Hi, all.

I love my Honda but that love is fading rapidly. I've got 177k on it, and I just had the head gasket, water pump, timing belt all replaced plus a flush/fill of the tranny because oil was getting into the transmission fluid. Also had the VTEC gasket replaced about 6 months ago.

Got my car out of the shop and it was running just like it should save for some squealing belts. Took it back in, and they fixed the squeak but now my car's running like it was before I got the blown head gasket fixed - sounding rough, not much horsepower, etc. But here's where it gets worse.... I can floor it up hills and still do no more than 30-35 and it's started stalling out randomly at red lights and things. The last two are new in the last couple days. Plus I can floor it on the highway and still not get much response.

Now I admit I'm not the smartest when it comes to cars. Help me out here, what could be wrong? Please don't have to say transmission lol.

Any advice would be helpful! Thanks!

 

did the shop machine the head? check again for coolant/oil mixing. with the car COLD, remove the radiator cap and start the car. does coolant spew out of the radiator? you can also go to autozone, wherever and rent/buy a block tester. this will check for exhaust gases in your coolant. another easy home diagnostic would be a compression test. what i am driving at is you may have a loss of compression, pointing to a botched headgasket job. the other thing to do would be to check your timing. they may have gotten it wrong putting the engine back together. all this assumes no cel's.

 

Yes they machined and pressure tested the head. You're not the first person to suggest a botched job. If that's the case I'm gonna want my money back! I will check radiator tomorrow or Monday, whenever it's not raining next.

I may end up taking it back and giving them another shot to get it right. Back when I first took it in and described some of my problems they said I might have a dying transmission.

 

Aloha,
Learn how to start working on that honda yourself. Get a factory service manual also. Sounds like the shop ripped you off.

 

Problem solved. Opened up my hood to do the radiator test, and noticed somehing off. Lierally. Four wires coming from the top of the engine, but only 3 plugged in on the side. Oops.

Forgive my ignorance of the proper terminology, but I'm just glad I fixed it without a trip back.

 

So spark plug wires weren't plugged into the distributor cap?

 

Correct. Just one though. Once it was plugged back in, the beast returned to its normal level of awesome.