Polaris573

Well I bought my 1998 3.0 CL about a month ago and the CEL light was on because of misfires on a few of the cylinders, I can't remember which ones. I replaced the plugs and the misfires went away. I'm fairly certain they were the original plugs because they were pretty badly worn. Did NGK make the spark plugs that the car rolled out of the factory with? The CEL came back a few days ago for misfires on cylinders 3 & 6. So I replaced the distributor cap and rotor because they appeared to be the original ones too, but the misfires are still occurring. I'm going to do the plug wires tomorrow morning because they say 1998 on them and are probably original too.

If that doesn't fix the problem does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should try next? I know I should probably wait to see if the problem goes away before posting, but if it doesn't work I would like to have a couple of your suggestions ready that I could try.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

You might want to take it to a mechanic and get a compression test done. Depending on the outcome, the results might tell you whether you have bent exhaust valves or not. But I hope this isn't the case, as repairs can get pricey.

whiteyy97CL

check the resistance on the plug wires. see if your three and six wires are out of spec. if it is you'll know before you even change them.

Polaris573

Yeah I checked the resistance on the wire for 6 earlier and it was 15.45 kilohms which I guess is in spec, so I'm getting kind of concerned. I haven't checked the wire for 3 yet. My only hope really is that they're not making good contact with the plugs.

Polaris573

Bah the other wire read 7.6 KO. Not a good sign for a simple and cheap resolution.

Would it be worth checking the timing if I could find a timing light to borrow?

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

Tread lightly here, a misfire could be a sign of bad news to come.
Might want to take princelys advice and get a mechanic to check things out and/or have the compression tested.

Polaris573

I replaced the wires for all the cylinders and inspected the plugs for cylinders 3 & 6 even though they were new. The plugs looked fine and gap checked out.

I drove it about half an hour on a route that included city driving with lots of stop lights as well as some interstate time. Parked it and let it sit a few minutes about half way through so I could restart it in case the misfire is at ignition and put it through WOT twice. The CEL did not come on this time, but the last two trips I made on this route did set it off.

I'm hoping all is well and that it just need me to complete the tune-up since it evidently has never been done in 11 years (172,000 miles). I know propaganda says Honda engines are reliable, but I think that's a little much for any engine. I'll take it for another drive in a few hours to see how it fairs.

Even if the CEL doesn't come on again I'll take it by a mechanic in the near future for a compression test. I just don't have any mechanics here in Fayetteville that I trust since my old car never needed one while I've been at college and I don't really want to take it to the stealership either. It always sucks going to a new mechanic especially when you're not sure what's wrong.

How much money should a compression test cost?

Polaris573

Well F*** the CEL lit up on the second drive this time only for cylinder 3.

A friend of mine is going to do a compression test for me tonight. He brought up an interesting point though. It's always cylinder 3 and 6 at the end of the fuel lines. Since the Fuel filter is most like original just like the plugs, wires, and cap/rotor it might be low fuel pressure not getting enough fuel to the last cylinders because of low pressure?

Polaris573

Replaced the fuel filter this afternoon with no effect.

The compression test went well, but there were sparks flying from down by the starter because a nut had somehow come completely off. Which was really scary because I sprayed fuel all over the engine bay when replacing the filter this afternoon and didn't know about the sparking . I seriously doubt this was the problem, but I've got my fingers crossed. You never know.

In summary

• Fuel filter replaced
• Spark plugs and wires replaced
• Air filter replaced
• Distributor cap and rotor replaced
• Compression fine
• Put fuel injector cleaner in the tank

What should I do next? The ignition coil was within tolerance when I checked the resistance. Should I replace it anyway? Should I replace the whole distributor?

whiteyy97CL

lol i know what you're going thru man i'm keeping my fingers crossed for ya.. good luck!

Polaris573

I'm going to move the spark plugs to different cylinders and see if the problem goes with it. I know it's pretty rare that two plugs would be defective from the factory and I would get them both at once, but I'm already grasping at straws here.

whiteyy97CL

i read that you put injector cleaner thru the gas but have you thought of getting an injection service it couldn't hurt? lol i'm grasping at straws here too tryin to help. k so we know we have good spark cuz you've replaced the plugs,wires etc.. and i'm pretty sure your intake tubing isn't plugged and with a new air filter i'm sure its flowing fine. so.. what left to make combustion? fuel.. so i mean, deduction would point to it being a problem with your fuel delivery like your friend said. have you checked the fuel pressure at the fuel filter? perhaps a weak fuel pump. somewhat blocked fuel lines are lowering the fuel pressure and its not getting enough psi to reach those last two cylinders? my two cents

Polaris573

No. I haven't checked fuel pressure yet. I don't have the equipment to do that. Maybe I can find someone to rent/borrow it from.

I've been doing all of this stuff out in my apartment complex parking lot, except for the compression test. With lots of people stopping and watching me asking inane questions.
Can't leave my tools laying out either so I have to put them in my car even for a bathroom break. It's getting kind of tiresome. Just needed to rant.

Polaris573

I noticed some cracks in the tube leading from my air filter to the intake manifold. I don't know if they go all the way through, but if they do could this be the problem or would it throw a MAF error too?

whiteyy97CL

umm.. hmm.. well the MAF registers the amount of air being drawn into the engine and then uses those outputs to calculate injector pulse width (how long the injectors stay open) so i can't really see this causing the problem because it would recognize and compensate for the extra (or lack of) air that may happen to be coming in i would think..?

whiteyy97CL

i did some reading and it seems like the MAF problems that those leaks would cause usually result in misfires in all cylinders (random) not like your case with repeated misfires in only two of six cylinders. so.. now i'd just say go ahead and have the fuel pressure checked along with the fuel pump to make sure the fuel pump is running strong and that the fuel lines are clear. you have to take it step by step otherwise you just get overwhelmed with all this stuff. i went through this with the misfiring on my 2.2 when my EGR ports were plugged. i replaced everything you did before i read about the EGR manifold and its problems. three of four ports were plugged on my manifold which was dumping too much air into cylinder one making it misfire.

Polaris573

Thanks. I'll figure out some way to get the equipment to test the fuel pressure.

Polaris573

I left the CEL uncleared for a while to see if the memory would accumulate misfire warnings on other cylinders, and because I'm out of money to tinker with it for the time being so I haven't tried anything new yet. The CEL turned off... not sure that's a good thing or not. A very intermittent misfire could be even more annoying to find.

Polaris573

It's back. Light came on yesterday and then disappeared today. This time reporting on 2-3-6 cylinders along with a random misfire code. Strongly suspect the misfire is during idle because it came on when I was doing a lot of city driving. Three suspects for right now. Voltage drop when putting load on system (engine feels rougher when turn signal is on at idle) maybe ELD? Also considering the ignition coil because I haven't replaced it yet. Possible vacuum leak around the intake manifold because when the shop cleaned my EGR port they re-used the gaskets (much to my dismay. I should have done it myself and taken the opportunity to install thermoblock spacers).

I've ordered new fuse box for an ELD (used eBay) and a new ignition coil.

Polaris573

Mechanic time. I give up.

Polaris573

I don't know why I'm posting. I've made the last 5 posts so nobody seems interested, but maybe it will help someone in the future.

Got the car back from the shop today. They said the Duralast spark plug wires I got from Autozone were junk. They replaced the wire on a cylinder they were getting a misfire on and it went away and said they weren't getting misfires from the other cylinders (they're misfiring). CEL came back on two miles away from the shop, no idea which cylinders the CEL is for yet. I guess I'll try Honda wires and see if that helps. If it doesn't I'll be pretty disappointed in the Mechanic I tried. I'm away at college so couldn't take the car to my usual mechanic and had to try a new one. They specialize in Hondas, looked reputable, and the mechanics were friendly and nice, but I'm not sure they tried hard enough. Guess I'll know tomorrow when I put the Honda wires on and return the autozone ones.

Polaris573

Wires didn't fix the problem. Now they think maybe injectors, but had to stop work for the day and will resume in the morning.

If I have to buy new injectors what should I get? The ones from acuraautomotiveparts.org or from somewhere else? Any suggestions?