2001 CL Type-S -- Shuddering / Rough Idle
 

About 3 weeks ago, I went to start my car in the morning and it began acting very strange. It was idling very very rough and then it began shuddering on the highway. More I drove the rougher it got, you could smell gas fumes coming out of the exhaust; I think every light on the dashboard was flashing at me.. Took it in and they replaced all the spark plugs and all the ignition coils.

When I got it back, it was very smooth and drove GREAT!! However, after about 30 miles of driving, I started to feel the shuddering come back gradually. Over the past week it is now back to the same state it was before it was worked on. HELP!!!! It is throwing error codes P0301, P0302, P0304, P0305, P0306, P0300, and P1399.

My next assumption would be that the fuel injectors are bad, but that wouldn't explain why it ran perfectly after having the ignition coils replaced, only to degrade in performance again slowly. Is there something else that I'm missing that could explain all of this?

May be be the fuel pump relay
https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-cl-problems-fixes-70/fuel-pump-relay-problem-495108/
Or a bad IAC valve.
Clogged cat or bad cat & 02 sensors are other items to check.

Would any of those items listed explain why the car ran fine after the ignition coils were all replaced, and then slowly degraded again over a 7 to 10 day period?

I'm assuming if it was the cat, that it would have ran bad even after replacing the coils.

Could any of those problems listed caused the ignition coils to go bad, or maybe they weren't really bad at all? Perhaps a bad O2 sensor could cause the plugs to fowl?

OK, so the garage I'm taking my car to just replaced the ignition coils and spark plugs AGAIN!!! They said the plugs were all fowled after being replaced 2 WEEKS ago, and two of the new ignition coils were already cracked. They said they couldn't find any other problems with it and said it drives fine now.

It's pretty obvious that there is something else wrong if brand new parts are fowling after a week or two of being replaced, and that most likely, I'm only going to have a few days with my car again before everything goes to hell.

I'm really relying on you guys now, surely someone else has had a similar problem????

Shawn

I held my hand over the exhaust to test the catalytic converter, and it seems fine. It does the puff, puff, puff.

hmm, did you recently change the type of gas you use?

I have a 2001 Acura 3.2 cl type s and I just fixed the catalytic the IAC valve and the O2 senors. So my mechanic told me to drive it around before I go smog it,but just after 14 miles I put my car in park and it started to Idle. What else could be possibly wrong. I've put so much money in this car already more than it's worth. HELP!

If check engine light is on, take it to AutoZone and ask them to read codes for you and go from there. It is free at least in my area.

I second pkCL with checking the codes. I know the one time I got a list of codes like that it came down to one coil that went bad. Not sure how mechanically inclined you are or if you’re willing to do the grunt work of testing them individually. Without a serious compression/ignition problem I find it hard to believe that the coils cracked/plugs fouled that quickly.

Are you using premium fuel only? This car is unable to adjust timing based on the octane so if you’re using a lower grade premium or not using premium at all then you’re asking for issues across the board.

Those are the quick things you can check after they ‘changed the parts again’. My experience with workin in a shop for many years has always been to show customers the parts I replaced to educate them on what we did and why it was necessary. If they’re just throwing parts at it then they didn’t diagnosis it properly the first time or they weren’t transparent on what they were doing the first time around. Just my two cents on how I dealt with customers coming from other shops with complaints and how I worked with a vehicle coming back after repair. Good luck!

Well I've always used premium gas, and about the check engine; it is not on. It use to have the 02 and the catalytic codes but those were fixed and it was once they were fixed when the idling stared.

It started to happen after the IAC valve replaced, correct ?
If this is the case, that is your clue

Yes, I've replaced it twice. once in April the other a few days ago.

Do you know if the mechanic performed the 'Idle Relearn' procedure after replacing the IAC valve? If not, perform the simple procedure below.

It's important that this is done to help achieve a stable idle.

Easiest way to do 'Idle Relearn':
Pull the Number 13 clock back-up fuse, in the passenger under-dash fuse box (usually on the side of dash, like the driver side one), (wait a few seconds) reinsert fuse.
Turn all electrical devices off: radio, AC fan, lights etc.
Start the car and just let it sit and idle for three fan cycles. Don't touch the gas pedal. Listen for the cooling fans to go on & off three times. This may take tens of minutes.

Hopefully you will have a stable idle, as a result.:)

I always forget about the IAC. I’m not sure about the relearn, I don’t remember that (been a few years since I did the repair on my old CL-S). I know that the first time I replaced I tried to save money with a less expensive aftermarket part. Can shop RockAuto (vendor on here always has discounts) or similar places and make sure you have the OEM part. That was part of my issue at one point.

For a 2G CL/TL with cable operated throttle body.

The idle relearn procedure must be done so the ECM/PCM can learn the engine idle characteristics. Do the idle learn procedure whenever you do any of these actions:

• Reset the ECM/PCM.
• Remove the battery or disconnect its terminals.
• Remove the ECM/PCM or disconnect its connectors.
• Remove the driver's or passenger's under-dash fuse/relay box.
• Remove the BATTERY(12oA) fuse from the under-hood fuse/relay box.
• Remove the BACK-UP, ACC(40A) fuse from the under-hood fuse/relay box.
• Remove the No.13 CLOCK, BACK-UP(15A) fuse from the passenger's under-dash fuse/relay box.
• Remove the PGM-FI main relay.
• Disconnect the starter cable terminal from the under-hood fuse/relay box.
• Disconnect the connectors between the engine wire harness and the left engine compartment wire harness.
• Disconnect the connectors between dashboard wire harness A and dashboard wire harness B.
• Disconnect the ground terminals, G1,G2,G101, and G102.

Since the IACV controls the idle, upon replacement of a faulty IACV, you would logically want to perform the idle learn procedure even though it is not listed above.

Furthermore, I believe the procedure is different for the drive-by-wire 3G TL; whereas, one has to actually take the car to the dealer so they can reset the throttle position sensor and program an idle learn with a specialty scanner, not sure though.