Hello all--

I have been a longtime reader of the forum for about a year now, but only recently registered when my car started acting up again as I'm not particularly a car guy. I own a 2000 Accord DX 5spd, and about 2 weeks ago my car started acting a bit weird. I start it and it runs fine, however after about 10min of driving it begins to idle a bit lower (under 1k) when not in gear sometimes. When I am driving, the car experiences strange issues: it gets up and goes fine, however when I slow down to come to a stop the RPMs dip below 1k and the car almost stalls, then "bounces" back to a resting RPM level. Also, if the car does this "almost" stall, oftentimes the oil light will flash on; sometimes it flashes for just a second almost as if it's short circuiting and then goes back off, but other times if the stop is too drastic or I don't downshift and just coast to a stop it will 'trigger' and stay flashing until I turn the car off. If this happens, I can restart the car and the oil light won't have stayed on, until I go around another curve or sudden halt or something to trigger it.

I went up to Autozone today and they did the computer test on my car, and came up with the P1259 error code. The guy said this was a VTEC error and proceeded to freak me out by talking about proprietary Honda parts which made me think $$$$$ . I got home however and looked it up, and my model of car doesn't have VTEC at all, which makes me very confused.

Some more info: I had the oil replaced maybe 4 months ago, and the car was doing great until about 2wks ago-- the CEL popped on right before the last oil change and the "maintenance needed" light flashed for a short while before this popped as well. When I took the car last time to get the oil changed, it was very low on oil-- so I attributed it to this and the car ran fine until now after getting more oil. Perhaps my car burns oil for some reason and this is just happening again? I just got back so I'm letting my car cool a bit then I'm going to go check the oil level. This thread- https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-accord-1990-2002-2/p1259-code-accord-newbie-here-need-advice-3023143/ makes me believe that it might have something to do with my oil level. Could the colder temperatures outside have anything to do with this? Also, within the last year or so I believe that the timing belt was replaced, if that makes a difference. No puddles of oil or anything. Also, one time I tried flooring it and it sort of bucked and was hesitant to go to higher RPM...haven't tried it since. I do remember the car doing this one time too before the last oil change when it was very low.

If anyone has any information or can provide any assistance, I'd be forever indebted to you. I just found out my old mechanic no longer owns his shop so I'm sort of left to research this on my own; it's very unnerving to be riding around in my vehicle with no idea of whether or not it's about to explode on me...

 

are you the original purchaser of the car? reason i ask is if there is any chance a prior owner might have swapped a vtec engine into the car? I know teh DX is not supposed to have it from the factory, but a replacement engine and ecu along with a few extra wires and you have vtec...

 

Make sure you are using 5w20 oil. If your car is burning oil you need to have a compression test done to see if the rings are shot. I believe idle speed is about 750 rpm, you should check into that.

 

Went and checked-- I've got a VTEC. Strange...guess I was off on the designation then as it doesn't look like it's been done secondhand. So that would make it an LX then? Also, I checked my oil and it was very low. I think that might have something to do with it?

 

Absolutely. Vtec works of off rpm and oil pressure.

 

if it is an LX then yes it is vtec, if it is really a DX then it has had the engine replaced. definitely get the oil up to level and go from there.