Hi everyone, I have been having a problem with my 90 Accord EX coupe automatic that I have been trying to figure out for a few months now. The car doesn't like to accelerate when I am light and steady on the throttle and it causes it to hesitate sometimes slightly and sometimes really roughly. One time I turned into a hill and it nearly died, no throttle for 3 seconds and then it suddenly started to go pretty strongly. This car runs great when I accelerate hard and let off but when I just try to cruise in traffic it starts to bog like a misfire. And this can happen at low speeds like 20mph or freeway speeds of 55mph. I have had a hard time figuring out the cause of this and sometimes the car runs like brand new while other times it has this problem really badly. It doesn't really change if the car is warm or cold but sometimes it changes when I go somewhere and turn the car off and then back on again.

I replaced the fuel filter, the plugs and wires, the distributor cap and rotor, and it is still an ongoing problem. The car idles fine so I don't think the injectors are bad. Sometimes when I am driving over 70 a check engine light comes on but I'm not sure why, the car runs normal when I drive over 60 but under that is when the problem can occur.

If anyone has any ideas or questions that can help pinpoint this problem I would greatly appreciate it and thank you guys for reading my post!

 

Lot of possibilities, but if it is bogging down, bucking and suddenly lurching, to the point it's barely driveable, check your oxygen sensor. If it is the original, it might be shot. If you're lucky, there might be a code stored that points to it, but if there is no code, still check it.

 

The car isn't undrivable by any means. But I do have a feeling it could be a sensor somewhere since it's an inconsistent problem and the car changes behavior day to day. I wish these older cars had obd2 sensors because the ECU probably has some helpful codes in there. Would it hurt to run the car without the oxygen sensor to see how it performs?
Thanks for the help brakedrum

 

"One time I turned into a hill and it nearly died, no throttle for 3 seconds and then it suddenly started to go pretty strongly."

Mine got to the point it would do this four or five times every mile or two. At highway speeds it would manifest as a big engine knocks, and eventually not enough power to keep going and I'd have to sputter off the highway to play with the throttle to work the problem out. But it was all the same rich/lean condition caused by the oxygen sensor sending bad information to the system. It feels like a "miss," but it is actually a "choke" or "gasp" (for fuel) that is happening.

If you find code 41 stored, it's all related. I never found any code. My O2 sensor deteriorated slowly over lots of miles. Had it failed suddenly, OBD1 would have shown me, but the slow deterioration just wasn't noticed. OBD1 does show when the sensor is unplugged though.

 

If you have over 100,000 miles on the car I would just change the O2 sensor anyway. It's not expensive ($26 or so for a sensor), and you can borrow the removal tool from the auto parts store. Your mileage will thank you too.

 

"Would it hurt to run the car without the oxygen sensor to see how it performs?"

No, it won't hurt. That will give a good idea whether the O2 is causing the trouble.

I didn't mean to imply that my car wasn't drivable when my O2 was failing and I didn't know what was wrong. It was just no fun to drive because of never knowing when it would all of sudden feel like the pedal was dead while I needed power, and then equally as sudden it "catches" and the car zooms forward.

Shamefully, I chased that problem for weeks. Finally, one night after I struggled to get it home, I turned off he key and engine chugged on for about 5-seconds, trying to blow out the last of a rich mix. I could smell the gas and knew right away that it wasn't an ignition problem, but a air/fuel mix problem. I replaced the O2 sensor the next day, and all was well.

 

Hi had a very similar problem and it went on for 6 months nobody could figure it out, a lot of wasted money and time went on until i went to a Honda specialist he quickly diagnosed it was clogged egr due to my distributer that failed, another shop replaced the distributer didn’t properly the check the egr and they actually replaced the distributer with a broken one and were planning to replace my fuel pump next so i’m so glad i found the Honda specialist when i did. Before going there all these little fixes acted like they worked short term it would always come back, i had my O2 sensor fail and i only knew because check engine light came on and i failed aircare my car drove normally until i replaced it so if it comes back get ur distributer and egr both checked. I was told i just needed a new distributer cap until the first shop read the codes and it came up. Your issue is exactly like mine and it drove me crazy and it just got worse to the point i refused to drive my car due to it being a safety hazard to have a car that can loose power at any time in traffic, where i live it’s full of train crossings my daily fear was if my car was gonna act up on a crossing. Also with mine when i would get this loss of acceleration right before the car would feel like it’s going limp or weak i always knew when it was going to happen and city driving was the worst and one more thing i noticed i couldn’t get it over 2000rpms while it was loosing acceleration. It would feel like i’m suddenly driving in neutral if i pumped the gas peddle it would backfire like crazy than jump forward and go back to normal. Hope it is just ur O2 sensor and it stays fixed but if it returns get the distributer and egr checked.

 

Hello , I know this is a 4 year old thread. I had the same problems with my 1990 accord. I tried everything, changed all electrical components, plugs, wires , distributor, fuel pump ,o2 Sensor, etc . But I just ended fixing my ride tho!!!! and I wanted to tell everyone what fixed mine, hopefully it’ll help everyone that has had the same issues. It ended up being my fuel pressure regulator !!!! I changed mine with a new one and my car is running smooth now . No more bogging when accelerating or nothing. I’m stoked

 

Hey, every little bit of info helps. In the future, on any other car you ever happen to work on, if you change the fuel pump, always change the filter and pressure regulator. This is a common issue on older cars, especially (at this point) a 1990 Honda (hard to believe that is now 34 years old!)

Glad to see people still driving these around. My 1999 was totaled last year, truck went into the back of it and just caused so much frame damage that they totaled it immediately after looking at it. Couldn't rebuild it again. My old 1990 is still being drive, but it's been turned into a drag by another owner, really only the front is still OEM Honda, the rest is just a shell on a tube chassis.

 

Yeah, interesting stuff for me to know. I have had multiple Accords in this era and have never had to replace any of the items listed above (egr, Dist, O2 or the fuel pressure regulator). I am glad to have read about these issues so that if I have problems in the future that I can look at thees areas.

I think it helps that I have a 15+ min drive to town at 70-80mph to keep everything cleaned out and running smoothly. I am currently driving my 93 with over 330k.