My 01 LX just recently started to sputter under acceleration, badly. It seems as if it is missing. I did a lot of searching on this forum and throughout the entire site and have seen that the valve cover gasket/spark plug well seals can go bad causing this. I checked my sparkplugs and had oil in the well... Has anyone had this problem? I changed the oil two days ago and it drove fine until I went to leave my driveway today. It drove fine this morning and that was it. I have never had any problems with this car yet (82000 miles). The spark plugs need to be replaced now but would the valve cover gasket/seals cause the motor to sputter and miss? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

If they're leaking, which they most likely are, then they need to be replaced. This IS a wear item, but I'll admit it does seem a bit premature on a 8-year old Honda.

 

well i bought the gaskets and plugs and plan to do it tomorrow. Would this be the reason I am getting a misfire/sputter. Im not too sure if i am getting full compression without the spark plug seals.

 

It wouldn't effect compression hugely, although there would be a drop nonetheless. But yes, atomizing the fuel properly when the plug is soaked in oil is difficult and certainly would cause driveability problems.

 

Thats the thing though, there was no oil on the tips of the plugs. It was just in the tube and on the plug that goes down into the spark plugs. The oil had not reached the cyclinder yet. That is what is making me worry. Thanks for the help so far, i appreciate it.

 

may be its the oil seal?

 

you will need to replace both the plug tube seals and the spark plug wires. the reason a tube seal leak causes misfire is that the oil soaks the bottom of the wire boot and causes the spark to scatter, and ark to the plug tube.

 

I just replaced the valve cover gasket and tube seals with no effect. It is still sputtering/missing when given gas. Could the coils be done?

 

yeah, i'd say change the coils/wires...whatever..lol, any check engine light?

 

How many miles do you have? Are your spark plugs still good?

 

I put new plugs in as well when i did the seals and gasket. When I started back up to test it it ran fine for a few (idling) but as soon as i reved it a little it missed. So I went back and cleaned up a little more in the spark plug tubes and checked wires and plugs again. Then decided to start it up again for the hell of it and it was fine, ran great. Took it around the block with no problem. Im going to try to get down the street to get the codes read. My brother said when he went to leave in it it sputtered and the CEL flashed (his car is broke too!!). I have yet to get a CEL or see it flashing. Not sure what is going on now.