OK, so I've been having a hell of a time with my girls 98 4cy Accord. Her water pump went out a few weeks ago, so I had the car towed to my house where we proceeded to do the water pump. Did the water pump and replaced the thermostat, the belt that is under the timing cover (not the main timing belt, but whatever the little one is), the alternator belt and the power steering belt. I figured they all looked pretty worn so I'd replace them, except for the belt under the timing cover, that one was actually broken (again, not the actual timing belt).

While I was at it I also decided to do the spark plugs as they were pretty beat. So we get all the work done and go to start the car and it barely cranks over. Once we get it started the car sounds like it's running great. Better than before in fact. Since it hadn't started in a few weeks we let it sit for a while and watched for any leaks we may have. Everything seems good till I got in the car and gave it a tiny bit of gas. As soon as i left off the gas the car died. So I started it back up and the car was running kind of rough. You could feel the misfire, especially if you gave it gas.

The CEL came on so I borrowed a buddies reader and found I was throwing codes for misfires in cylinders 3 and 4. After doing some googling, I found that sometimes new wires and cap and roter will sometimes fix this problem. So I go out and try all of that, but nothing changes.

I know the timing could have jumped even though we clamped everything in place and were careful not to move anything, but it just doesn't sound like the timing is off. My DA jumped timing once and I KNEW it jumped, it would barely run. This isn't like that.

I really don't know what the problem is. I should say that while the car was sitting I cleaned the engine with a de-greaser and hosed it down. I was careful to cover everything important, including the dizzy and alternator, but idk, maybe some water could have gotten into something it shouldnt have.

Does anyone have any ideas to a fix? (sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to make sure I was exact on the problem)

 

bump

 

okay, there is a few things i would check before actually replacing any parts. Check the EGR manifold. if port 1 and 2 are clogged, they will overload 3 and 4 causing those to misfire. Is this a constant misfire or intermittent?

 

It seems like more of an intermittent misfire. The first time the car is started after its been sitting a while it starts and runs like nothing is even wrong. Its after you give it gas that it starts to miss. Then it'll still usually idle ok, but you can hear that its not running quite as well. Then if you give it gas and hold it to like 2500 rpm, you can hear it start to miss every so often.

I'll have to check the EGR manifold for sure.

 

The EGR Runner plate is really common its under the fuel rail in the base of the intake. Mine had the same codes when it was clogged.