Well, some of you guys might know that I have been having a CEL problem for about 4 months now, all because my car has a misfire in the 3-4 cylinders. The dealer has totally screwed me over and won't touch it now that it's out of warrenty. Even though I was having this problem before it was out of warrenty and they never fixed my problem. I'm fed up with it now and I called my uncle that is a lawyer the other day and he told me to find out what is causing the misfire and to get some kind of estimate so we can take some kind of legal action.

Well today a buddy and I did a compression test on it and these were the result. In 1 we got 220, 2 we got 210, 3 we got 120, and 4 we got 160. Now my ? is, what could cause my compression to be low? I had this problem before when I mis shifted and bent the valves, but I haven't done that. My car wouldn't even idle then, now it's seems to run and idle fine and it seems to be just as strong. Some said something about the valve guides being bad, a valve being locked up, and just a bad vavle. Is there anything else that could cause a misfire with low compression and not having a bent valve?

Any ideas would be good. Thanks! Corey

 

bad rings

 

If it was the rings, wouldn't there be some smoke coming out of my car? Just wondering because it doesn't smoke at all.

 

How is the oil consumption? Take it to a Smog place, and ask them to check it... Do a leak down test...

 

Well, I had a leak down test done today and the results were not good. The guy that did the test said it was leaking almost 50% in #4 and a little less in #3. I know for a fact that I didn't mis shift or anything like that. Could it have anything to do with the something gone wrong after my valves replaced? Maybe a valve too loose, come loose, to tight, or whatever? If the valves were bent, wouldn't all the cylinders be low on compression? Could it be possible that my valves just need to be adjusted really bad? Should I try a valve adjustment first before taking the head off?

Thanks! Corey

 

The point of a leak down test is to tell you where its leaking. If the air is comming out of the intake, then it's intake valves. If it's out of the exaust... Out of neither, then it's the rings, and you might be able to hear it out of the crank case...

 

Well not all your compression would be low if you only bent valves on cylinder 3 and 4. Now my question is why dind't the dealer diagnose this properly and do a compression and leakdown test? Also where is it leaking from? You are correct about the rings, you'd see smoke on acceleration with bad rings. also how long did this new problem start happening after you had your valves replaced from the last mis-shift? Quite possibly they may not have replaced the guides, or they could have given you a bad valve? Oh one more who did the work, thats the first place I'd go. Oh one more thing for oyu check your timing, if it was set wrong it could bend a valve, happened on my frineds 1.8t after he put cams in it, it was a tooth off and he bent 1 out of the 20 valves.
Mike

 

Well, the dealer dicked me around by doing trial and error type **** to see if it would fix my car. They never actually tried to find the reason of the misfire, just tried to fix it. They went as far as replacing my gas cap. The guy that did the leak down told me some of the valves wee leaking air. I think the exhaust side is what he told me. If so, those were the same valves replaced by the dealer. The dealer did all the work on my car when I had the mis shift besides sending to a machine shop and having the head looked at. I'm really not sure what the machine shop actually did while it was there. I bent my valves back in June of 2001 and this has been going on for oover 5 months now.

 

Ahh, damn man. This is why I have a hard time "trusting" the dealers. Sounds like the dealer didn't do the valve replacement properly. It sucks, because you kinda have to take their "word" for it when they do the service. You can't be they're checking over their shoulders to see if they did the job properly, and if they used "new" products. This definitely sounds like it's they're fault.. You have one very VALID response: YOU (dealer name) have serviced this car exclusively. FIX IT the right way!!!

 

well, when I actually find out the problem, and what is causing it. Like say if the valve guides, bad valves, or anything that links the dealer to it, you best beleive the the dealer is gonna flip the bill and fix my car right. I have already talked to a lawyer and he is just waiting for me to call and let him know how the repair is gonna cost me.

 

if you were having the problem while under warranty and the dealer never fixed it, i'd say talk to the acura customer service and get them involved. they should straighten things out.
good luck!

-jeff

 

Been there done that and they told me I need to go for the dealer being it is more their fault that it wasn't fixed before it was out of warrenty. That is why I have a lawyer now, because when I called the dealer to talk about it, they told me there was a Rep coming in town that I could talk to and they would call me and let know when he is coming in. I never received that call. So I callled the dealer and it just so happened the guy I talked to was at lunch. So that was the last straw.