I am having a major engine problem with my 2004 TL 6-speed.

I noticed the power seamed to be down the last couple of days.
I had an oil change appointment on Friday morning so I wanted the dealer to check out the problem.

Well on Thursday afternoon the problem got much worst.
The engine will not go into V-Tech and will not go past 6000 rpm.
Under full acceleration the engine bogs at 5000-6000 rpm and will not increase rpm.

The dealer “has not heard of this with the new TL engine.”
They had the car all day and call me asking to keep the car till Monday.
Acura wants to try several different things on Monday.
It seams to me to be electrical or engine management related not mechanical.

I have the car 10 months/20,000 miles with oil changes at 1000, 5800, 11,000, 15,400, 20,000(today) with Mobile 1 5w-30w.

Anyone heard of this?

 

I have Never heard of this but wow your are going crazy with those oil changes Ya I would also guess electrical too.

 

VTEC solenoid I'd bet

 

The Vtec helps it reach those High RMPS so it is probably part of that system whether it be mechanical or electrical I do not know.

On a side note you should be using 5W-20, although 5W-30 wouldn't be causing the described problems.

 

No MIL?

 

Did your car fall under the recall regarding the faulty fuse for the fuel pump or something like that? If so, and you never took care of it, maybe this is the cause.

 

This is likely not the answer to 2004TL6SP's problem.

I get crappy engine performance when I get an infrequent bad tank of gas.
CA high octane gas is rated at 91, but who inspects this for the consumer?
What happens when the tanker guy accidently fills this tank with the 89 octane
and exclaims, "OOPS!"?

Well anyways the engine management software seems to detune the engine
to prevent damage and the car winds up feeling like a 200 hp car with no
V-tech. All this fancy smartness probably requires some sensors for the
computer. Perhaps some of these sensing mechanisms have gone awry
causing the engine management system to kick in low power mode.

 

I have used 89 a few times and I can not tell any difference in power or mileage... I usually use 93, but try the other at times... what he is describing is something more than 'bad gas'..

 

It sounds like you may have a defective Knock-sensor causing the timing to retard.

 

Dude...by any means, don't tell them that you used a 5w-30...you're simply asking for trouble.

Michael

 

my Acura dealer uses Mobil1 5w30...i doubt his power loss is due to oil.

it would be interesting to see what codes were set in the ecu....

 

The Acura company recomends 5w-20, so your dealer better start listening or you will be able to bug them for engine problems that occur after warrenty experation(with a little nagging of course).

 

The good news is that I too believe the problem is electronic, not mechanical. That makes it easy to fix with no long term downside. Good Luck!!!!

 

---As stated before the dealer changed all the oil changes with 5-30 Mobile 1---

I don’t think this will void any warranty.

I believe 5-20 while better for achieving ULEV status does not work well in 95 to 105 temperatures and road temps of 130 plus here in Florida.

Also, the car shows no indication on the dash that there is a problem.

The dealer called late Friday and wanted to keep the call over the week-end and try Monday with help from Acura to solve the problem.

I will keep everyone posted and thanks for some of the advice so far.

 

The problem sounds like a sensor being out, or something that disables
the high rpm goodies like valve timing/intake manifold timing.

Why you would have no alarm or fault code is beyond me, unless its something
the ecu might expect to see like the knock sensors, but they would not impact
performance so much.

I have not got my shop manual yet, but some cars use vacuum to do the
intake manifold tuning, and oil pressure to do the valve timing/lift changes, but the oil pressure is sometimes vacuum controled, or has a solonoid
in line someplace.
In any case, its likely a bad connection to something, or a bad sensor, or a vacuum line off....

Brett

 

VTEC works on 3 things, oil pressure and oil temp, and the solenoid

if either of these are not there or working the car will still rev, but will not have as much power.

most likely is something else causing it, strange that your check engine light isn;t on.

 

Well after 3 day of having my car and consulting with Acura HQ they finally found the engine problem.

A blue plastic bag similar to a Wal-Mart bag was sucked up the lower intake and was blocking some air flow.

I was glad to see that it was no fault of the car.

At V-Tech the engine could not receive enough air flow.

Thanks for all the help and watch out for all the trash out there.

 

glad they found the problem

but please spell VTEC correctly
there is no dash, and V-TECH is a phone company