So I was on my way to pittsburgh today and pulled into a gas station at breezewood, right when i was slowing down and about to turn it off, the engine began to vibrate significantly and become really rough...turned it off, filled up and when I started up again, it struggled to turn on and when it finally turned, you can feel it vibrate like crazy. Ended up driving carefully to a garage down the road...engine light came on on my way there although when the engine picked up rpm's it smoothed out...the garage couldnt diagnose my engine code but they figured it was a coil? or a spark plug or something, they thought the pistons were misfiring as the exhaust was sputtering at idle. So they couldnt really fix it (domestic shop) so I ended up driving it a couple hrs back home to dc...it seems to run smoothly at high rpms and only when I get to low rpms does it get rough...anyways, I need to wait until monday to take it to my local acura shop. Hopefully I just need a new spark plug or something...replaced the suckers @ 60k might be time for new ones...

 

When was the last time you change ATF? Also you should consider changing timing belt, and water pump if you haven't already done that.

 

I just changed both fairly recently. I believe ATF was done at 90k and timing belt was just done @ 105k

 

so you drove it a few hours with the CEL on? Thats not good. If it was misfiring then something is probably more F'd up now. I would say maybe it was bad gas- but you said it started right before you filed up right? I dont know what to tell ya, good luck and try not to get ripped off...

 

When Acura checks it, it might be a bad EGR valve- my car did exactly the same thing a few years ago- mine was fixed under warranty, and it's been fine since.

 

it could be a variety of things from lack of fuel because of a fail fuel pump, spark plugs, coils, oxygen sensor, etc. Get the codes read and go from there!

 

Ill go with plugs or coils. I had a similar issue a few weeks ago. Car would sputter at idle and start to misfire after a minute of idling. I was using a non oem recommended plug for my boosted application but they were no good.

When I pulled the plugs they seemed VERY loose as well which was possible causing misfire

What code did it throw?

 

Sounds like you had a misfire. Under any condition when you have a misfire and the CEL is FLASHING or SOLID on do not drive the vehicle. Flashing cel is one that can damage your cats. As mentioned above

1. Bad plug(s)
2. Bad injector(s)/Clogged injector(s)
3. Bad coil(s)
4. Timing belt streched, jumped a tooth
5. Short in ECU
6. Poor Quality gas-pinging.

 

Ok, I got it diagnosed at the mechanic. Car spat out 3 error codes, one was for the bad coil, one was for the bad EGR sensor, and one was for the computer (which the mechanic said could have been tripped by the egr sensor)

Getting the Coils replaced
He cleaned out the manifold which he said was all gunked up. Advised me to avoid using Amsoil because although it does lubricate well, it gunks the engine up...
He'll finish up the sensor by tomorrow.

 

you only need 1 coil in most cases- the codes say muliple misfire because its not sure
those things are 50 bucks each--part is often damaged during plug change by setting down too hard,and fails some months later

the rest of the codes are probably false
after finding which cyl really needs the coil- reset the ecu via CLOCK fuse removal and drive- re-ck for codes

 

the EGR ports in the intake manifold clog up really bad- need to pull the intake and clean with carb cleaner and wire coat hanger poked thru the holes and passageways to remove crud buildup
Its a normal part of combustion- not blamed on your oil choice- it happens to all cars but the TL is prone to easy clogging,,,
and based on gen2 experience- every 75kmiles it needs to be cleaned out!!
remove the egr valve and lube its operating arm too--plus clean the port at that end

 

The mechanic said he's had to replace these coils on a number of 3g's lately. I have a feeling a lot of folks are going to be experiencing this exact issue shortly.

Does Seafoam help keep that manifold clean?

 

I would LOVE to hear his explanation for that one...

 

he went into it briefly, talked about getting the oil analyzed at that lab in PA (blackstone?), and said something about it having lower metal content than other oils. This would sortof make sense. Either an oil can be a great lubricant (remaining viscous but not suspending a lot of particles) or a good cleaner (picks up lots of particles but as a result, viscosity deteriorates rapidly), but it cant be both because they contradict each other.

 

I don't want to get into oil debate in your thread. I'll briefly say the oil analysis can't tell you wear. In fact, many oils that show high wear in Blackstone tests like Amsoil and especially Redline show much less actual wear at teardown or during a particle count. The Blackstone test like most others only measures very fine metal or oxidation from cleaning which shows up as wear when in reality it's not. The larger wear particles that are actual wear aren't able to be picked up in that test. It's good for showing oil life, engine tune, coolant in the oil but not wear. It's not the mechanic's fault, misinformation about oil analysis has been out there for many years and not many people until now have stood up to dispute it. If I were you, I would continue using Amsoil with no worries.

 

To contribute something useful to this thread, EGR might have been plugged but that won't cause it to run rough. It can cause slight pinging when under load but not a misfire. Now if the EGR was stuck on slightly, it would do exactly what yours is doing.

I'm going with coils too although it's very possible the EGR was stuck on.

Fuel system would act up more at higher rpms and load which sounds like the opposite of what yours is doing.

Does it idle rough and then "clean up" instantly as you raise the rpms or just smooth out more and more as the rpms are raised?

Could be a compression issue but not likely.

 

The guy had to replace the EGR valve & the EGR valve gasket. It seemed to clean up instantly as I raised rpms.

1100 worth of repairs. ouch.

 

DAMN.... Thats alot of money? Can you not do this work yourself?! Its very easy to change coils and an EGR! Did they end up replacing all the coils?

 

$1100???? Yikes... What exactly did they do?

 

$420 labor - cleaning manifold, replacing egr valve+gasket, replacing coils
$662 in parts - 6 coils for 545, egr valve @ 110, gasket 7