I have a question that I hope you guys can help me out with. I have had a Power Loss problem in my 2001 base 5spd Prelude for over two months now. I took it to the dealer two times and they haven't fixed the problem. The car is accellerating very slowly when warm in the low RPM's, even when I give it more gas. The exhaust is also smelling and getting more black soot than normal on the exhaust tips. Has anyone had this problem? Can anyone give me some suggestions? I checked the plugs, air filter, honda gave the engine a top engine treatment to burn carbon off the valves or something. They did that yesterday, but it is still sluggish. Sorry for the long post, but this problem just won't go away and is getting frustrating. I want my quick acceleration back! Have you guys experienced anything like this, any ideas? The car only has 15,500 miles on it, and all services have been performed. Only premium gas is used and oil is changed every 3,750 miles. Sorry for the drawn out post, I am just getting very frustrated with the problem.

 

Do drive around babying the car? Or do you flog her every once in a while? If you don't driver her hard for a little bit. Might be buildup.
Maybe your running too rich/lean?

 

Possibily either a restricted catalytic converter or a bad o2 sensor

 

sounds like you're running rich.

 

It kinda sounds like it could be your timing... have checked this...

 

i would say that you have probably 2 of 2 problems. one is i bet you have a bad egr valve. second is i bet your intake valves are tight i have seen a number of 5 gen ludes where the intake valve are tight. i have also heard a couple guys at honda school say that they have had to replace heads for tight valves. for some reason on the newer heads the intake valves are sinking in the head. the tech that is working on the car needs to monitor LT fuel trim and that will tell if car is running rich. 2nd the egr valve needs to be monitored. if the valve is opening up by itself or too soon it will cause a pretty bad sputter. what is the history on the car, CEL's or past repairs. i have fixed a number of 5th gen ludes for this sort of problem so maybe i can help. if the car is under warranty have them fix the car for free, and if the techs there are not competent enough to fix it then take it to another dealer, but you should not have to be taking it back over and over for them to fix your car. that is rediculous.

 

I haven't even had a check engine light come on. That would definitely get me started. It seems like the mechanics at the honda dealer just hook it up to a computer, and if it gets no codes, they don't bother with it. What are some symptoms of the egr valve being bad? Would my intake valves be tight if I never had a valve adjustment? What is LT? I will try to have them monitor it. As for the history of the car, it has never had any major repairs since I bought it new. It only has 15,500 miles on it. Just oil changes and regular service. It is under warranty. They say when they drive it, it drives fine. But this problem usually starts being really noticeable once the car is really warm. Like after 5 to 10 miles of driving, and then the exhaust starts to smell a bit bad. What do you think I should do? It has been going on for over 2 months. I love this car a ton, but can't handle making payments on a car that runs crappy.

 

TTT

 

take it back again. Tell them exactly when and what it is doing. If they say it is fine then ask them why it isn't driving like it used to. At 15k miles I don't think they would try to say it's just normal ware and tare

 

I have about 20k miles on my 01 base Prelude. I have not noticed this type of power loss. I do treat her to synthetic oil and keep the filter clean.

Couple of ?
do you have any data to support the fact that your Prelude is slower (such as track times or can't beat my buddies car who I normally wax) or is it just SOTP?

Are sure the smell you are smelling is from the exhaust or possibly something else like the clutch?

What mods do you have? An opened up exhaust has been known to rob low end torque while giving good top end improvments.

I felt for a while that I was missing some power but after carefull examination I relized it was all in my head. Not trying to say you don't have a problem but just pointing out some things to consider.

 

I can just feel it. It is that big of a change. It feels like I am driving with the parking break up, or the AC on, when it really isn't on. The exhaust I have been smelling when pulling in the garage. My fiancee also noticed it, and she usually doesn't notice that kind of stuff. I have no mods at all. I am just not sure what it could be, no CEL at all.

 

A few things to check, verify your clutch is not slipping. An easy way to check is get the car up to 35 mph shift into 5th and apply moderate pressure to the gas pedal. The tach and speedo should move with consistency, if the tach over takes the speedo drastically you know your clutch is slipping.

However, if you are certain that the smell is coming from your exhaust you probably don't have a clutch problem. Check your plugs to determine if you are having a lean or rich condition. Also, it may be possible you have a clogged cat. After a long hard drive poke your head under the car and if you see something glowing it would indicate a clogged cat. Clogged cats have been known to emit Oder's as well.

Sorry I can't be of more help

M@

 

If you can smell a difference in the exaust fumes, more than likely is a fuel mixture problem. Its kinda hard to say you catalyc or O2 sensor is bad because of the little mileage you got. The car is farely new and these problems normally accur with higher milage cars. Have you done any work on it as a new exaust or header? Have you ever messed around with your ignition or distributor? Im gessing the computer is getting a wrong signal somewhere and flooding the engine with fuel. How is your gas milage? Check to make sure you are getting proper milage per gallon. If your getting poor milage your more than likely running rich. Have you thought of installing a VAFC?

Also it might not hurt to take the car to a dyno and have em pull one run. Your car should put down around 156-160whp. Anything less and something is wrong. Also make sure the dyno has a wideband O2 sensor so you can see what kinda fuel mixtures you got going on.

Hope this helps.

 

if your exhaust smells like rotton eggs the problem is in the cat converter and **** gas. and you probably should take it to another dealer. tell them the history and that the initial dealer cant seem to fix the car. the new dealer will eat that up and make sure it is fixed.. its a compotition thing among dealers. if one dealer cant fix it the next one will make sure they will. its a pride thing. LT feul trim is a voltage reference that the computer takes from the o2 to determine a rich or lean condition. your prelude should have a LT reading of .94 to 1.0 volts when at operating temp.


Modified by junbb1 at 5:55 AM 10/25/2003

 

I'd guess timing. Seems like you are describing the hesitation that is common among Preludes. Search the forum for posts about it.

 

Just wanted to give you all an update. The second time I took my car to the dealer they did a top engine treatment, and fuel additive. I have noticed over the last week that my car is running much better. It is still very randomly hesitating, but not near as often. So maybe what they used is working. I do have one question though. I pulled in the garage last night and my exhaust is still smelling like rotten eggs. What could cause this? It is now running much better so I am confused. I did tap on the MAP sensor because someone said that could be my problem. Could tapping on a good MAP sensor mess it up?

 

i already told you that the rotton egg smell is a bad cat conv. but unfortunatly warranty will not replacxe it without a DTC. also the reason why the cat goes bad like you describe with a rotten egg smell is due to shitty gas. now i know you may use ammaco or another top brand but we get shitty gas in america. get a magnafllow/carsound cat and the smell will be gone. your other hesitation i already told you about. take it to another dealer.

 

If your Cat is bad Honda has to warrent it.

**Federally required emission control warranties**

There are three specified major emission control components, covered for the first 8 years or 80,000 miles of vehicle use on 1995 and newer vehicles:

*Catalytic converters.
*The electronic emissions control unit or computer (ECU).
*The onboard emissions diagnostic device or computer (OBD).



Modified by Cottonwoodz at 11:53 PM 10/24/2003

 

yes i dounderstand that the cat in reality is not bad. i know that flow is also not affected, but the smell is awful and wont go away until the cat is replaced. the 03 accords are having a bad problem with this and all i can tell the customer is to try a different gas type. supposebly honda was going to have us reprogram the pcu for a fix but i think they realized that it wasnt going to solve anything.. gas is really bad in the southeast.

 

reset the ECU befor you do anything, Also you said you tapped the map sensor. Did your car start to run worse after you tapped it? If it did then you already know why your car runs the way you describe.

 

The smell comes and goes though. Wouldn't it smell like crap all the time if the cat was the problem? The hesitation has also diminished somewhat and is very random, that is why I am not wanting to take it back to the dealer until it gets more constant. Also, I sent you a PM did you get it?

 

it is the gas that creates the smell. but i have a service news from honda that this complaint may be a bad cat. i will get it at work on monday. you have to send me an email rather than im.

 

Just wanted to let you know that I took my car into Honda again yesterday. Of course the car wasn't acting up when I took it in. They said they did 5 tests, oil pressure, fuel trim, compression, valve clearance and something else. The service writer said they all came back good. They called Honda Corporate and were advised to replace the EGR valve, and do another top engine treatment. Hopefully this will fix the problem. They also said the exhaust could be smelling because of a bad EGR. It has run pretty well since I left, but the problem is intermittent, so I will give it about a week or two to know for sure. Could a bad EGR cause intermittent sluggishness after the car is driven for awhile? I would think a bad EGR would cause this problem all the time.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by junbb1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> second is i bet your intake valves are tight i have seen a number of 5 gen ludes where the intake valve are tight. i have also heard a couple guys at honda school say that they have had to replace heads for tight valves. for some reason on the newer heads the intake valves are sinking in the head. the tech that is working on the car needs to monitor LT fuel trim and that will tell if car is running rich. 2nd the egr valve needs to be monitored. if the valve is opening up by itself or too soon it will cause a pretty bad sputter. what is the history on the car, CEL's or past repairs. i have fixed a number of 5th gen ludes for this sort of problem so maybe i can help. if the car is under warranty have them fix the car for free, and if the techs there are not competent enough to fix it then take it to another dealer, but you should not have to be taking it back over and over for them to fix your car. that is rediculous.</TD></TR></TABLE>


i told you that your egr valve was most likely bad. now without looking at the car and monitoring the scan tool, its a guess, but a educated one. obviously the tech that was working on the car does not know how to read a scan tool. if he were to watch the egr valve while driving he could tell if it were acting up. but then again most of the techs that are at the dealer that i work at dont know how to read it either. your egr valve uses the tps sensor and rpm for operation. the valve only operates during partial throttle operation. full throttle the valve will stay shut in all rpms. but if an egr valve is opening to fast or irratically for conditions even under full throttle the car will hesitate or run poorly and will most likely not throw a CEL.

 

Another question for you. The car seems to be running a bit better, but once it got really warm tonight, I noticed just a hint of sluggishness. If the EGR was in fact my problem, would running it like that for two months make the cat bad? Or do you think once that top engine treatment burns the rest of the carbon out of the head it will stop the sluggishness for good?