well, for the past 2 weeks or so, I've been having this problem with the R. The car would drive perfectly fine until I push the car a little bit and the rpm gauge reads 4000 rpm. After it hits 4000 rpm the powerband just disappears and there's no more power, the motor is still running and I can hear the motor reving but the car isnt going any faster. Then when I take my foot off the gas there's a large cloud of white smoke coming from my exhaust.

There will be sometimes where I could take it past 4000 rpm, but I would never be able to reach vtec. I checked oil level and it's right in the middle inbetween the 2 dots. I took the car to work today and I shifted to 2nd gear and began crusing towards the stop light, the rpms reached about 5200 and I lost powerband again.

My car ended up shutting down, I turned the ignition and the car started back up again with lots of white smoke coming from the exhaust the car quickly died out again. I then turned the ignition again, and the car started with a lot of white smoke again coming from the exhaust, but this time after the smoke the car ran fine with no idle problems. I took it slowly to work, and I just got home driving it from work slowly.

I'm just wondering what the problem could be, I will be taking the car to the dealership on my day off. Maybe there was something I could check before taking it there or if someone has had the same problem please post what happened and how you solved the problem.

thanks.

 

Does the car overheat? Have you checked your oil?

 

no the car isnt overheating, and oil level is right in the middle in between the 2 holes on the dipick.. Oh yea I should mention that, today at the light when the car shut down, the oil light and battery light turned on. After the car started the abs light turned on. I think this is normal but I'm not quite sure at this moment.

 

have you pulled you valve cover off lately?

 

White smoke=water, headgasket maybe? A leakdown would tell you.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtecvoodoo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">have you pulled you valve cover off lately?</TD></TR></TABLE>

nope, head has never been opened.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Austin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">White smoke=water, headgasket maybe? A leakdown would tell you.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yea, someone at work suggested that it might be my head gasket. I'll have to do that soon. If it's the head gasket what kind of damage am I looking at?

also if anyone else thinks it might be something else, feel free to chime in. I'd like to solve this problem as quickly as possible.

 

Basically check the oil looks milkish.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B2FiNiTY &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Basically check the oil looks milkish. </TD></TR></TABLE>

yea, I'll probably just do a oil change tomorrow or on monday my day off.

 

or take the radiator cap off and look for exhaust

 

how many miles on the car? with white smoke there is for sure something goning on with the motor. i would also check the tranny. might be something worong there. what do you mena that you are not able "to hit vtec"? are you not able to reach the RPM's above 5000? or are you not able to switch from the low to the high cam? and how are you able to tell you are nto switching?? sound? vafc? something else?

what recent modifications or service have you done on the car? is it new or used? if you are in the bay area...you coiuld bring it over to my house and we can see whats going on? but if the car is new and still under warranty, i suggest that you bring it to acura and see what they have to say. im sure austin could also come over and lend a hand!! (brign some wine!!!)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Art Vandeleigh &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how many miles on the car? with white smoke there is for sure something goning on with the motor. i would also check the tranny. might be something worong there. what do you mena that you are not able "to hit vtec"? are you not able to reach the RPM's above 5000? or are you not able to switch from the low to the high cam? and how are you able to tell you are nto switching?? sound? vafc? something else?

what recent modifications or service have you done on the car? is it new or used? if you are in the bay area...you coiuld bring it over to my house and we can see whats going on? but if the car is new and still under warranty, i suggest that you bring it to acura and see what they have to say. im sure austin could also come over and lend a hand!! (brign some wine!!!)</TD></TR></TABLE>

basically I can't get it to above 5500 rpms. It just bogs, only modifications are intake and a header. The car is a 98 itr, it has 81,000 miles on it now. I did an oil change about 2000 miles ago. Other than that I think thats it. Where in the bayarea are you located? I'll be down to come by if you don't mind checking out the car. I'm over in petaluma, about 30 minutes north of san rafael.

 

i live in SF with no parking but you are more then welcome to bring it to my mothers house in redwood city. 81K it might be the head gasket. do you have OIL all over in your engine bay?????? if not i dont think that would cause you to not rev higher then 5500 RPM. i highly doubt that. hwat kind of intake? have you checked that for any kind of defects? also the header...but still i doubt that would limit you to 5500 rpm. maybe check the injectors? have you ever had a check engine light?

what do you mean by bogs? does the car not able to go past 5500 rpm? physically? if you smash the throttle pedal? well in any case you are more then wlecome to come by. you are also in Austin territory. so maybe we can make this a diog event? PM him and see. i woudl be more then willing to come up there as well with the eqpt.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Art Vandeleigh &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i live in SF with no parking but you are more then welcome to bring it to my mothers house in redwood city. 81K it might be the head gasket. do you have OIL all over in your engine bay?????? if not i dont think that would cause you to not rev higher then 5500 RPM. i highly doubt that. hwat kind of intake? have you checked that for any kind of defects? also the header...but still i doubt that would limit you to 5500 rpm. maybe check the injectors? have you ever had a check engine light?

what do you mean by bogs? does the car not able to go past 5500 rpm? physically? if you smash the throttle pedal? well in any case you are more then wlecome to come by. you are also in Austin territory. so maybe we can make this a diog event? PM him and see. i woudl be more then willing to come up there as well with the eqpt. </TD></TR></TABLE>

yea, the engine bay is clean, no oil anywhere. The car physically does not let me reach pretty much 5000+ rpms, sometimes lower. Like I'll smash the pedal down to the floor and thats only when it happens. But sometimes I can cruise at 80 mph on the freeway without any problems but thats only if I reach 80 granny style. Shifting at under 4000 rpms and not stepping on the gas too hard.

its a injen cai, and a dc 4-1-1 header. But everything looks fine. I'm going to try and do an oil change on my spare time and maybe change the battery. See if any of that helps. Also doa leakdown test when I have time. As for the meet, my next day off is monday if your still interested.

 

Is your check engine light on indicating a trouble code? The way you describe it, sounds like your car is in limp mode for some reason.

 

nope no check engine light, just whenever I rev it too high huge clouds of white smoke come pouring from the exhaust....

 

well i would def. say STOP driving it , you could possibly be causing more damage by driving it depending on the problem..

I am no machanic but white smoke+dying out+missing powerband, would def. tell me not to drive it till i figure out and fix what is wrong. you dont want to have to buy a new motor do you?

 

sounds like he ran out of oil and continued to use the car and now he's baking it.
When was the last time you checked your oil on the caR?

 

take a look at your ignition components, check your distributor cap and rotor, if its black/dark brown or just looks fried then it needs to be replaced and could cause hesitation, don't know about smoke.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtec.dc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">take a look at your ignition components, check your distributor cap and rotor, if its black/dark brown or just looks fried then it needs to be replaced and could cause hesitation, don't know about smoke.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes do the above and see what happenes. also look at your spark plugs. check your fuel system as well. white smoke could mean the car is running lean and not getting enough fuel. this has happened to me. in my old supra, the fuel pump was fried and the engine was not getting enough fuel and would bog and only reach higher RPM's very slowly. i would also get huge amounts of white smoke...so check your fuel pump, fuel lines, fuel filter..etc.

but first check your ignition components. 81K you shoudl if you have not recently swap out the dist cap and rotor. good luck.

 

My guess is head gasket.

 

I have not yet run out of oil on my car. I did my oil change about 3 weeks ago (about 2,000 miles). I also checked my oil to see if I was low on oil when I parked at my work.

 

yea, I took my moms car to work today just to be safe. I am going to do a leakdown test monday and while im at get my friend to check the ignition components. I'll let you guys know the outcome. thanks again

 

Yea seriously dont drive it. It sounds like you have been cruising with this problem for sometime. Take it to acura and have them take a look. And dont tell them that you have been driving it a lot. Then they will start looking for reasons to rape you on things that prolly dont need to be replaced. Thats what my local acura dealership does. Good thing I know a little more about cars then most of the 60 year olds that buy the RL's

 

When my cat clogged up I had same problems, but without the smoke. Couldn't floor the car or it would just bog. Probably not the problem but just throwing something out there.