I bought my CL-S April 2000 and I've always thought that my car isn't as powerful as it should be for 260 HP. I've recently been thinking that the car may be badged wrong as a Type S and that I've been driving a 225 CL for the last few years.

I met someone recently that also owns a type S and he told me about the actuator being bad and I searched the forum today and saw this post from 2001:

"The actuator is what opens up the butterfly in the intake allowing much more air in. It opens at 3800 rpm on a Type S. The premium doesn't have one. Vtec will still switch over, but without the extra air, it won't be as powerful."


I'm not a real car guy and would like any comments you may have on this. I'm getting my car service next week, should I have them look at this ? Car is out of warranty, wonder how much it'll be to fix it if it is in fact the problem.

thanks,

Dave

 

you can check it yourself

open the hood, remove the plastic cover on the engine, rev the car and you should see the actuator move

 

Here's a link to some pics/video of the actuator:

http://www.geocities.com/gamesmgr/chod/acura/#Driving6

You should be able to easily see it open/close by having someone rev the engine above 4100rpms while in park or neutral and watch it standing in front of the car.