pits200

I know this topic has been covered numerous times, but my time has come when my Actuator has reached its final destination, the garbage. In the past couple days, I have tried to be proactive and post some pics of my recent jobs.

So today after fixing my lower ball joint issues, I decided to check my actuator and sure enough, it didn't click over.

I took it off my car and it looked like this...




I decided to crack it open and see what I found and here is a picture of both sides of the actuator. You can see the motor on the right hand side, this is the part that should spin once 12v are fed through the motor. So if you want to go a step further to ensure that power is actually going to the motor of the actuator and that the little cracked tooth on the wheel is the problem, hook up 2 wires to your battery terminals and connect it to the place on the actuator where the engine connection was before you take the part off. This should start the little motor on the actuator and prove that the reason your actuator wasn't clicking over was because that broken tooth was jamming everything up.




And of course I find out that one of the teeth was cracked off of the wheel inside the actuator.




So if you want to go a step further to ensure that power is actually going to the motor of the actuator and that the little cracked tooth on the wheel is the problem, hook up 2 wires to your battery terminals and connect it to the place on the actuator where the engine connection was before you take the part off. This should start the little motor on the actuator and prove that the reason your actuator wasn't clicking over was because that broken tooth was jamming everything up.

Now you can feel confident about going out and spending the $81.00 on a new actuator and gain your 15hp and start smoking some Zo6 Vettes.

Ok, maybe I am stretching that a little bit but I hope this is useful to anyone in future searches.

cltypeSLOW

good write up there. i always wondered what the guts of that POS looked like.

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

Plastic gears is just a dumb design.

phipark

Got to love plastic.

pits200

Its crazy, cause when I opened it up, more than just that broken tooth fell out. Shards of plastic fell all over the place.

Like you all said, Plastic is a retarded design.

nbennettksu

iTrader: (2)

cars are designed to break...

pits200

Yes they are, but you would expect a part that barely has much wear on it to break.

Yes an engine has high stress and many other parts on a car are high stress.

But this is just a bad design, all this part does is click over when the car goes over a certain number of RPMS.

There is no reason that this part couldn't have been made to last forever. It is not a stressed part and not subjected to the same beating that other parts of a car are put through.

typeR

that unit is salvageable

pits200

How so??? What can you do to fix it??

typeR

my first four teeth were broken off so what i did is i used one of those two bumpers on both side of the big gear and glued it to the other side causeing the gear to be rotated past the broken teeth...theres enough adjustment in the cable that you can do that and not have the plenum open at all

pits200

I won't lie, that is engenius. But I have never had to change this on my car before and it has 118K miles, so I don't mind dropping the $80 to get a new one.

But I will keep my old one and fidget with it and try to get it to work like you were saying, atleast this way I have a spare if my new one goes.

Thanks for the idea. Its just crazy how one little tooth causes the whole thing to seize up.

CLSixspeed

heres the dumb question of the day...

what does this do and how does it give you 15hp?

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

Short answer: Opens up the bypass valve which causes two runners within the upper intake manifold to turn 90 degrees.

Long answer: The theory of helmholtz resonance is utilized. The air flowing into the intake manifold has a certain mass. The mass is in motion so it has momentum. A larger air intake plenum would result in a larger mass (i.e., more air entering your engine). So as the amount of air which is entering your engine increases as the RPMs increase the volume of the air intake plenum needs to increase to maintain the same momentum. However, if the bypass valve was always open the plenum would be too large and thus slow down the momentum of the air flow and thus the amount of air your engine received at a certain RPM would decrease resulting in less horsepower.

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

This is a very common tool or theory used in the auto industry.

It's also used (or has been used) by the following manufactures in some form:

Audi
BMW
Ferrari
Ford
GM
Hyundai
jaguar
Mazda
Mercedes-Benz
Mitsubishi
Nissan
Porsche
Toyota
Volkswagen
Volvo

CLSixspeed

so if you're car runs like shit at low speeds.. this could be the cause.. so a car with 50k on it shouldnt have to worry with this correct?

pits200

Ah, there is no guarantee in regards to this part breaking and mileage.

In all actuality, if the car is running like crap at low speeds, this is another issue. Because the actuator will not just be open without the person manually tinkering around causing it to remain open.

If the actuator is broken, this will affect the upper rpm range because you lose the extra air being pushed through when more pressure is built up by the higher rpms and thus able to push a higher volume of air. Just like Mr. Steve said.


But there are many threads on here telling you how to check this part to make sure it works.

CLSixspeed

alrighty... im not worried about it working. I saw 15hp and was like huh?!?!

aznboi2424

iTrader: (10)

i know that mine flips but i am not sure if any of the teeth are broken, so i am just going to take it out and see. just because it flips doesnt mean that its working.
but i do believe that if one or so of the teeth are broken it is fixable be shifting the gear so that the motor uses a different part of the gear. i know someone took theirs apart before on AZ, just use search. its just another to-do for my car...

pits200

Well if it flips, then there is no reason to take it apart. That means that whatever teeth the motor is hitting is making the actuator flip over properly. Trust me, you don't want to take this thing apart if you dont have to, its kind of annoying.

ChucksCL-S

Teeth need to be made from metal, not plastic IMO.

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

I rarely (maybe never) have seen a failure on an '03 CL-S or TL-S.

Anyone know of a problem? The design does look slightly different.

pits200

Well its kind of funny you bring that up, when I called to order the part today from Acura, I tried reading them the part number from the side of my broken actuator and they didn't have it in the system.

My part number was 17150-PFW-J01

The part number for the new actuator in their system was 17151-PFW-J02, maybe this indicates a change in the part or the design.

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

That must be it. I've owned both an '02 and now an '03 and the part definitely looks different. When you get the new one crack it open to see if there's any internal changes.

pits200

Ha, there is no way I am messing with the new one unless it breaks on me down the road. The old one has a spring loaded wheel inside it that is such a bitch to get back in. This wheel rolls along the inside and snaps into place to hold the actuator open till it needs to close again. (This is just speculation, I am not exactly sure what it does)

I hope my curiousity doesn't get the best of me and I break the new one by opening it up. If I do, I will just take it back to Acura and be like, "What the hell is this garbage that you are giving me" as I hand it back to them in pieces because I can't get it back together.

aznboi2424

iTrader: (10)

well just because it flips, it doesnt mean its working. right? when the motor turns, the thing that "flips", flips at the same time right? or the is "flipper" connected to the plastic gear. if it is, then it means that the gear is turning. i will just take it apart to prove to myself that its working. im sure its not that hard to put back together.

pits200

I said it was a bitch not hard. But maybe you're right, perhaps your tiny asian hands will fit in there better than mine.

I also don't understand what you mean. If you attach power to the actuator, the small motor turns which then makes the larger sprocket inside turn and that causes the part to work. Its very simple how it works.

Why would you need to take it apart to prove it works???

pits200

Fixed! I just shaved off the broken teeth and sanded it down, works like a charm now. I will still be replacing it when the dealership gets my new one.

But my car pulls like a freaking maniac now. I can't believe I have overlooked this for so long.. I am disappointed in myself.

CLsuperhero

wow yeah I'm thinking mine has the same problem. I thought it was weird to have so much hp and then feel no real torque.

tnobori1

Any confirmation about whether or not the 03s have an improved version?

I was talking to my buddy that has an 05 G35 6spd last night and he was telling me that getting an aftermarket plenum will add significant hp to the car by allowing a more even distribution of cold air to each cylinder.

From reading this thread, it sounds like the actuator is what actually controls the airflow, etc.

Are these parts one in the same?

Is he way off base?

Or am I just a dumb newbie asking silly questions? LOL

pits200

The aftermarket plenum is a big thing with G35's, but for the CL, it actually doesn't do much.

tnobori1

Oh ok, is that because of the orientation of the engine in the engine bay? Ours are sideways, theirs face the other way.

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

Both of you are kinda incorrect.

The plenum spacer for the VQ motors is very similar to the manifold spacer produced by outlaw engineering for the J-Series motors. The outlaw engineering spacer includes a throttle body spacer as well.

Gains from the outlaw engineering spacer are similar to the plenum spacer for the VQ motors.

http://www.outlawengineering.com/hondajframe.html

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

Oh... forgot to add... ignore the dyno chart on their website. It makes absolutely no sense and I do not believe it is from a J-Series motor. The curves are totally off.

aznboi2424

iTrader: (10)

peace of mind buddy and for knowledgable experience. im sure a bit of work wont hurt and if it is broken, then ill be more then glad that i did it. tiny asian hands? i hope thats not a racist comment.

TheWeez

Don't forget Yamaha. The Yamaha engine in the SHO has dual intake runners. '89-'95 were V6s and '96-'99 were V8s. Still the best sounding engine ever.

tnobori1

Thanks for the input! Any idea of what kind of gains I can actually expect from something like that?

jproy

mine looked exactly the same

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

5-10whp