So I just bought an 03 CRV off an old lady in really good shape. Test drove it and loved it......in town. So here's the issue. once the car is in 3rd gear and you give it more than 30% throttle the fuel cuts completely off like you hit the speed limiter in a vehicle. If you hold the gas down while it's doing it, it acts the same over and over fuel cut, gets gas for a sec, fuel cut, gets gas for a sec. I've searched the net and I can't find anything on it. I rarely post here but I figured this is my best shot at finding an answer.Honda said I might have water in the gas but that isn't right because the car would spit and sputter and it doesn't. It runs and shifts like a brand new car up until 3rd gear and 30% throttle. I also had the check engine codes ran to see if I could determine what it was but I got multiple codes and decided I'd ask here before I start just buying parts. Autozone determined it's most likely the down stream 02 sensor. Again I don't think this is right because when does an 02 sensor cause a complete fuel cut? But here are the codes and explanation.

P1164 - THE PCM DETECTED THE HEATED OXYGEN SENSOR 1 SIGNAL DID NOT SWITCH (REMAINED LEAN) FOR A PREDETERMINED PERIOD OF TIME
P1166 - AIR FUEL SENSOR 1 (BANK 1 SENSOR 1 ) HEATER CIRCUIT MALFUNCTION
P1259 - VTEC SYSTEM MALFUNCTION (BANK 1 )
P1456 - EVAP SYSTEM LEAK DETECTED (FUEL TANK AREA)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Took it to Honda yesterday and they said they couldn't recreate the issue. Seems impossible unless they didnt drive it.

 

Took it to a shop and they say the catalytic converter is bad and plugged. That when I try to give it gas the backpressure builds up and affects the valves or some **** I've never heard of in my life and that it's causing the ECU to cut fuel.......I think he's wrong because I'd have a code for a bad cat from the secondary 02......any imput?

 

Primary O2 is plugged in properly with no broken wires, correct?

 

correct

 

Well it's still doing it so since I have the codes for an 02 sensor and VTEC system failure, I'm ordering a new VTEC solenoid and an 02 sensor. If it persists then I'm going to fuel pump/filter. Not sure what else to do.

 

The plugged cat diagnosis actually sounds plausible, but not because of valves something something and the ECM cutting fuel. If your cat is plugged, the more exhaust gas you try to stuff through it, the quicker the exhaust gas will back up and that'll eventually choke the engine. My brother had a 1991 Thunderbird on which the cat plugged. You could floor the thing and the last roughly 2/3rds of accelerator travel resulted in no additional acceleration. We figured out it was a plugged cat because after getting it home the cat was literally glowing red. Might be worth taking a look to see if there's anything that obvious going on, or also (when it's cool!!) banging on it to see if anything inside has been shaken loose.

Another suggestion, have you investigated the fuel pressure regulator at all? Might be worth checking the vacuum line to the diaphragm, or making sure the unit holds a vacuum. Smell the vacuum line to see if there are signs of fuel in it. There shouldn't be.

 

That's where I'm kind of at a loss for thought. One mechanic said it was a plugged cat. So I asked him if he could fix it the same day. I told him if not I was just going to order one and do it myself. About 30 minutes later he came back and said the cat was fine and he didn't know what the issue was. Well today I decided to drive it around for a while and just test this thing out. When its cold it runs great. It doesn't cut out or anything. But after about an hour, it didn't matter what gear or speed, anytime after 30% throttle it would cut out. And if you floor it, it completely cuts fuel and goes nowhere it just holds rpm at 3000. I have a vid of it but I'm not sure how to get it from my phone to here lol.

 

This is the link to the video

 

I also used an IR thermometer to test the temp on the inlet and outlet to see if the cat is plugged. Got 380 degrees on the inlet and 240 on the outlet. Anyone know what the normal ranges are?

 

Well thanks for all the help guys. Got it figured out on my own. Seems to have been the VTEC solenoid. Replaced that and the Upstream 02 sensor, reset the ECU and it runs just fine with no CEL or anything. The VTEC solenoid had a damaged screen and had chunks in it so it's safe to say that was an issue. After the install of the new solenoid it had noticeably more power as VTEC was working again. You can clearly see in the pics above the solenoid chunks in the oil.

 

I had an 04 with bad vtec sol - same exact symptoms - like car was in limp mode. Also attempted upstream O2 sensor - but no success - scared as hell I would rip the exhaust system off before the sensor broke free. Sold car recently as it just kept nickel diming me - but was great for for 185K mi.