Alright guys, I know I haven't been posting recently, I've been really busy, and life is overwhelming right now. I'm trying to sell my R actually, I'm looking to get a house!! But I've got some major issues I need help with. My ITR is acting VERY strange, I need some help, because I'm trying to get her up and running so I can sell her
Heres whats been going on

@ 95k Miles
Clutch went out, I replaced it with an Exeddy Stage I Clutch and Flywheel from BlueR . Ran great!


@97k Miles
A Deer decided to commit suicide right into the side of my car, ran smack into the side of me, took out the mirror dented the front fender, scattered dents on the passanger door, destroyed the rear quarter.


All new OEM Rear Quarter, Passanger Door Skin, Passanger Mirror, Front Fender, got the entire hood, front bumper, door, reaar quarter, trunk hatch, rear bumper, resprayed. Looks immaculate.

@100k miles.
OEM Honda Timing Belt kit goes in, new Water Pump and Spark Plugs as well.




@105k miles.

the car starts acting up a bit, the only way I can describe it is a hiccup. I'll be holding the throttle steady at lets say 60% and the car will start studdering as if I'm pushing the gas pedal and letting it off rapidly, this usually only happens at low RPM (2-3.5k).

I throw CEL 22. (Invalid or faulty VTEC Oil Pressure Switch)

I check the Solenoid and make sure the pressure switch is okay, I reset the ECU, CEL goes away. I keep driving, it still does the studder thing, <u>I throw CEL again, same CEL, this time without ever going into VTEC.</u>

I take the car to my buddies at the acura dealer, they plug in the data loger and check the VTEC Solenoid and Switch, in and out of VTEC a couple of times, it seems to be acting fine.

This time the light stayed off for about 4-5 days. Then comes back on for no reason, I continue to drive it. The next day it is super cold outside (28 degrees maybe) I start the car in the morning, and let it warm up for about 10 minutes before I go to work, car seems to be operating fine. When I'm almost to work, (20 minute drive on the highway) <u>The CEL goes out by itself</u>, which I thought was odd considering you're supposed to reset the ECU to make the CEL go out.

Before I leave for work <u>I check my oil, looks good, I check my coolant, looks good, I start the car. No CEL.</u> I drive home, and hit VTEC once on the highway, came in strong, no CEL. I was pretty happy, I thought maybe it had fixed itself.

I got off the exit to the highway, and decide to hit VTEC again, I row through 1st and 2nd in VTEC and then go easy on it, it did perfectly, the way she should, I tap her on the dashboard and pet her and tell her she's a good girl... thats when it happened.

3rd gear at about 3k RPM I hear an extremely loud <u>KAPLOW!</u> noise. <u>I try to give it gas, no throttle response,</u> engine is still running at around 3k rpm but I can't give it gas, so I shut the car off and roll to a stop.

I got out of the car, checked the engine, looked fine. Looked around behind and under the car, nothing leaking, I wait 5 minutes and check the oil, looks fine.

I try to start the car, <u>it won't start at all</u>. So I call AAA and get it towed to my house.

I leave it at my house and <u>don't touch it for 2 days</u>, then I finally have some free time and I try to start her up, <u>she starts fine to my amazement.</u>

I let her idle for 15 minutes or so, oil warms up, car appears to be running fine, Rev it a few times, looks good, drops back to good idle. I take it out for a drive.

<u>It starts doin that Hiccup thing again</u>, this time VERY frequently, my friend driving behind me said that it <u>smelled very bad</u>, so I decide to drive it back home, as I'm trying to get home it starts Hiccuping very bad, to the point where I'm in 1st gear at 5k RPM and it's still doing it, <u>the car makes a very loud Growling noise like open header or something for a second, and I shut the car off.... I try to start it again, it won't start.</u> So I let it <u>sit for 15 minutes, Started right up</u> no problem, and drove it the rest of the way to my house with minimal hiccuping. Right when I pull into my driveway, CEL comes on, I check it - CEL 22 again.

Anyone have any ideas whats causing this? I find it very hard to believe the VTEC pressure switch would cause these weird issues with the car making that noise and not being able to start.

Someone give me an idea where to start looking, I'm thinking of taking it to the dealer but I don't have a lot of money right now.


Modified by LunchboxZT at 12:11 PM 11/20/2007


Modified by LunchboxZT at 12:12 PM 11/20/2007

 

Sounds like the distributor might be giving you some problems.

 

sounds to like the car is trying to send you into vtec at random times, thats probably the weird noise you heard...I would try to get a budddy to let me use their vtec pressure switch, don't matter which car/model and try that..

 

I would take a hammer out then hit my valve cover and say " That's a bad Type-R!" It works most of the time for me.

 

Things that could cause your problems:
Distributor
Vtec Pressure Switch
ECU


I seriously doubt its your ECU unless something in there got burnt (highly unlikely), but get a friend to let you barrow the things mentioned. Swap them out one at a time and see what happens. Like the guy said b4, I would bet your VTEC silinoid(sp?) is going out. That would cause just about everything you mentioned if it was kinda/kinda not working.

It seems to be that when your car is cold it's all good, but when things heat up your pressure switch starts acting up.

 

you can probably figure out the problem through the process of elimination.

first thing I would try is another ECU.
If you have the same problems maybe try another distributor.

 

Thanks guys, I've got a friend with a JDM 96 spec Type R swap, I'll try to switch with his ECU.

If I unplug the VTEC Pressure switch and try to drive the car would that hurt anything? Would that be a good way of trying to figure out if it's the solenoid or not?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LunchboxZT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks guys, I've got a friend with a JDM 96 spec Type R swap, I'll try to switch with his ECU.

If I unplug the VTEC Pressure switch and try to drive the car would that hurt anything? Would that be a good way of trying to figure out if it's the solenoid or not?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Good luck with that. You have a 00+, which means an immoblizer, not to mention the ECU wiring differences. You'll need a conversion harness to test with another ECU, and at this point it's not worth it.

Swap in a different VTEC solenoid/pressure switch first.

 

Another thing I would check would be spark plugs. I would find out if its running lean or rich. I would also make sure that the catalytic converter isn't stopped up. That would definitly cause the exhaust to smell and kill performance.

 

if you swap ecu's the immobilizer won't matter. if your friend has a obd2b -&gt; obd2a jumper harness for the 96 ecu it would be good. you can also just use your current ecu and unplug the VTEC solenoid so VTEC never engages. if you don't have that problem anymore than it's most likely one of 2 things. the ecu or the vtec solenoid, but since you said the solenoid was recently replaced the odds of it being the culprit seem slim.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ******* &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if you swap ecu's the immobilizer won't matter. if your friend has a obd2b -&gt; obd2a jumper harness for the 96 ecu it would be good. you can also just use your current ecu and unplug the VTEC solenoid so VTEC never engages. if you don't have that problem anymore than it's most likely one of 2 things. the ecu or the vtec solenoid, but since you said the solenoid was recently replaced the odds of it being the culprit seem slim.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Which is why I mentioned that he'd need a conversion harness....

 

Maybe a dumb question...but do you still have third gear? A buddy of mine had the same issues with riding a gear at cruise, hearing a big noise, and the gear was gone.

Anyways, as with everyone else after reading your post I initially thought distributer, spark plugs, and/or ecu.

 

Yeah, all my gears are fine, and I never replaced the Solenoid, I had it checked. A friend of mine that works at Acura plugged a data logger into the car under the dash, and we drove around, and watched the VTEC Solenoid go from Off to On and the switch go from On to Off when going in and out of VTEC, they said that my Solenoid and Switch were functioning correctly -- (This was about 3 weeks ago, when I started getting CEL 22).

I'm going to try my buddies ECU and go from there.

Also, someone mentioned spark plugs, how can I tell if it's running rich or lean? browning on the plugs?

 

Has the car ever had a vafc or anything spliced into the ecu harness? I had a car that had been hacked into. I didn't have vtec, but the engine ran fine with a cel.

To check the plugs I was told its best to run the car hard, then shut off the engine and check the plugs. Brown/gold is good, black/rich, white lean. One of my friends car had similar problems as yours and it turned out the fuel injectors were dirty.

 

Another thing to check may be wiring (checking continuity between the solenoid wires and the ecu, and testing out another vtec solenoid just for trouble shooting purposes. Good luck.