Hello,

I have a 1996 Honda Accord, EX 2.7L V6 and this evening the car was acting really screwy on me. I noticed a loss of power every few minutes from the engine kinda like I am driving with the ebrake on. Trust me, its not on. LOL!

Anyways, I pulled over 3 different times because I thought the car was going to completely die and wanted to be in a good spot just in case. I was able to make it home, but it got worse to the point of the car shaking really bad. At a red light it would barely pick up to 5 mph for a second and then all the sudden it goes to full power and takes off. Also I heard noise coming from my vents like pressure was coming in the car. I also noticed air on the dipstick for the oil. I know the check engine light is on because of both o2 sensors not working properly. One has a high voltage reading and the other says the heating element is malfunctioning. I will start by checking the spark plugs in the morning, but I was hoping for some ideas of what this could possibly be so I can run down the list. Thanks!

 

By air on your dipstick, do you mean bubbles?

What was the temperature gauge reading during your ride home?

Is your coolant low?

As far as the Check Engine light goes. Did you scan it after this issue occurred? If not, I would start there.

 

Yes, I mean bubbles on the end of the dipstick. I know one or two is no biggie but there were enough on the end of the dipstick for me to be concerned. My gauges read find. The coolant temp gauge read normal and it did not run hot at anytime. My tach never went up or down. The car feels like the engine is strong and it wants to go, but something is restricting it. I will plug in a OBD II scanner tool in shortly and report back the codes. My first thought was maybe my converter is clogged, because I have ran this car with the check engine light on since I got it. I've tried to replace both o2 sensors, but apparently I got 2 dud sensors so I said **** it and have been running the car with 2 bad o2 sensors. This means the car has been running rich which I know is bad for the converter. Its more of a money issue for me.

 

Just checked the codes, the only codes that I found were the 2 for the o2 sensors. More specifically, P0132 for high voltage in one, and P0141 for Heat circuit malfunction in the other o2.

EDIT: Just checked the 3 easier spark plugs and I am not liking what I am seeing. The 3rd spark plug somehow messed up the wire inside because its warped and I cant get the wire back on correctly. Luckily, I have saved my old wires so I will have to replace the warped wire with one of the old spares.

 

My best guess is that the fuel pump is weak or the fuel filter is clogged. There is also a small possibility the catalytic converter is clogged. The top two spark plugs look perfect. The bottom spark plug picture doesn't look good but it may be that the fuel injector is leaking and causing extra carbon. Scotty Kilmer has YouTube videos on how to check out all of these things - fuel pressure, replace fuel pump, fuel injector cleaning. You can rent/get most tools on loan, free, from places like AutoZone to check these things, or buy them pretty cheap at a place like Harbor Freight.

 

Those spark plugs indicate eccess carbon in the engine which is whats causing my symptoms. Atleast I hope anyways. I did the old mechanics trick of using water to steam it out. Now the car runs smooth. It used to shake during idle and now you can hardly tell its on. Im going to pull the plugs after it cools down and see if they're clean. I did notice when I drove in 1st gear at 4k rpm the check engine light was flashing.

 

The images that you posted of your spark plugs are not showing signs of access carbon.

If anything I would say you are running lean. Those plugs are not fouled with fuel or oil aka carbon, they are very clean. If you look closely you can see what looks to be small metal flecks on the porcelain (white) that is metal and it indicates pre-detonation in that cylinder. The third spark plug looks like it melted.

I would day you have a fuel issue. At least in those three cylinders anyway!

Just putting this out there but the Autolite spark plugs might be your problem as well. What heat range are they?

 

You are correct that the car is running lean. The o2 sensors have the check engine light on so its not running optimally. My brother told me if I keep running the car like this it will eventually clog my converter so thats why I automatically thought that was the issue. I drove to work today just fine and coming home I even turned the AC on which surprisingly worked very well. I think my problem was excess carbon in the engine, but I cant be 100% until I go on a long trip like I was doing the day these issues happened. I need to get 2 new o2 sensors from the parts store if I want to get that check engine light to turn off and stop running lean. I am hoping to do that soon, but just wanted to update that the car seems to run fine so far. If anything changes I will definitely update this thread.

BTW: I just want to thank you GhostAccord for all of your suggestions and help. I am not a mechanic by any means, just live with a few. Its always awesome when people like yourself take the time to help other people with their issues, so thank you very much. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know. I want to eventually restore this car fully so its like new. I can see the potential in the engine and trans which are very strong.

 

To answer your question, I have no idea what heat range they are. I just know that Autolite Iridium plugs were what alot of people on this forum recommended as the best for my car so I spent the extra money to get them. Should I try NGK plugs?

 

Most definitely!

Not sure who was telling you to go with Autolite, But the NGK ZFR5F-11 or ZFR5FIX-11 (iridium) are hands down the best plugs for your engine.


Do you or your mechanic friends have access to a scan tool that has access to live data? Would be a good idea to see what the long term fuel trim (LTFT) and short term fuel trims (STFT) are at.

 

My uncle has one of those wireless things you plug into the OBDII port and use a laptop to tune it. I believe that does live data so I will be looking into the NGK iridium plugs. First thing I believe I need to do is get the check engine light issues fixed. So I need to replace both O2 sensors and then I will get the plugs after that. I'll update this thread when this is all complete and let you know how everything goes. Money is tight and I actually cracked one of the aluminum rims I had on a pothole so that took priority yesterday. I actually have 4 NGK plugs I saved from my last car which was a 2000 Toyota Camry. Maybe I could clean 3 of them up so I can see if there is a difference? Im not sure if that would damage the engine having the autolite's on one side of the engine and NGK on the other.

 

Ok, so now I have replaced the o2 sensor issue and now my check engine light is off. I have driven the car to school and to the store a few times, so if the check engine light was going to come back it should have done it by now. My brother just bought this fancy scan tool and I have my fuel trims. I will also add some pictures of the graph function he has on the scan tool.

Short Term Fuel Trim
Bank 1: -4.7 to -5.5
Bank 2: -3.3 to -7.0

Long Term Fuel Trim
Bank 1: -3.9
Scan tool didnt have anything for bank 2

The graph will also tell you that I got these readings while the car was warm. In case you were wondering if these are reading cold or warm. Also, the first half of the graph is the car just idling, the 2nd half is me holding the car at 2,000rpm as if I am riding down the street. Car seems to be running lean to me, but I would like opinions on what to do next with this car to make it run as it should. Thanks!!!

 

I dont know why the pictures are upside down, but if you open them in a new tab on your browser they will open correctly, sorry about that.

 

Did you reset the ECU after you replaced the O2 sensors?

but to be honest with you even the STFT are requesting a reduction in fuel. %5 isn't out of the ordinary for an older engine.

Are you still having power issues?

 

When I got these numbers, no I did not reset anything other than the codes. After I had gotten these numbers, I did reset the ECU so the LTFT went to 0.0%. I drove the car out of state on Saturday and drove back yesterday and the car seems to run great. I am just concerned that if the car is running lean like it is that I may end up damaging the engine and cause a piston to burn up or any of the many things that happen from running lean. Im trying to narrow down the cause, maybe its a vacuum line or a dirty injector. So I will check into these things. If you have any other suggestions on what else may cause the car to run lean I would certainly welcome it. Thanks!

 

I replace the timing belt the crankshaft the EC you I've been so much and I still don't know what's going on my codes are right now at the moment are P0132 p0452 Honda Accord 2001 V6 EX

 

Why not create your own thread? My car is different from yours, but I looked up the codes for you, so hopefully you can fix your issue.

PO132 = Oxygen Sensor Failure
PO452 = EVAP Pressure Sensor/Switch Low (Basically something having to do with the fuel system.)