Very Rough Idle (RPM steady).
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Joined: Nov 2008
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From: Independence, KS, USA
Very Rough Idle (RPM steady).
I just bought a Canadian '93 Prelude SR that is in decent shape and has 250K miles. Engine pulls strong and is not missing. Trany is smooth and in great shape. Suspension is tight and no play except for top control arms on front.
I test drove a prelude in '92 and the engines were extremely smooth, in fact, all Honda's had very smooth operation and you could barely tell the engine was running. The problem is that this car is about to shake the bumper off ! It acts like it is out of balance as the shake seems to be about the same intensity no matter the RPM, although the frequency is matched to RPM.
First - driver's side engine mount was missing one of two bolts and the front mount rubber was broken. Fixed and replaced. The rear mount is not in great shape, but seems much harder to get to. I was getting an occasional O2 sensor MIL, but I have since replaced with OEM and the errors do not appear anymore and mileage has gone back to low to mid 20's (which, as I recall was about normal for this car when new). I reset ECU and no new codes in nearly 1000 miles.
Fixing the motor mounts stopped transmitting the vibration to the frame, so now it isn't embarrassing to drive - Engine still runs consistently rough, but does not seem to affect drivability.
I guess I am down to the balancers, but these look like a fairly major operation to check/change belt on. The guy I bought it from was non-technical and could not answer many questions. He says he ran over a deer, but the bottom of the car has scrapes and a couple gouges that look more like he jumped a railroad crossing. The engine has no marks, but the frame took a good hit.
So, I guess my question is - how badly is does a broken balancer belt affect the engine? Does this sound like a reasonable item? I am not a super mechanic, but I have looked over the repair manual and it does not look too difficult.... but I have not seen any time estimates..... does 6 hours sound right?
I found a couple posts on the balancers on this site - any other gotcha's I should watch for? Any other suggestions
I test drove a prelude in '92 and the engines were extremely smooth, in fact, all Honda's had very smooth operation and you could barely tell the engine was running. The problem is that this car is about to shake the bumper off ! It acts like it is out of balance as the shake seems to be about the same intensity no matter the RPM, although the frequency is matched to RPM.
First - driver's side engine mount was missing one of two bolts and the front mount rubber was broken. Fixed and replaced. The rear mount is not in great shape, but seems much harder to get to. I was getting an occasional O2 sensor MIL, but I have since replaced with OEM and the errors do not appear anymore and mileage has gone back to low to mid 20's (which, as I recall was about normal for this car when new). I reset ECU and no new codes in nearly 1000 miles.
Fixing the motor mounts stopped transmitting the vibration to the frame, so now it isn't embarrassing to drive - Engine still runs consistently rough, but does not seem to affect drivability.
I guess I am down to the balancers, but these look like a fairly major operation to check/change belt on. The guy I bought it from was non-technical and could not answer many questions. He says he ran over a deer, but the bottom of the car has scrapes and a couple gouges that look more like he jumped a railroad crossing. The engine has no marks, but the frame took a good hit.
So, I guess my question is - how badly is does a broken balancer belt affect the engine? Does this sound like a reasonable item? I am not a super mechanic, but I have looked over the repair manual and it does not look too difficult.... but I have not seen any time estimates..... does 6 hours sound right?
I found a couple posts on the balancers on this site - any other gotcha's I should watch for? Any other suggestions
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