Timeless

I recently got my car inspected at my friends friends gas station. Its a no name station and all went well, the car passed and I desperately needed fuel (orange light on), so I got some. I told the attendant to put in $20 premium.

I drive around for the day and after about 20 miles the CEL comes on. No big deal. I figure the attendant didn't tighten the gas cap all the way so I take it off then tighten it many clicks.

I get home and park the car. I notice a slightly rough idle and the exhaust has a spitting/puffing sound. Weird...As I bring the rpms up, spitting sound increases in frequency. I decide to deal with it in the morning as it was late.

I start the car in the morning and it idles fine but the CEL is still on. I let it warm up for a few minutes and all seems ok. About 5 minutes into my drive I can hear the spitting/puffing sound from the exhaust and as I accelerate there is a vibration that increases in frequency as the engine rpms increase.

I park the car for a moment and listen. The same sound is worsening. Uh oh! I decide to head home. As I accelerate, the CEL begins flashing. I take it easy and eventually make it home. The engine sounds like a subaru engine when idling. During accelerate the vibration is horrible and I have almost no power and the spitting sounds persists. The car hardly idles and it sounds like an injector (or more than 1) is clogged or a spark plug(s) is not firing.

When I decelerate, the engine is perfectly smooth like nothing is wrong.

I'll be borrowing an obd scanner tomorrow to get the codes.

Help? Thoughts? Anything?

stock to the bone

my 1st thought: did the attendant really put $20 of premium?

Timeless

My first thought as well. However, how do I go about finding what is in my gas tank?

Could it be bad gas?

Timeless

Update. The car won't start. I really want to try to get some fuel out of the tank to see what's in it. Any one have any suggestions?

acuratech239

iTrader: (2)

Generally (in my area down here), we seldom see bad gas. BUT, in this case, that sounds like your problem. Given your timeline of events, and without doing any actual diag, this seems to be the most likely issue. That said, you have some options.

1) You could pull out the fuel pump. That might be difficult though without the special tool needed to get the fuel pump plastic retainer cap thing off (I know, technical term huh? ) If you want to know what I'm talking about, lift up/remove the spare tire interior cover piece, and remove the three screws for the fuel pump cover. You'll see the big black plastic cap I'm talking about. Advantage to this is you could easily look into the tank to actually see the gas, look for seperation/contamination/etc.

or

2) Undo the fuel line up by the TB/manifold. If you do this, take your gas cap off first, and have a few rags, as there will be some pressure. Once you do this, MacGyver a way to catch some fuel from the line, and have someone quickly flick your key to the (II) position to power up the fuel pump for a second or two. Get however much you need/want to sample. I know it sounds kind of ghetto, but since (I'm assuming) that you don't have all the tools/lines that we as techs have, this is the next best solution I have for you to get a sample from the fuel line

Good luck man

Timeless

Acuratech, it seems we think the same.

I'd like to pop the fuel line off to sample some fuel, but the more I think about it, its really not going to do me any good. I can look at it and that's about it. I just really want to make sure its not diesel.

I'm going to pull the plugs tomorrow night and see what they look like and most likely change them out. I'm hoping they're fouled out and I can at least get the car running again.

acuratech239

iTrader: (2)

If you don't have luck with changing the plugs, you can also use my fuel line procedure to drain the tank. Can take a while this way, but it's pretty easy. Of course, you have to rig up a way to catch and retain all the bad fuel. Then it's up to you to get a gas can or something and get a good few gallons of gas from another station

Keep us posted.

Timeless

I don't want to tear this thing apart if I don't have too...but am prepared to do so, lulz.

I'm assuming when you mentioned "Undo the fuel line up by the TB/manifold." that means disconnect the line from the fuel rail. Is this the case? Do I need any special tools?

I really appreciate your insight thus far. Thanks!

Timeless

Another update...I changed the plugs and the car started right up. After driving 100yds, the same symptoms came back. I parked it and ran the codes.

P0303 - Cyl. 3 Misfire
P0306 - Cyl 6 Misfire
P0300 - Random Misfire

I then cleared the codes...

Started the car up and went for another spin.

New codes:
P0134 - O2 circuit, no activity, bank 1 sensor 1
Happened at:
2651 rpm
26 mph
29 degree spark advance (!!!!! is this even possible)

I then cleared the code.

I started the car and waited for the car to throw another set of codes as it idled.

P0134 - O2 circuit, no activity, bank 1 sensor 1
Happened at:
757 rpm
0 mph
9 degrees timing

P0306 - cylinder 6 misfire

Left the codes and called it a night.

Seems to me the car may be misfiring because of a bad coil pack. Thoughts?

Timeless

Using the OBD reader and some trouble shooting, I narrowed the problem down to the cylinder 6 coil pack. When I went to replace the coil pack, it wouldn't come out.

Finally, I did get it out. It grenaded! I don't know how but it basically tried to weld/melt/explode against its access hole. I've never seen a coil pack explode until now.

After replacing the coil pack the car wouldn't start AND the OBD reader wouldn't connect.

HELP PLEASE!! =(

acuratech239

iTrader: (2)

Timeless, you may have bigger problems. I've only ever seen three coil packs melt in a TL in my five years at Acura. And every single time it's been because of a toasted PCM (aka water in the PCM). There are a lot of threads on here, and I've posted in quite a few of them. I've also taken quite a few pics of the messed up coil packs, PCMs, etc. I highly suggest removing your PCM and checking for water in it, or water residue/signs there was water in it. I only say this because, as mentioned, only time I've ever seen a melted coil pack was due to a messed up PCM. I worked on all three of those cars (and more with water logged PCMs, that had other problems instead or in addition too). Sorry I'm not getting into more detail, I'm exhausted from work today.

Search around, you'll find a bunch of threads about water in the PCM.

Good luck, keep us/me posted!

-- Kevin

PS if you happen to have an 06 6MT, let me know...

Timeless

Its an 05 6MT...

Sounds more and more like a cooked computer. Hence the reason the OBD reader wouldn't connect...Awesome.

Thanks thus far. I guess the party was just getting started.

ml3456

Acuratech239...Thanks for the feedback. Have you seen or suggest anything to do to prevent this from happening. If this happens after the warranty period...$$$$,

ML

Timeless

ml3456, I exchanged a few e-mails with Acuratech about this. When ever you're under your car, blow some air (air compressor) through the a/c condensate line and this should help keep it clear.

Once I repair my car I'll be doing this at every oil change.

I'm having the car brought to an acura dealer around here. I'll try to update this thread if things go well or hit the fan.

acuratech239

iTrader: (2)

ML - Timeless is right, him and I talked about this already through some PMs. Some things I suggest are:

- Blow compressed air up the drain tube at every service and/or whenever the car is up in the air.
- Additionally, visually look up the tube with a flashlight/wandlight for any other obstructions.
- Run your A/C every week or two and watch for water to drip out. Depending on humidity/temp/etc, this could take 30 seconds or five to 10 mins. I usually suggest at least 15 mins.

Timeless, how's it coming with yours?

Timeless

The car is at the dealer, a new PCM is coming in on Monday. I'm hoping I don't have to pay for it lol.

Timeless

I got the car back Monday night. So far everything is good. Sure enough, the PCM fried because the condenser clogged up. Acura good willed it after I made some phone calls. Acuratech, your help is greatly appreciated, at least I knew what I was talking about when I had to get this thing fixed.

blokhead

This happened to me, they ended up having to replace my front head. Also both precats melted when they got it running. My thread still makes me tear up... Glad they good willed it for you, they didn't even want to cover mine at first...

Inaccurate

"Don't Rain On My Parade"

Car won't start: AC Froze up and now the PCM is full of water (click here)
Bad news - Water in PCM/ECU. Warranty advice? (click here)
Water Leaks into Control Box (click here)
Ignition coil melted (click here)
HELP! plugged a/c drain ruined the ECU (click here)
Car won't Start (click here)
A spiders nest cost me $5,000 in engine repair!!!!! (click here)

acuratech239

iTrader: (2)

Timeless, I'm glad things worked out for you then, even though it took some calls, etc. Least your issues weren't too severe, and you didn't have to pay for it. So good to hear it's all running for you now!

Souljah

^+1