Thank you for checking my post! We live and travel full time in our RV and tow a 2002 Honda Accord. We have had great luck with the Accord and it has been very easy to work on. However, I am stumped on an odd problem.

The accord is a 4 cyl 2.3 vtech. We are experiencing a misfire that I cannot figure out. Cylinders 1, 3 and 4 will misfire sporadically. We can drive 15 miles down the road no problem and then all of the sudden the misfire will pop up. I was able to drive the car on a 260 round trip supply run with no real problems. Just a little sputtering while accelerating up hills and idling in town.

I have changed the plugs, wires, coil, cap, rotor, and swapped out the igniter unit with a third party (non hatachi) brand and returned it after the problem persisted. I was told the O2 sensors could be to blame for this, has anyone had any experience with this? I checked the #6 fuse and it was fine. Is there any other tests I can run on this little guy?

I grew up working on mustangs. My baby was a supercharged 99 with forged internals and an 11psi procharger. I must say, it is nice having a car that is so easy to work on. I just can't get this misfire figured out!

Chris

 

I assume the check engine light is on. If it is, take it to an AutoZone and see if they will read the codes for free. They may even be able to look up probable causes. I would check the spark with a spark plug tester and see if it is sparking. You're sure the wires are on the right plugs, right? You might want to subscribe to alldatadiy.com for $30 for a year and there you can get all of the troubleshooting info that there is for your car.

 

Thank you for the response! When I had the codes pulled it only shown the misfire and nothing else. The wires have been checked to be certain they are in the correct order. We will be heading back to the lower 48 soon and was hoping to self diagnose before we drive down as I do not think I have enough time to take it to a shop.

Chris

 

If it was just part throttle, I would suggest removing the upper plenum(~$8 in gaskets) and cleaning the EGR port, might even be worthwhile to do if you have never done it or not done it within 100Kmiles.

But since you mentioned idle too, when was the last time the valves were checked for adjustment? They should be checked every 30K miles. What can happen is the exhaust valves are too tight and will not properly seal when the engine is fully warmed up. Loss of compression will create a misfire.