Jordy Spaur

Hey Guys,

Just got a question for all of you fellow 3rd Gen TL Owners. It all started today with my usual Sunday drive up the freeway about 10 miles. I arrived at my destination no problem.

When I left a few hours later though, I stopped by a Safeway that was right off the freeway entrance/exit I use. I sat a few minutes at an idle, casually revving my engine up to 2k a few times. When I decided to leave, I noticed that my attempt to make a dramatic exit failed when my cars spunkiness seemed to vanish.

So I thought about this, and drove off hard from the stop sign I had to stop at. Still having the same sluggish feeling. I noticed that my gas gauge was buried, and since I was on the way to my usual Shell Station for fuel, I figured maybe this would magically solve my issues. Well, unfortunately, it did not.

So I drove home, occasionally getting on the gas pedal a few times to reassure myself the sensation I was getting was accurate.

Here is some background info: My car just turned over to 189'250 miles. I just had an oil change a few hundred miles ago. My transmission has been flushed, but that was back in August when I had about 185'000 miles on the car. The transmission was rebuilt around 58'000 miles. I only ever put premium from Shell into my gas tank.

I would like to say that I don't rod the crap out of my car, but I do like to indulge in the power delivery. I guess my only downfall is that I like to slow down to about 15, put my car into low, and then drive the car to about 30 or 35, then put it back into drive. I'm usually only about a 1/3 to 1/2 into the throttle, just enough to briskly get up to speed and for me to hear the stage 3 exhaust setup I have.

I know these cars do have quirky transmissions and that I probably shouldn't mess around too much with this car if I was to make it successfully get up to 200'000 miles.

I did spend most of the day driving someone else's car, which does have more power than mine. So, I hope I am not just expecting too much out of my car, and mistaking a lack in power compared to my friends car as a problem.

I don't have a check engine light on, so that should be reassuring to me I guess.

Two test I did to judge the power delivery was (1) how much wheel spin I had at a stationary full throttle start and (2) a 0-60 on the freeway on-ramp. I noticed it seemed like there was less wheel spin and felt a little sluggish on take off, but the 0-60 seems to be accurate (considering I was going up hill, slightly).

Just driving around on my back roads, taking corners while accelerating, it seemed that I was pretty well into the accelerator and I wasn't getting the power I used to.

I can confidently confirm that my transmission isn't slipping, however shifts do seem a bit softer.

Tomorrow, on my drive to work, I will be the judge of things. I guess if all else fails, there is a local hole-in-the-wall Acura repair shop. I could ask them to connect a scan tool to see what my parameters are.

I hope I am blowing things out of proportion and doing my typical self-diagnosis that I was notorious for with my old Taurus.

To conclude, I am not hearing any whining from the transmission, at least not anymore than I already have. I know this generation has a bit of whine in 1st gear, I hear that on every 0-60 video I have seen on YouTube.

One thought I had was the APP or the APS (Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor). I am sure that if that was on it's way out, that I would be encountering larger problems, in addition to a check engine light.

DMZ

Did you ever have the fuel injection system professionally cleaned? I just had it done recently and it made a huge difference. They took apart the throttle body and found it to be all cruded up after 148K.

I use Shell V-Power too, but unfortunately that's not enough.
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LaCostaRacer

Sorry but there's a lot of subjective information in your post Jordy.

Have you timed your 0-60? You should easily get a sub-7 second 0-60 if the car is performing adequately. If it's higher then you really do have a sluggish problem and then you need to determine why. It could be you ECU programming or possibly your transmission slipping or perhaps your engine is weak.

With that in mind, you should try resetting the ECU and see if that makes a difference- there's a thread on what to do.

Jordy Spaur

Thanks for the quick responses guys! After some looking around, I concluded that my problems revolved around my air intake mod failing. After removing the intake resonator, and attaching the velocity stack back on to the bottom section of the air box, the rubber seal that connects the velocity stack to the bottom of the air box had disconnected, allowing hot air from the engine bay to be sucked into the engine. After reconnecting the velocity stack, and using a hose clamp to secure my fitting, I test drove my car to find that the performance is back up to par my friends! My car is just as ferocious as before! Watch out! Imma beat your Camaro honey! (Funny, because I did beat a brand new V6 Camaro with my car a few months ago, even with all these miles on it)

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Always something simple! Now clean that poor engine that has has unfiltered air running through it!

MEKO

iTrader: (1)

^J. how do you do that?

+as I understood, air was filtered, just not enough air to flow

but OP, that's like impossible from dead to 60 or something
That wouldn't create a big chage to bother you

Then think about the stock intake
That gets no air at low speeds, just no way

dropping the velocity stack and not having resonator and such should at least be faster than stock intake

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I think it was attached and was partially sucking in engine bay unfiltered air!


Seafoam, baby!

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

I'd never use seafoam.
chances are you didnt dirty anything in the engine.

the air was still filtered.

DMZ

Why didn't you tell us you have an air intake mod in your original post?

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rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I'd use seafoam...I have many times and I love it.

If the air he normally takes in is not from the engine bay (which is implied by his shock at the hot air being the cause of sluggishness)...then we should be able to deduce that his filter is fitted on the end of a tube that runs out of the engine bay...if he was taking in hot engine bay air because something was disconnected, I think we can safely infer that he was sucking in unfiltered air.

I might be wrong...
but Justin might be crazy...

or both.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

^not needed.

Ive taken off my intake manifold several times and its freaking clean.
I'd expect yours to be clean as well, without applying seafoam.

it doesnt increase MPGs.
so not sure why the use of seafoam.


Edit.
unfiltered air - anything other than sand will just get burned up and out through the exhaust.
no worries there.

edit*
since we are on the subject of keeping the intake manifold clean; install an oil catch can and remove the EGR valve.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

...ok, then why bother with a filter? It sounds meaning with nothing!

Seafoam cleans injectors etc, supposedly...I've had great luck with clearing emissions codes etc...and having the car run really smoothly after application. Could be the bottle of placebo I poured in at the same time though.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

the filter is for sand! lol
and we're speculating his intake setup....we are guessing until he chimes in.

sand doesnt burn up...which mean it doesnt compress!
remember the smurf blue intake manifold i had?
I didnt completely clean it out.
the first start up was AWESOME! lol high idle and I could have sworn some back fire!
paint chips burnt up and exited through exhaust.

I hate cars

Seafoam is the placebo effect at it's best. Anyone who has had these engines apart knows there's NOTHING to clean. Not in the intake tract, not in the oil pan, not in the combustion chamber.

At 113,000 miles my intake valves and intake ports looked like a newly assembled engine. The intake manifold had a golden color but nothing that would rob a tenth of a hp. Piston tops were still shiny when I did the plugs at the same time. Unless there is something wrong with the engine, it's completely impossible for Seafoam to do anything but potentially cause issues.

Back to the topic, a velocity stack BEFORE the filter? Just want to make sure that's the setup before I go on. Generally anything before the throttlebody is going to make no difference. All you need is to have no restriction and cool air and you've done all you can do. There is no real tuning BEFORE the throttlebody.

I hate cars

Lol. It might be that.

The air filter is mostly for sand like Justin said. It's the most important filter on the car. Sand won't stick to the intake tract and build up for a power loss, it will enter the combustion chamber and destroy the rings and cylinder walls. The stuff that typically causes a power loss is PCV and EGR over time. If you want to see extreme examples, google direct injection and something like "dirty intake" include the word porsche, audi, or vw and you'll see the extreme cases. Seafoam would help something like that but you really don't want to send the crap through the combustion chamber, it's better to pull the intake tract apart and hand clean. For what it's worth it would be impossible to ever see something as bad as the direct injection guys with our cars.

Jordy Spaur

I didn't mention the mod because (1) it was not the first idea that popped into my mind, and (2) I thought I had done a well enough job the first time. And to stand corrected, I do have an air filter. I am using the stock air filter. With the hood opened, everything appears stock in my engine bay. It's underneath where the magic happens. There is enough if the tubing from where the resonator was cut off, plus the length of the velocity stack to extend the tubing almost directly in front of the driver side vent in the front bumper. Just wanted to clear any confusion. I will take pictures and post them.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

oh, and as long as you're running premium gas then no worries for injector build up!

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

you did good!
no worries!!

Jordy Spaur

Well I am having trouble uploading pictures, I guess AcuraZine cannot handle the size of photos my iPhone takes. Any suggestions? I would really like to conquer the photo uploads on this website.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

umm do like we all do and host the photos to a photo sharing site like photobucket, flickr, etc.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I stand correctly...
I'm so dumb.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

you spelled awesome wrong