Anyone experienced a situation in which the vtec solenoid kicks in and it does so very loud. When it does the engine acts almost as if it loses power. Any help? Should I start by replacing the solenoid?

 

Year, make, model, ECU, mods, check engine light on? You have to give at least this amount of info.

 

Of course. Sorry. It's a 2000 civic si. P2T ecu. No CEL. 142k original miles. No mods otherv th Han headers and cold air. I also noticed that the cruising rpm is higher by a bit than my d16y8. At 80mph I'm at 4500rpm in the 2000. My 91 hatch only runs about 3300. Just informing you in case they might be related problems.

 

CEL came on this morning on the way to work. Can't get it into the shop or to check the CEL til tonight. Car feels like I'm towing something. Couldn't get over 80 with it floored going up very small inclines on the highway. No smoke. No knocks. Cooling like normal. No smells or odd noises. Idles fine. Can't be vtec causing it. Clutch is new.

Transmission???

No slipping at all. Just weak as hell :-/

 

CEL came on yesterday. PO170 and PO172.
O2 and map sensors are new and working. My hp and torque are in the toilet. Can't maintain speed uphill. Not even able to downshift to do so. I only have dc headers and dc exhaust system with a new cat, and dc cold air. No other mods. I guess I'm gonna shop it. It's a fuel air delivery code. Would that cause such a drastic loss of power? Like I said before, it feels like I'm towing a trailer. Lol.
Oh, and no missing or misfiring that I can tell.

 

Could b it also be possible that the problem is that the ecu is not functioning properly because of the headers? Maybe I need to program my ecu in order to bypass the o2 sensors. It's and OBD2. I have an OBD1 at home that I can order a basemap chip for and a conversion harness.

 

So I had the problem fixed and I wouldn't have guessed it. I realize I'm the only one on this forum but maybe it'll help someone down the road. Turns out that the first denso o2 sensor went faulty. At that point the flooding of the motor began to clog the cat. The cat, which was relatively new, was ruined and needed replaced. Put a Magnaflow high output cat on and problem solved!!

 

sorry I'm late to your post, but I can back up what happened to you. As it happened to me. I replaced my primary o2 sensor, and the new one was faulty causing surging at higher speeds, lack of acceleration, etc. Luckily it wasn't running rich but lean on mine so the cat wasn't destroyed. I replaced it with another new o2 sensor, this time it was working properly.. but..Glad you were able to fix yours!

 

Yeah I ran through a lot of potential problems in my mind and I investigated before I shopped it. I'm just glad it was something simple.