Howdy. I recently purchased a 96 accord ex 4 cylinder with 175k miles. Apparently the previous owner had cleared the CEL so it was about a week later that it lit up. I had the codes read at autozone and it was a p0172 (too rich in bank 1)....after looking at several forum posts, I changed the MAP sensor, pre-CAT O2 sensor, spark plugs, fuel pressure regulator (which I snapped the bolt off in the fuel rail, so I removed the rail to drill it out) and I cleaned the injectors and EGR ports while I had the fuel rail off....I ran a couple bottles of Lucas fuel system cleaner, but I can't seem to get rid of this problem....while driving it is under-powered especially going uphill, and it idles rough....the exhaust smells terrible...I am wondering if it could be a leak from my exhaust manifold gasket (or another gasket for that matter)....I am going to attempt to adjust the valves in a few days...does anyone have any ideas?

 

make sure your cat isn't clogged.. with the car cold get under it and bang on the cat.. if it rattles, its mostlikely bad

 

Dirty air filter?

Good/correct temp thermostat? The temp gauge should quickly go up to ~1/2 and stay there, idling or highway. Check the ECT resistance too; it should be 200Ω - 400Ω hot.

 

umm...the air filter is just barely dirty, and the temp guage does go up to around the halfway mark and remain....and if the CAT was clogged would it not restrict the exhaust coming out of the tail pipe? because it doesn't seem to have a problem with that...I forgot to mention that it makes a rather loud low-pitched rumble in the engine compartment when it starts to bog down...this noise is not present when the motor seems to catch up...is this a sign of an exhaust leak?

 

also I have an unrelated issue....the ABS light is on and the previous owner told me that the ABS works and that the light comes on, but will shut off if i wiggle a wire under the hood on the driver's side....does anyone know what he was talking about?

 

Running rich, check the injectors/fuel pressure. If you have an injector leaking, I know you ran additive but that doesn't fix everything, it could cause this.

ABS, the 96 4 cyl still have the connector under/behind the glove box where you can get the codes. I can only guess at what wire it might be. Could be the one to the module or it could be the one to the abs sensor on the left/drivers front?

 

i dunno on the wire...i have jiggled everything that i can see that relates to the ABS....doesn't matter i suppose...i just really need to get rid of this code so I can renew the inspection....is there more information about checking the fuel pressure and injectors...i cleaned a ton of goo off of the injectors when I had the fuel rail off, but it seems that it made no difference in how the car behaves....I appreciate all of your help...you guys rock

 

Can you get a fuel pressure gauge? You could use this to see if the pressure is "leaking" down.

Another way is to pull the injectors and pressurize the system and see if there are leaks. Yes you are dealing with gas under pressure so use caution.

What plugs and gap were installed.

 

well I just moved here to NJ, and all of my friends who would have any specialized tools are back in TX....so I will pull the fuel rail and see if any injectors are leaking....and the plugs I installed were bosch (i know i will order some denso, but i don't want to foul them out if i can help it) and I gapped them to whatever is called for in the manual

 

Some stores "may" rent them....?

Personally, I'd use NGK in a Honda...again that is just me.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

Textbook clogged catalytic converter due to rich exhaust.

 

Also, if your ECT is bad, it'll also cause your car to run rich as the ECU is seeing -40 from the sensor; thus, ECU will do the 12:1 air/fuel ratio. But this will only be at cold start-up though.

 

oops...I did mean NGK....denso was the O2 sensor

 

Lol.

 

Unhook the cat and drive it to see if that makes a difference. Also if you have a scanner and can look at data, hold the rpm around 2,000 and look at the IAT sensor and see what temperature it reads. Usually when the converter is stopped up you'll see a significant rise in intake temperature(well above 175 degrees). You could also have an injector with the pintle stuck open. Get a long screw driver and put the driving end on the base of each injector and put your ear up to the handle. You should hear consistent sounding ticking from each injector.