I need Honda help

[88Nightmare]

I am not experienced with hondas. A friend of mine has a 1999 Honda Prelude type SH. Apparently that stands for super handling, but I say the car is super gay. Recently, the car started getting all sorts of codes. P0300 (general misfire) P0301 (cyl 1 misfire) P0302 (cyl 2 misfire) P0303 (cyl 3 misfire) P0304 (cyl 4 misfire) and P1399 (no fuckin idea). The P1399 was pending when I scanned it today, and all the others were active. The car has a funky idle. Kinda does feel like it has a misfire. When you hold the gas pedal down slightly to raise the RPMS up to about 1,500, it runs perfectly. When driving the car around, it runs perfectly. When you come to a stop light or stop sign, then it gets the funky idle. It also has a rough starting issue. Cranks over longer then normal.

So I unhooked the battery and let it sit awhile. I was first going to locate and clean the MAF sensor, only to find it doesn't have one. I took off the distributor cap only to find its spotless inside there, along with the rotor. The wires are brand new along with the spark plugs (NGK's).

The owner of the car has a lot of dumbass friends that keep having her throw random ass parts at the car and nothing they recommended worked. The car DID need a tuneup, so I can agree with the plugs/wires/cap/rotor, but some of her friends said to try o2 sensors.... (wtf? it doesnt have a lean/rich issue). The thing that throws me off is aside from the CEL, there is another warning light illuminated on the dash that says "ATTS". I googled it and it stands for Active Torque Transfer System. I have no idea what it is other then it actively transfers the torque, but I don't see why the car would get a misfire then suddenly have a malfunction with a torque transfer system. My take on all this is the car may need at minimum a fuel filter ($25 bucks) and MAYBE a fuel pump. Seems like its starving for fuel with the long cranking on startup. I don't have a fuel psi gauge to test line pressure to confirm my theory.

After hooking the battery back up, the car did run better. The CEL and ATTS light was off and it seemed to be idling pretty decent, but that can still change a day from now. What do you guys recommend? Anyone know Hondas?

BTW the car is 100% stock right down to the air filter, has about 130k miles and other then this crap the car is in great shape. :confused

[Silver86]

theres a shop in cedarburg that works on nothing but honda cars. they do great work and are fairly priced and good at diagnosing problems. both of my hondas were serviced there.

the place is called Carisma. http://www.car-ismamotors.com/

[88Nightmare]

I'm trying to do this myself though. Don't have too much to continue to toss into it either. I figured 130k miles, theres a chance it could be the OEM fuel filter so there wouldnt be any harm in changing that

[Silver86]

I'm trying to do this myself though. Don't have too much to continue to toss into it either. I figured 130k miles, theres a chance it could be the OEM fuel filter so there wouldnt be any harm in changing that

i might still have some connections over @ the honda forums i used to visit... ill do some digging.

[88Nightmare]

any help would be appreciated

[Sleeper Sierra]

long crank and misfire. This car have a distributor if so they are very common problems with honda's. with a long crank it could also be a bad diaphram in the fuel pressure regulator. pull the vacuum hose off the regulator and check for it to have gas in it.

[88Nightmare]

so you think I should check that fuel pressure regulator first? If its got a bad diaphram, I'm assuming it would need a new regulator...

[86GUTLASS]

How many miles are on it? Ive seen EGR ports get cloged and cause bad idle.

[whistlin six]

How many miles are on it? Ive seen EGR ports get cloged and cause bad idle.

How does that cause a bad idle? the egr isn't open then.
C'mon Gutlass...:goof

Your engine looks nice in the car :thumbsup

Misfire codes for all the cylinders? One thing common to all 4
is manifold vacuum.

I'm thinking the intake gasket may be leaking, try to find
it with carb cleaner. Spray along the bottom edge of
the gasket also. Can't remember if the ludes have a plastic
spacer sandwiched between two intake gaskets, but if it does
they can crack and leak.

[Russ Jerome]

Misfire codes for all the cylinders? One thing common to all 4
is manifold vacuum.

I'm thinking the intake gasket may be leaking,


X2 on above. And confirm fuel pressure and check for fuel in
the signal line to FPR, should be a dry VAC source to it.

[86GUTLASS]

Sorry read his post wrong,:alcoholic but the egr valve could be stuck open

[Reverend Cooper]

I would pull the Maf out it can cause same or similiar issues. atts light may be on due to the engine light being on,on our toyotas the cel light will trigger the vsc and trac lights also to make a customer get the car in for inspection.
it has to be something that controls all four cylinders,my guess is its a fuel issue since you have handled the ignition side. what is the 1399 code?

[whistlin six]

Sorry read his post wrong,:alcoholic but the egr valve could be stuck open

Yeah that's true, vavle could be stuck partially open.:alcoholic hic....

If the engine runs ok anywhere off idle, I don't think the fuel system is
an issue. If it's capable of providing enough fuel under load it can surely
handle idle fuel needs.

[88Nightmare]

I would pull the Maf out it can cause same or similiar issues. atts light may be on due to the engine light being on,on our toyotas the cel light will trigger the vsc and trac lights also to make a customer get the car in for inspection.
it has to be something that controls all four cylinders,my guess is its a fuel issue since you have handled the ignition side. what is the 1399 code?


I have no idea what the 1399 code is. I can't get a clear definition of it. And There is no MAF. That was the first thing I thought of. I would have taken it apart and cleaned it with MAF cleaner. I'm planning on checking out the FPR next

[Reverend Cooper]

Sorry I can't be of more help I don't know Honda's well.

[88Nightmare]

neither do I. If it was a Toyota that had me this stumped the thing would be down by Andrew Toyota already :D

[Reverend Cooper]

I still say its some type of fuel issue,does it have a MAP sensor?

[88Nightmare]

Not sure of that. I thought MAP sensors were just for reading boost? I'm still kinda leaning towards a fuel delivery issue

[0TransAm0]

Not sure of that. I thought MAP sensors were just for reading boost? I'm still kinda leaning towards a fuel delivery issue

i thought all cars had a MAP sensor?? boost or not....

[88Nightmare]

well I thought cars either were mass air or had an absolute pressure sensor in the intake manifold, unless thats exactly what a MAP sensor is. im kind of a noob with this stuff

[0TransAm0]

well I thought cars either were mass air or had an absolute pressure sensor in the intake manifold, unless thats exactly what a MAP sensor is. im kind of a noob with this stuff


yeah i couldn't tell ya lol.. i don't know too much about MAF,MAP and all the other sensors... i just thought that they was two totally differant things thats all...

by the way the blazer looks good. turned out to be a nice project...if i had the space and time and money id probably do the same..keep it up. :headbang

[88Nightmare]

I'm waiting on wheel bearings, then tie rods and the front end will basically be complete. Then I just need to install lift shackles and new shocks for the rear, then body work. A new set of wheels and tires. Nothing too crazy, found a nice set of black powdercoated wheels in the summit catalog for about $50 a piece

[brotherbenn83]

MAP= Manifold Absolute Pressure
MAF= Mass Air Flow

[Al]

Does the car run well at-speed, but not when idling especially after a warm-start?


How does that cause a bad idle? the egr isn't open then.
C'mon Gutlass...:goof

Your engine looks nice in the car :thumbsup

Misfire codes for all the cylinders? One thing common to all 4
is manifold vacuum.


Seriously, Hondas do have an EGR clogging issue for the models around the year 2000. The same thing happened to my mom's accord.

We took the car to car-isma in Cedarburg twice and they did not fix it.

My buddy and I scanned it and we had a misfire on all cylinders.

I ended up removing the intake manifold and clearing out the EGR with a brass pipe cleaner and some brake parts cleaner. The plenum was about 5mm across and it was completely coked over. I bought some new manifold gaskets for this project.

Total time on a v-6 with general home garage tools: 6 hours.
Try this on a Prelude: 3 hours.

[88Nightmare]

I didn't think the EGR could cause this kind of problem at idle