99 2.3CL 145,000 miles manual

My car started to misfire the other night. It misfired once about every mile or so, usually on hills. Today, it was misfiring for pretty much the entire trip. The CEL came on and started flashing. I got the CEL checked, said P0420, all cylinders misfired, plus a code for general random misfires. The misfires are mostly noticeable in the pre-vtech range. Any revs above 4000, and the amount of noticeable misfires decreases. Any thoughts? Bad wires? The Autozone tech said that a common problem between the codes is EGR, but i think the p0420 code came up well before this incident.

 

check the basics first-

Plugs, wires, and air filter.

Can you scan it again and see if you have any other codes?

 

http://www.obd-codes.com/p0420 may be this can help u.

 

p0420 is a bad cat

 

I'm having the same problem with my CL 2.3. Its most likely the cat converter.

 

Im not worried about the p0420 code at all. Im VERY familiar with it, not the first time ive run into it, my first 99 2.3CL had the same issue (without the misfire crazyness). So how about the cylinder misfires? Im gonna go ahead and do a tune-up tomorrow, any other thoughts as to why this would happen?

 

Found this buried deep within the archives,

https://acurazine.com/forums/1g-cl-problems-fixes-71/misfire-idle-problem-700940/

According to TexasHonda, EGR/tune-up is my best bet. Ill update tomorrow after the tune-up

 

I did mine when it misfired, the wires/plugs, my air filter was new.

I also changed the IACV and found out my MAF sensor went.

 

So i replaced the distributor cap/rotor this morning. This didnt fix anything... By the way, the bottom screw is such a pain to remove on the cap. that probably took an hour alone to get out.

After no success with the distributor, i decided to inspect the wires again, this time with the car running, ...safe

After pulling each wire out separately, i noticed that the 3rd cylinder from the left had the least impact on the low-idling engine. Every time i twisted it, the engine smoothed out. So i pull out the wire, and on its way out, a spark is arcing on the engine block... from the side of the jacket. I turn the car off and inspect the wire further. Turns out, there is a slight tear in the jacket that was arcing with the engine block... Dont really know how this caused all cylinders to misfire, but i assumed that it was the culprit.

So, i bought new wires, put them in, and the car runs like a champ.

 

Glad to hear it!

Anything with electrical components will run off if there's a short in the system.

If you think your problem is weird, try working on fighter aircraft.

 

Higher mileage cl's tend to end up with the p0420,po4021, etc. codes. Usually is a clogged/blocked egr. There should be a few write ups on here on how to clean it, super easy. Do the valve and under the plate, while you're at it it's a wise idea to clean your injectors/injector ports/injectors 0 rings. Had a p0420 a couple months ago and doing all this did the trick, haven't thrown a code since and it drives beautifully.