Hey guys. Today I went and got a 2000 TL as my first car. We got a really good deal because the check engine light was on. So we drove it 130 miles home, and here is the problem...

(We bought the car with 205,000 miles on it. The previous owner bought it August of '08 from a dealer, with all maintenance up to date.)

The Check Engine light is blinking, along with TCS and Maintenance Required lights on. I know that it's time to change the timing belt and water pump, so we will get that done soon. It idles at around 400, and the engine is shaky in low RPMs. Once you get up into higher RPMs (around 3000), it isn't as bad.

But the reader is giving us these errors:
P0301: Cylinder 1 misfire
P0302: Cylinder 2 misfire
P0303: Cylinder 3 misfire
P0304: Cylinder 4 misfire
P0305: Cylinder 5 misfire
P0306: Cylinder 6 misfire
P0300: Random/Multiple Cylinder misfire
P1740: Definition unkown.

the previous owner said that he took it to someone to fix who mentioned some carbon in the engine or something?

I have read on here about replacing the coils, so would the timing belt, water pump, and coils be able to make it run better?

Thanks.

 

odds are its 1 maybe 2 coils. You may want to replace ALL spark plugs as you probably dont know whey they were last done? Buy one coil and start replacing 1 at a time with the new one to see if the CEL comes back on resetting the ECU after each cyl you try it on. See if you can get it to go away. Clean out the EGR ports as well.

Timing belt service should be done as well (but wont fix the problem, unless timing is off)

 

Alright, thanks. What cylinders should I start the coils at? Just go in order, or go some different order?

And are they hard to change?

 

Since the firing order is 1-4-2-5-3-6, and I've read that each coil takes care of the two after it, wouldn't replacing 1 and 5 supposedly fix them all?

 

There is one coil per cylinder (on each spark plug) so one coil does not fire more than one plug.

 

some guy in the blackmarket dcxxxx is selling 6 coils for like 60 bucks or something, thats cheaper than buying 1 new coil.

 

They're sold . I think I will take the car to Honda and see what they have to say. Then I'll come back and let you all know, and probably ask for more help.

 

no they're not sold!!! buy them from me! lol

 

Oh wow, I must have seen another thread! Well good, I'm really interested then!
Are they in good condition still?

And I'm not at the 15 day prerequisite yet, so I can't do PMs. If possible, just email me and we can work it out from there.

kyamcg (at) gmail (dot) com

(I don't see any rule about posting an email adress in the Posting Rules, so I hope that's OK)

 

what do you mean by timing is off? can you explain more?

 

email sent

 

Alright, looks like the problem is mostly fixed! I foud out that a spark plug was bad, not the coils. So I replaced them all and now I'm running on 6 cylinders again!

The engine sounds very nice now, but It's still got a little bit of shaking going on when revved low, and the exhaust sounds kind of like the Jetsons. Our good friend who works at Auto Zone said it was the resonator thingy, and possibly the catalytic converter. Would the catalytic converter being bad cause this? Also, would that cause a Random Misfire code?

The TCS light is on too, I can't figure out why? Sometimes I'll turn the car on and it won't be lit up, other times it is. Pushing the button doesn't make it go away.

 

Traction control light is gone now.
Took it out earlier around the block a few times, got cylinders 1,3,5 misfires, and random/multiple misfire codes.

Then I cleared those out.

A bit later, I took it to the gas station and added Gumout to help clean out injectors and stuff (then filled the tank like the directions say). When I got home and checked, I had 3,5,6 misfires, along with both "random/multiple" misfire codes.

I still need to do the timing belt, water pump, and oil change. Would this stuff plus a new catalytic converter make it run better? Also, would cleaning the fuel injectors help, and does anyone have a link to a good DIY?

Thanks guys. This is a lot of questions, but I'm fresh out of ideas.

 

I would start out with cyl 135 with the new coil.

Seafoam. Look up the seafoam DIY for cleaning injectors.

 

The timing. The timing belt if off a little would cause timing to be off and possibly throw codes or make the car not run right (and possible have valve tick). If it were off you would probably have other issues though. Something you shouldnt even worry about.

 

Looking up seafoam right now. How do I tell if a coil is bad? I pulled them out and the little springs were still pretty shiny.

DC, it looks like I might hit you up about those coils.

 

Seems like there are a lot of threads on here of people with similar problems.

Let's say I do seafoam, once the Gumout is done. That'll clean out the injectors. Would the cleaned injectors fix the misfire problems?

And as for bad coils.. I did the unplug-one-at-a-time method, and I can surely feel a difference once the misfiring cylinders are unplugged. Does that mean the coils are fine?

 

What about the bad spark plug? How do you know it was bad?

 

just let me know

 

I know it was bad because it looked burnt, the Auto Zone guy said "Whoa that's bad". Really, I did the one-by-one unplugging thing, and when I unplugged cylinder 1, nothing happened. Put a new plug in, and it started working better. (and makes a noticeable difference like all the other cylinders when unplugged)

 

did u just change one spark plug?

 

Post #12 states he replaced all of them.

 

^ o i c

 

Woohoo! Took the car to the Homda service center, and it looks like you all were right. They found out that it was just a bad coil, and replaced it. Now the car runs great!
Thanks for all of the help from you guys, and I'll seeya around the forums.


Btw, anyone who may be having the same problems... My coils looked fine when I checked, but apparently I was wrong. So if this is happening to you, find someone who knows how to tell for sure. And if one cylinder is misfiring, switch coils with another cylinder, and see if the problem moves. If it does, them your coil is bad.

 

yup, then you should buy your replacement from me

 

ha, I woulda, but it was only like an extra $20 for them to pit a new one in, over the cost of them evaluating what's wrong.

 

anytime the car has one misfire it throws all cylinder misfires. somtimes you can pinpoint the first cylinder to misfire by clearing them, restarting the car and watching the first code on a scan tool. Thats how i found out mine was #6

start by undoing one coil at a time and see the one that doesnt make a difference, then check plugs for wetness or dryness

mine was a broken #6 injector with teh same symptoms.

 

im getting the misfire in 1 2 3 4 5 6 and the random misfire code but my check engine light is not blinking so im pretty sure its not the coils. do you think i should just replace all spark plugs?

 

thinhthan, this is what I've learned to do....

With the engine running, pop the hood, and unplug each coil one at a time. Unplug it, and your engine should shake (It will be noticeable) (don't forget to plug each coil in before moving to another cylinder). If you unplug one coil and there is no noticeable difference in how it is idling, you have found the problem. Take the coil off that cylinder, and replace it with a coil from a different cylinder.
Then, try the unplugging method again. If the problem moves with the coil that you moved, then the coil is your problem. If the error is still on the same cylinder, it is your spark plug. Does this make sense? If not, I can make up an example that might help out.
Also, the cylinder may still fire, even with a bad coil. I thought that the coil was fine because it was firing, but it still misfired, so I replaced it and that solved the problem.

 

well i just replaced all the spark plug. the code that im gettingwith all the 0301 0302 0304 0305 0306 is 1399 which is random misfire.

 

Ok so it's not the spark plugs. Try checking the coils like I told you how to.

If they all seem fine (make the car run funky when unplugged) you can also do this...
Clear all codes
Turn the car on and see what code comes up first (what cylinder)
Swap that coil with another cylinder.
Clear codes
Turn on the car and see what code comes up now.
It should be the that you switched the bad coil to.
Replace that coil and clear out the codes.
viola!

 

its not a bad coil cause if it was my check engine would blink. i think it was just a loose battery terminal. i tighten it and so far so good

 

No. The cel light doesnt have to blink to get a misfire code.

 

oOOo. cause last time i had a bad coil my check engine blinked. so my check engine just came back on and when im driving high way i can feel it misfiring

 

I think I kinda understand you... lol. Im going to have a LONG day ahead of me tomorrow.

 

Alright. If you need more help, PM me, and I can try to explain it better. I know how bad it sucks, haha.

 

so today i did some current ramping and found out that my number 1 cylinder is bad. every other cylinder the current wave form was nice except number 1. the wave form didnt grow or anything so ima try to replace that coil and see whats up

 

thinhthan, get it fixed?

 

i just replaced the coil today so ill drive it around and tell you whats up tomorrow

 

Alright, PM me and keep me posted. Hopefully it's all good.