No reported accidents in CarFax, but the airbags were non-functional when I bought it and someone had crushed the SRS light out, so, who knows for sure other than some previous owner.
No flooding or salvage record.

 

Could be the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor). Does your cruise control work? I think it also controls that.

 

sounds like a faulty icm

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jimmyehpg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Miles: 104,000
Auotmatic
I've owned the car since March, 2006
No reported accidents in CarFax, but the airbags were non-functional when I bought it and someone had crushed the SRS light out, so, who knows for sure other than some previous owner.
No flooding or salvage record.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I hate to tell you but probably the car's been in a front-ender then rebuilt. Only accidents that get reported to major insurance co's (most of the time) actually get into carfax. Carfax is not God. That SRS light being disabled is a big giveaway to funny business.

Having said that, I would conclude some of your grounds in the front may be shorting out due to wiring being stretched and/or damaged on the impact. Since the ground off the battery is facing frontward, the condition of those wires would be my first suggestion to look at. Inspect every wire facing forward that would've been 'munched' when a front end collapses rearward. Inspect the condition of the metal where the wires mount to. Basically, follow the damage trail and you'll probably find something that's f'ed up and causing this.

Good luck.

 

[QUOTE=RotaryBzzzz]I hate to tell you but probably the car's been in a front-ender then rebuilt. Only accidents that get reported to major insurance co's (most of the time) actually get into carfax. Carfax is not God. That SRS light being disabled is a big giveaway to funny business.

The rocker cover at the front of the engine is bent inward and I just found out the fan on the right side (looking from the driver's seat) is not the right one - it was just hanging by one bolt. Also, when I had the timing belt done at the local Honda dealer, they replaced a badly bent motor mount bolt on the right side. They said apart from that everything else was in good order. My guess is the impact was to the right side, same side as the ABS unit, which had to be replaced because of a slow high pressure leak with the sensor light coming on about 1 out of 3 times I started it up. Some of the brake lines looked like they had been bent in a hit. I'll look at the left side as well though, starting with the battery ground. The cruise control works fine. The shop that did the airbag replacement was suspicous of the vehicle, but would not have passed it for registration had it been a put-together or a flood damage. A good friend of mine owns a major body shop in town and he could not spot anything that looked like a body job - even when I pointed out some of the things I noticed. Just what happened to this little black beauty that goes like stink is a bit of a mystery to me. If cars could talk...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jimmyehpg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> A good friend of mine owns a major body shop in town and he could not spot anything that looked like a body job - even when I pointed out some of the things I noticed. Just what happened to this little black beauty that goes like stink is a bit of a mystery to me. If cars could talk... </TD></TR></TABLE>

Sorry to hear all this!
The next question i would ask is: does the windshield look "new"? I mean, the car has 104k miles...I know when i got my car, it was kinda pittied and dinged from all the surface impacts from flying debris on our LA roads. I don't know how traffic is in your part the of the country but how is it?

Where I'm going with this is: in a front-ender when the airbags deploy, the windshield is always destroyed by the passenger side airbag in these cars. Obviously, it would have to have been replaced.

If you have pitting....
THEN the accident happened a longer time ago
THEN that would explain why the front end paint matches the rest of the car pretty well. (the paint has aged)


If your windshield looks very clear.......
THEN the accident happened more recently



Modified by RotaryBzzzz at 9:02 AM 9/10/2006

 

Haha,

Reminds me, A friend of Mine had a CRX project, and he had a cold air intake installed on the car, but there was no filter on the end, and it sat for months,

and when he eventually went to work on it, there was a chipmunk nest in the intake

 

[QUOTE=RotaryBzzzz]Sorry to hear all this!
The next question i would ask is: does the windshield look "new"?

If your windshield looks very clear.......
THEN the accident happened more recently

Looks new. I guess it happened when owned by the previous owner who had it for three years before I bought it from them on eBay. I wonder, if I checked glass shops in Lake Forest, N. Carolina, if I might get some more info on it.

 

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

Reminds me, A friend of Mine had a CRX project, and he had a cold air intake installed on the car, but there was no filter on the end, and it sat for months, and when he eventually went to work on it, there was a chipmunk nest in the intake </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, I'll check into it. It was in the shp for about 4 months waiting for parts. In the front of the air cleaner setup there is a black plastic cover on something beside the radiator overflow tank. I took the cover off, it was broken on the bottom part of the cover and what it covers I've never seen before - looks like there's an opening similar to an air horn or something. Any idea what that is?

 

No clue. I think at this point you need to take some digital pics.
There is free picture hosting on http://www.photobucket.com