dgomen

First I would like to thank this community, I have used your site for research before and it is a great resource!

Now, I have a 97 CL 3.0 with 155,00 miles on it. Recently had the p0401 code and had a certified Acura shop clean my egr ports which cleared the code and allowed me to pass emissions. About 2 weeks later after driving at freeways speeds for 45 minutes one day I got off the hwy and my car came to a rough idle and stalled. I restarted and it was misfiring and idling very rough and would die. But once I got up to speed it seemed fine. This went on for days. Ran fine above let's say 2,000 rpm's but had an obvious misfire as the rpm's got lower and lower progressively worse as rpm's decreased, to the point of stalling.

I was scheduled to bring it back to the shop and after making a quick stop at the convenience store I tried to restart and it would just turn over and not fire. This went on after 4 or 5 attempts to start and finally it fired and started, BUT for some unknown reason the misfire was now gone, completely! Idles smooth as silk and runs fine. Of course the shop said they would not be able to diagnose it unless it was having the issues described so now I am left to wonder if this problem is left to rear its ugly head again at the most in opportune time.

There was no other symptoms. No surging, no misfire at higher rpm's, no gas smells, no obvious loss of gas mileage and no loss of HP. The only common denominator is that I had just had my egr ports cleaned 2 weeks prior. I am the original owner and the car has been well maintained. Tune up was about 10k miles ago. Any ideas are welcome...and ty

Project_CLean

iTrader: (2)

Clogged fuel filter?
If it was a bad plug or something; it shouldn't disappear like that.

dgomen

Well agree with it not being a bad plug or something related, doesn't make sense. But neither does a fuel filter since the engine ran fun above around 2,000 rpm's. Being that if it was a filter or pump for that matter it would probably be worse in higher rpm's. This is why I am a bit dumbfounded. I am starting to think maybe the idle control valve but again I always thought if those malfunctioned it would give you a fluctuating rpm, not an actual misfire. But since I posted this I have had someone tell me they have seen ICV's do this. Anyone else see this before?

And thanks for the response Project_CLean

Project_CLean

iTrader: (2)

yes. and although mostly seen thru idle issues; the IACV can cause misfires. sometimes they actually stick;causing inaddequate mixtures.Try cleaning it out. if you remove it there should be screens there that you can clear up with some Carb or Brake cleaner.
From my experience; high rpm misfires or stalls is usually a fuel pump, low rpms possibly a clogged fuel filter not letting fuel get by without the necessary pressure.
but hey; you start small and work your way up. let me know what happens.

dgomen

Ok Project_CLean sounds like a good plan, I will keep the thread up to date.

dakaus89

i too have this problem, i changed the plugs and wires mainly because it needed a tuneup but now off to the filter