Hi guys. I'm old to cars and ECUs but new to Hondas. I have an 89 CRX DX with 190k miles. It has a stock B15 engine, with the exception of an external intake/filter and a 5 speed manual trans.

The strange thing is that I tried to climb UP this hill on the I-15 yesterday (outside temp was about 100 degrees) and the car went from doing 70 MPH to 20 MPH in less than a mile! It was running fine and then it started to backfire while going 70 in 5th, so I dropped it into 4th (around 3k) it still backfired, then 3rd, then 2nd, still backfired (all the backfires were bad!!!). The car would not go more than 20 MPH and whenever I tried to accelerate and got the tach above 3k-3.5k it would just backfire causing the car to shudder and lunge back and forth.

I exited the freeway and the car was idling at 2k but it wasn't knocking and it would accelerate just fine while stopped so I decided to turn around and go back home. While going DOWN the hill the car was fine at 55 MPH but when I got it up around 65 it started to want to backfire just a little. After about 20 minutes I was back on flat land and the car was back doing 70 MPH like a champ, but when I got home it was still idling at 2k.

1) Coolant temp good.
2) No CEL but I haven't checked for possible codes yet
3) The car has always acted like the clutch slips a little whenever I've been on flat land and had some weight in the car, but the clutch is supposed to be new.
4) Before this, Intermittent problem with high idle 1k -1.5k
5) Car does burn some oil
6) I've only done a minor tune up on the car so I have no idea what other work has been done

Any ideas on what to look for or where to start?

Thanks in advance

 

check the timing my crx did the same thing and the timing was reallllllllyyyyyyyy bad lol and check the fuel pump, injectors, and fuel filter......also i belive you ment d15 right

 

congrats on your first post.....
the missing and backfire could be as simple as a loose rotor inside the distributor...check that the set screw is present and tight...
the igniters inside the dizzy are also suspect on these cars, but i'm not sure about your symptoms, it usually won't run at all with a bad igniter, but worth a look....
if the clutch is new and slipping, it may be that the main trans bearing is leaking into the clutch area.....
keep us posted on your progress, and remember here on H-T that "search" is your friend. someone here has probably had this problem before and has posted something....
......good luck