black smelly exhaust smoke @ vtec - Honda Prelude Forum

Luder503 · 03-03-2002, 09:24 PM

the other night i was driving with some friends of mine and we were merging onto the highway.. i downshifted to third and hit vtec...shifted @ 8 and went to 4th then slowed & went to 5th. anyways, when we finally stopped and met everyone else my friend who was driving behind me said my exhaust was shootin black smoke that smelled bad. could somebody shed some light on what is going on? could it be that i just filled up a few hours ago? (premium) or i need some maintenance done? any input would be appreciated..thanks.

marcucci · 03-03-2002, 09:40 PM

Ahhh.... I'm about to tattoo this answer on my forehead.

The smoke is just unburnt fuel and carbon. You're running rich. This is "normal" to a certain extent, but sounds a little much even for a lightly modded car.

I'd suggest a tuneup, plugs/cap/rotor and maybe wires, especially if the car is nearing 100k miles. If so, I would also look into a new O2 sensor. Your car should be covered under Honda's emissions recall, you might take it to the dealer and tell them what happened, and that you heard that Honda recalled their cars for emissions (and you apparently have bad emissions!).

It's nothing to worry about, short of a slight power loss and reduced fuel economy. You should get only a very slight puff of dark exhaust in the *hardest* acceleration. Nothing like what you describe.

Luder503 · 03-03-2002, 10:21 PM

haha ok kool..thanks marcucci..yeah, my buddy told me it wasn't the whole time but when i first gunned it. also, my car has about 63k miles on it and its time for a tune up. btw, could you tell me a little bit more about the emmissions recall that you talked about? again..thanks for the input!

dohcpower v2.0 · 03-03-2002, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by marcucci
Your car should be covered under Honda's emissions recall, you might take it to the dealer and tell them what happened, and that you heard that Honda recalled their cars for emissions (and you apparently have bad emissions!).

i've never heard of this, any website that describes what is covered?

Mine is horrid, and i know there is a problem with it.

snb3 · 03-03-2002, 10:48 PM

my car is new (4k mils), whenever i rev past, say 6k, i smell some funky exhaust stuff in my car. is it the same?

nmehta211 · 03-03-2002, 11:06 PM

From what i understand, the emissions recall is relevant only to 97 model preludes. I tried a couple dealers for getting my O2 sensor replaced (98 model) and no one agreed to do it.

Neel

marcucci · 03-04-2002, 06:24 AM

Rip them a new ass. They didn't change a damn thing on the car and they know it. Honda's warranting the car because they fraudulently claim it can go 90k miles before a tuneup, and it can't. Tell me, how do they think the '98 is OK when it uses all the same components?

I don't know of anything specific, but if you hunt for it you will find it. I know a few people that have gone in for it already.

vtec_s0n, you need to do the cap/rotor/plugs at least every 60k. If you rod on the car much or want to be tip-top, change them every 30k. You'll be surprised what it will do for you. Do a valve adjustment, too, if you've never done one before.

snb3 · 03-04-2002, 03:06 PM

Hey marcucci,
do you know what pts those who've had this prob have changed or adjusted?
as far as changing the caps,etc (that seems a little too often), is that the life of oem pts? what about a/m pts?
i thought 01 ludes had non adjustable vavles.(?)
thanks
Won

cowboijeff · 03-04-2002, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by snb3
my car is new (4k mils), whenever i rev past, say 6k, i smell some funky exhaust stuff in my car. is it the same?

its the catalytic converter, smells like eggs or on the lines of it.

checkmate58 · 03-04-2002, 06:35 PM

Yeah..I downshifted the other night and I looked in my rear view.. saw a big puff of smoke myself... cracked me up..I just always thought that VTEC engine burn oil like that..

--Sam

marcucci · 03-05-2002, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by snb3
do you know what pts those who've had this prob have changed or adjusted?

I believe the plugs, cap, rotor, wires, O2, and cat if necessary. I think they found that people that waited 90k miles like they say were not only flunking emissions but also fouling the cat. This doesn't jive with their low-emissions image, hence the recall. Might also be why you don't see them recalling the SS tranny- it doesn't hurt emissions.

Quote:

as far as changing the caps,etc (that seems a little too often), is that the life of oem pts? what about a/m pts?
i thought 01 ludes had non adjustable vavles.(?)

It depends on what you do with your car, and what you are looking for. Wear on ignition components is determined by RPMs, not miles. Roll around in VTEC all the time and at 30k miles you have 60k miles worth of wear. Even with "normal" driving (daily driver, occasional VTEC) I haven't seen a set of ignition parts yet that at 60k miles looked like something that should be kept in the car. Generally speaking, the combined spark gap (cap/rotor, plugs) is probably close to 2X what it should be after 60k miles of normal driving. This decreases combustion efficiency and causes rich emissions and fouled O2's and cats.

It's just my suggestion- 30k if you race or consider yourself to drive the car hard, 60k if you think you are "normal." At least, if you want to keep the car more than 100k miles. 90k is some marketing dude's interval, I guarantee you an engineer didn't sign off on that one.

Checkmate, that puff, if it was dark, was unburnt fuel. If it was whiteish/blue it was oil.