Hey guys:

After being away from Honda's quite a while, I picked up a 2000 Accord 4cyl 5-speed sedan from my neighbor down the street.It's just your basic car, has 240,000 miles.


Before I get to my issue, I'll share my oil usage experience:When I got it the seller said it was using some oil, about a qt every tank full(which is bad). The price was right and I saw a lot of oil on the engine, so here I am. I replaced the valve cover gasket, cleaned the PCV and changed the oil to semi-synthetic.

The first quart went though in 700 miles(before I did any work to it). The second went in after 1400 miles and so far I'm 1000 miles onward and the oil level has dropped maybe a couple millimeters. His wife drove that car, so I'm guessing it spent a lot of time at lower rpms. I've ran it harder and on the interstate a lot, so I'm guessing it's helped free the rings some.

The only thing I don't like is that it has audible wristpin noise or piston slap that never goes away.

Now to my issue:

So far this car has seemed lethargic. My last Accord was a '96 LX non-VTEC with about the same miles and it always felt stronger than this one does.

Part of the reason is that my car has a light and part throttle acceleration surge. The old car did it too but not as pronounced. If you get on the gas hard it goes, but otherwise you always feel this slight random surge or buck, whatever you want to call it. It's not a tip-in hesitation and you don't feel it at steady speed. I own several carbed cars and what it reminds me of is running extremely lean. It idles fine.

It's not a misfire, that's more pronounced than this. It's been tuned up too. The timing belt is recent and done by Honda.

There are a couple codes stored, because I knew I would be asked, but I would rather not mention them ahead of time because I feel it would skew the answers. I will say that they are not misfire codes or rich/lean/o2 sensor codes.

So, I would be interested to hear your ideas. Maybe they run like this but I doubt it. I know it's a heavier car than the older one but our little Suzuki Reno feels like it would run off and leave it.

Thanks guys.

 

Do you have maintenance records for the car? Have you had the valve clearances checked, that could be your piston slap. When was the last tune up and timing belt change done? What do the spark plugs look like?

You could also try a compression test and or leak down test to verify the health of the engine. 240k grandma miles is hard on an engine. You could try cleaning out the throttle body, intake manifold, RAC valve and EGR ports to see if that helps.

To be realistic the lethargic power could be a combination of things. Worn ignition components, poorly operating fuel system or restrictive exhaust. Sometimes knowing what the diagnostic trouble codes are should be pointing you in the right direction. However sometimes they are unrelated. If they are EVAP or EGR related DTCs, they don't always adversely effect engine operation.

 

Check engine codes tend to point to the problem, more times than not. This is the reason cars have them. Pull them and report them to us at the very least as Ghost suggested.

 

Well, providing codes also provides an easy answer too, but anyway it had two stored...PO401 and PO420. I already know what they are and temporarily disconnecting the EGR didn't change anything, so I guess the random small bucking is just the nature of older Honda's especially since it even does it dead cold before the computer goes into closed loop.

What it also tells me is that there was way too much blowby and oil burning going on..that's why they stop up in the first place.

Either way this car isn't going to have a much longer tenure here. I love Honda's but the 7th gen is a far better car IMHO.

Thanks for the assistance.