So... I have a 93 Accord EX. I call it Nightmare. It has alot of problems. Currently, I'm trying to keep it running to drive me to work but it's becoming a chore. Lately it's been having problems starting and staying running. When I try to start the car, it can be difficult or just flat out not start. It will always turn, and with a good battery, it may eventually get there, but with the cold recently I've had to use a bottle of HEET with each tank of gas if the temperature outside is below freezing for long. Now I'm using 91 Octane & HEET.

I also have a rough idle. It will warm up and hover at around 800RPM which is normal, but it has a tendency to hum up and down between 1200-600RPM. Sitting in Park with a warm engine, the idle will fall as more power is consumed. I turn on the headlights, and the idle falls, I turn on the heater, and the idle falls. Very weird thing, I crank the wheel all the way to the right, while holding the brakes, and the idle will fall so far it kills the engine 90% of the time.

It also feels like I don't have much pressure when I hit the accelerator. Not enough power, like there is a hole somewhere if that makes sense? It sputters and the exhaust makes a sucking popping noise that can be heard sometimes from the rear, and sometimes from my air intake that doesn't sound normal. Now I'm beginning to hear an odd chirpping noise from the front end somewhere.

I also have a wonderful clicking/tapping noise from the front left side when I accelerate. While I'm in park, rev the engine, no noise. Put it in drive and coast, no noise. Hit the gas pedal while driving, and it bangs like marbles being shook in a jar. I don't know how to describe the noise. Maybe I can record it and post it somewhere. I just had the head gasket replaced and the heater core. Timing belt and water pump was supposed to have been done then as well. How can I tell if the mechanic even did the job he was paid to do? At least it isn't overheating anymore, but I still am losing coolant somehow, and I also have an oil leak somewhere. Puddle is appearing under the car near driver side fan? PCV valve is always coated in oil and it is in the tube that goes to the fuel injector? Took it out and cleaned it off, put it back in, started the car and the thing was coated in oil again.

I know this is alot here, but help a guy out! I don't know cars. I'm going to replace the spark plugs again, I just bought a new fuel filter and I'm having the alternator checked tomorrow afternoon. I'm thinking of buying a new O2 sensor as well...

Any thoughts? Please?

 

The good old cold weather starting problems. I fought such a problem with my 93 EX for two winters on every single bitter cold morning. I did all the right tune up stuff but to no avail. Finally, this Winter I remembered seeing my dad try a cold weather trick or two with his cars when I was a kid.
While the engine still had some warmth in it, I took a dark colored towel and wrapped it around the distributor (not just the cap) but the whole metal distributor housing that sticks into the crankcase. I bunched the towel up on top and stuffed some of it under the distributor to keep out the coldest winter air. Next morning, car fired right up just like summertime.

After running that trial (towel-starts perfectly, no towel-hard starting) for about 10 days and confirming that keeping the distributor warmer always worked, I ordred an aftermarket distributor off of ebay and installed it. No more cold start problem. I think it was the Ignitor. I could have gotten into the distributor and tried to replace the ignitor but the cost for a new aftermarket one is about the same as the new distributor.
Before giving up on your Accord, focus on that distributor for a few days. It might not take care of all the little noises but it might solve your problem getting the car going on cold mornings. Taking care of that will make you feel better about keeping the car, which I hope you will do.

 

So... I have a 93 Accord EX. I call it Nightmare. It has alot of problems. Currently, I'm trying to keep it running to drive me to work but it's becoming a chore. Lately it's been having problems starting and staying running. When I try to start the car, it can be difficult or just flat out not start. It will always turn, and with a good battery, it may eventually get there, but with the cold recently I've had to use a bottle of HEET with each tank of gas if the temperature outside is below freezing for long. Now I'm using 91 Octane & HEET.

You may have issues with pourous ignition wires or distributor cap. They make it near impossible to start a car on a cold/damp day. Is there an associated engine 'skip' as this starts, like more cylinders contributing as it warms up? A burned Rotor and a marginal distributor cap could contribute also.
What you've got to remember is that electrical energy is lazy. It likes to take short cuts. Just like a lot of us, it likes to take the path of least resistance; and if given the chance - it will. Pourosity in either the wires and/or distributor cap is just one of those paths. It's easier to leak to an adjacent ground rather than jump a spark plug electrode.
Check that you have a good fat spark while first cranking cold. Throw a spare spark plug into a detached ignition wire and have someone crank it over. The spark should be blue/white and quite apparent.

I also have a rough idle. It will warm up and hover at around 800RPM which is normal, but it has a tendency to hum up and down between 1200-600RPM. Sitting in Park with a warm engine, the idle will fall as more power is consumed. I turn on the headlights, and the idle falls, I turn on the heater, and the idle falls. Very weird thing, I crank the wheel all the way to the right, while holding the brakes, and the idle will fall so far it kills the engine 90% of the time.

You may have either a low coolant level, insufficient coolant tempurature or a FITV Valve issue (oh, sorry: FITV (Fast Idles Thermo Valve). The Idle taking a dive could be a dirty/lazy IACM (Idle Air Control Motor). Here is the Proceedure to service these:
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-accord-1990-2002-2/cleaning-iacv-fitv-tb-1844067/

It also feels like I don't have much pressure when I hit the accelerator. Not enough power, like there is a hole somewhere if that makes sense? It sputters and the exhaust makes a sucking popping noise that can be heard sometimes from the rear, and sometimes from my air intake that doesn't sound normal. Now I'm beginning to hear an odd chirpping noise from the front end somewhere.

Are there any warning lamps on? "Check Engine" etc?

I also have a wonderful clicking/tapping noise from the front left side when I accelerate. While I'm in park, rev the engine, no noise. Put it in drive and coast, no noise. Hit the gas pedal while driving, and it bangs like marbles being shook in a jar. I don't know how to describe the noise. Maybe I can record it and post it somewhere.

Bad motor mount? Does it do this more during a turn?

I just had the head gasket replaced and the heater core. Timing belt and water pump was supposed to have been done then as well. How can I tell if the mechanic even did the job he was paid to do? At least it isn't overheating anymore, but I still am losing coolant somehow, and I also have an oil leak somewhere. Puddle is appearing under the car near driver side fan?

Could well be a Radiator Leak between the radiator and the Condensor. A cooling system pressure test should point it out.

PCV valve is always coated in oil and it is in the tube that goes to the fuel injector? Took it out and cleaned it off, put it back in, started the car and the thing was coated in oil again.

If you take the oil filler cap off the valve cover with the engine running, do you get a quite pronounced 'huffing noise"? Do you feel a positive pressure if you put your hand over it?

I know this is alot here, but help a guy out! I don't know cars. I'm going to replace the spark plugs again, I just bought a new fuel filter and I'm having the alternator checked tomorrow afternoon. I'm thinking of buying a new O2 sensor as well...

Regards
P

 

Thanks guys. I'll try the towel trick and look into a new cap. I had just got a new cap & rotor with plugs and wires, but it looks like they were all oem spec cheapo gear. Maybe I should go the extra mile and replace them all with something much better?

I don't have any engine or trouble lights on and I don't hear the clicking as any more pronounced when I turn. Like I said, I only really hear it while I'm hitting the accelerator. The more gas I give it, the louder it gets. My brother had suggested without seeing/hearing the car that it could be a bad bearing or half axle? Thoughts on that?

I'll give the other ideas a whirl here after I have the alternator checked this afternoon.

 

I had an old car, problems were always popping up on it (1986 Jetta Diesel with ~275,000 miles on it). I got tired of working on it -- and always hating to spend a lot of money on it because it there were always so many other problems, and new ones kept popping up.

So I bought a 1998 Accord... yes, it has some issues, but nothing major and I can take care of them one at a time.

The funny (?) thing is, my sister-in-law flew in to visit our extended family, so we're letting her drive my Accord, and I'm back in the Jetta for three weeks... I'm preparing it for sale...

My advice would be - if you can afford it - to buy a newer car in mostly good shape and then stay on top of maintenance and repairs.

Or... you could buy my Jetta... reliable daily driver... I'm in Saint Louis...

 

Run a couple of tanks of premium thru it. Who knows, you might have a classic case of octain ping (yes, it does indeed sound like marbles rattling, and can get louder the harder you push)

 

If you do have a "knock" in the engine, SeaFoam can help with that.

 

How much do you want for it and would you take payments? I'm poor, but gainfully employed.

 

Man, your '93 is rough. Did you make sure to do what P_Adams suggested? He seems to have some good advice there. I would especially second the think about the FITV/IACV (w/e it's called) I had some of the same problems and tightening that up instantly fixed a number of problems. My car now warms up at 1300 RPM and has a steady idle at 800 RPM when hot. Just my 2 cents, but check some of the things he brought up before you shell out for a new car.

 

There was one night where the air temp got down to 12° and I got a little more creative that night. Before wrapping he towel around the distributor, I placed a large sized Hot Hands pad under the distributor and sort of used the towel to hold it in place. The next morning about 8:15, I removed that and started my Accord right up. The following night I put nothing on the distributor. The air temperature the next morning was about 22° and beginning at 8:15AM, it took me 10 minutes to finally get the engine running. I ordered the aftermarket distributor that evening.

It was the 15 year old Ignitor that caused my cold weather starting problem. I had already tried Cap, Rotor, Wires, Plugs, etc. The Ignitor. No question about it.

 

I'm definitely going to try those things he mentioned... after I go home from work. In the meantime, I wouldn't mind getting another daily driver that I could use while I tear apart the Nightmare! It's awful! My OCD wants to scream and shout and throw a tantrum the likes of which Rumpelstiltskin has never seen! The dirty engine compartment really bothers me.

Any idea on how I can check and see if the mechanic who repaired the head & heater core actually did the whole job? It's obvious the heater core is working, and I received the old bad part from him on return... but what about the head gasket and timing kit?

 

I doubt it would be the bearing or the axle or you would most likely hear the "rattling" noise when in neutral and coasting.
Sound like an engine mount like p had suggested.
Most of your other questions were already answered.

 

Bad motor mount means pulling the engine to replace it, right? That means a shop... What's the ballpark figure? How much damage we are talking here? My pockets are pretty empty these days.

 

No need to pull the motor for a mount.
A shop will be able to look and tell you if the mount is bad or not in a matter of minutes.
Should cost any where from 60-175$ depending on where you live, what shop does it, and which mount it is.

I feel you bro, My pockets seem to have holes in them. lol.

 

1) Regarding my Jetta, Watch local craigslist... my wife says I won't be able to get $1000 for it, but I bet I can. Cash only, no payments.

2) I'm still driving it (for the next three weeks), so it's not for sale, yet.

3) If you sold your Accord and bought my Jetta, you'd just be getting rid of one set of problems and taking on another set.

4) If you don't have much money, you're probably going to need to stick with what you have and solve its problems. You might want to check the compression on the motor. If it has good compression and is fairly rust-free, you should be able to get it all fixed up.

 

Ok. So I got home from work. Car started ok, though it's only 40 degrees. Wait for it to get below freezing and we will see what happens with the towel trick. Went to O'Reily's and the alternator checks out ok. Bought some carb cleaner, vacuum tubing, and spark NGK plugs (cheap).

Pulled things apart and went to work. Man was the fuel injector filthy! I finished scrubbing that down, did a little work on the air intake pipe, checked my tubes and replaced one for my wiper fluid (it works now, yay!). Now for the "fun" part...

I was able to remove the FITV from the Fuel Injection unit, but I could not for the life of me get the damn brass plate to come off. One screw is just welded in there and will not budge. I almost wore the head raw trying to get it out. I've got a power drill charging and I'll try it again after it has a full charge. This time with the FITV firmly attached to the PGM-FI. I did manage to scrub its area clean as well as the grommets.

After I threw up my hands in disgust at that portion of the job, I turned my attention to the spark plugs. I opted to just change them, seeing as how I wasn't sure if the last mechanic who worked on my engine actually put my NGK Iridiums back in when he was done. I pulled the first one closest to the cap/rotor easily, and low and behold, it's my plug alright... and it's completely fouled and covered in oil with a few chunks of something on it. Le sigh. Now, I had expected that if my plugs were still there, they would probably be in need of some changing regardless. I had put those in about two months before I had the head gasket and heater core replaced. So, I tore them out one by one and replaced them until I got to little guy #4 over by the oil cap... He just won't budge.

I'm of the opinion that this is probably an old spark plug and not one of my NGK's. When I was changing the plugs originally, I couldn't get the coil wire off and ended up taking it to a shop. The mechanic who did that work tore the coil wire off right in front of me and it ripped in many places. Pieces of it just kept coming off. I left him struggling with it and two days later they returned my car to me with "new plugs". I think that he just got what was left of the coil wire out of the hole and couldn't get the plug out either so he just left it there. Wouldn't the guy who did my head job have to have pulled out that plug to tear it down? If that's still the original plug from when I first bought this car, then that means my head gasket was never changed and I paid good money for that... Ideas on how to get it out?

Oh, I also turned that little idle screw a full rotation and then back about halfway. When it's warm, it idles at about 800-900RPMs. This is fine by me, but the power transfer problem is still there. Get it warm, let it idle, crank the steering wheel or mash the brake and take it out of park and I'm lucky if it doesn't choke to death.

Next plan of action?

Oh, and I forgot to check the oil cap for the huffing. I'll do that on my way to dinner and post back here when I'm done.

 

Going to pick up a new air filter and pcv valve on me way... Just noticed that is cheap and the PCV could explain oil if the current one is clogged or bad? I've been having alot of oil spillage around the PCV valve lately. Or bad valve gaskets! Which should have been replaced with the head! He lied and cheated?

 

"If you take the oil filler cap off the valve cover with the engine running, do you get a quite pronounced 'huffing noise"? Do you feel a positive pressure if you put your hand over it?"

My car does both of these things, and it burns oil as well. A small amount of oil is visible on the valve cover too? What does this mean?

 

Write down all problems you have and go to dealership. Get in from back door and talk to mechanics, ask them to diagnose your problems. If back door system doesn't work pay 1 hour labor for diagnosing. I was working on cars for 15 years and have no problem talking to smart guys from dealerships. Usually 5-20 doll. is enough.
I spent a lot of time diagnosing suspension knock in my mom's 95 Galant. Finally brought it to a dealer, mechanic found 3 problems and he was right!

 

Ah! I managed to get that little brass plate off with the help of the power drill. Turned that little white ring about three full turns to tighten it down. Still no results.

I tried to pull the oil cap off while the engine was running and I couldn't get the thing to budge. I've never had a problem removing it before, and I just put about a quart and a half of oil in this weekend. I always do so cold though, my engine was warm and running this time. I do hear maybe a huffing noise? coming from around my headers? that seems to beat in time with the idle of the engine. Thoughts?

I replaced the PCV valve and drove it a few miles. I don't see any oil on or around it yet. The previous valve was caked in oil and always had some spillage in its area. Maybe this is how the oil was getting in with the spark plugs? How can I get the oil out? Any ideas how to get the 4th cylinders plug out? Can I pull the coil wire out Friday night and fill the cylinder with some wd40 or some other lube and let it sit overnight to try and crank it out? Then sop it up with by pushing a towel down there?

After all of this, I still have the problem that the engine will kill itself the minute I put load on it. A few minutes ago while I was checking the oil cap, I turned the car on and it was still warm from the drive. Idle was fine, around 800RPMs, flicked on the headlights and it dropped and would have choked if I hadn't punched the gas. This happens when I turn on the lights, hit the brakes, crank the wheel hard right, or do a combo of these things and flick a power option like the windows or the heater. It doesn't seem to mind if I'm driving and do these things, only if I'm sitting still.

 

The real problem I have is getting the 4th plug out and figuring out why it chokes when I put any load on the engine.

 

If your car is starting okay when the temperature is a little warmer, then I suspect even stronger that your Ignitor's inability to ignite when it is really cold is the whole key to the starting problem. It's good that you are now focusing heavily on your Accord and getting her fixed up. Even if you were to give up on the car, you would have no trouble selling it.

I was seriously considering letting mine go due to the frustration with the cold starting problem. I let a neighbor know and he asked me about the car nearly every day until I told him the towel test had helped me locate the cause of the cold starting. That great Honda engine, good paint, MT, etc. had him chomping at the bit to put my Accord in his driveway.

Don't torture yourself about the past poor and possibly deceptive "maintenance." It happens all the time. You just have to become more proactive about doing as much work on your car yourself as you can and also knowing the car better and better. So many jobs that seem so tough or complicated are actually easy if you have the right tools and the time to work at it patiently.

 

I think the problem with it dying when a load is put on the engine is getting even worse. Ideas? I'm going to take it to the dealership and have them run diagnostics on it. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but it sounds like the clack noise coming from the engine has lessened since I pulled the plugs and cleaned the fuel injector?

I tried the ECU trick mentioned above, removed cables and let it sit for 10 minutes or more, then started it w/o the gas pedal and let it run for another 10 minutes. It didn't seem to make any difference.

Is there anything I can do to remove the 4th plug? Some goo I can put in the chamber there to loosen it up?

 

Be sure to use a socket designed for the plug. Use the longest handle that you have and the shortest extension you can get by with. Be sure the socket extension is centered in the hole for max transfer of your strength to the plug. If it is slanted, you are wasting energy and possibly stripping the plug nut. With a plug socket, the centering is easier because of the rubber gasket inside the socket, but I have taken the gasket out of all mine, though, due to them gripping too well and making the extension come off the socket attachment in the past.

Now, turn it in bursts. Give it a good shot in the out direction, then a shot in the in direction, then another shot in the out direction. Increase the strength of the bursts in the out direction until you finally feel it turning freer. It will get easier and easier as less threads are in contact with the head. After the first time you feel it move in the out direction, a small shot of WD40 aimed down in there directly at the plug won't hurt.

The short bursts are to keep from breaking the plug, which can happen if you put max pressure in one direction for too long and the siezed threads win the battle.

Once the plug is turning really freely, finish removing it by shoving a short piece of fuel injector hose down in there and snugging it over the contact of the plug and then give it the final turns to remove it from the threads. Use that piece of hose with the new plug attached to it to start your new plugs in. The hose lets you get the tactile feel it takes to thread the plug properly. If you try to do it with the wrench, you'll never feel the plug cross-threading and that can lead to even bigger problems than a stuck plug. Your auto parts store will know what piece of hose to sell or give you once you tell them you are working with small 4 cylinder car plugs.

 

I have some tubing I bought yesterday for the wiper lines, I'll try using that. Anything stronger than WD40 I could use to help it along? I have a plug socket that fits quite nicely and it worked well on the other three. Do you think it could be a misfire problem due to the bad plug and oil in there with them all?

I'll check fluids again and the new PCV valve before I take off from work today and post some news later this evening.