It kinda depends how bad it is. You may not have to do a full rebuild. Maybe just valve seals, or piston rings. But you will probably have to tear into the engine in some way. If it is BAD. And don't be so concerned with if the numbers are low. Some poeple will tell you that you are supposed to be at 220 for each cylinder. You may only be at 160. That is not as important of a problem as if you are 200-200-140-200, for instance. Then you'd have a problemo. You are looking for pretty much even across all 4 cylinders, not for the numbers to be correct. As far as I know, all compression testers read different, so the numbers aren't always as high as you'd expect.
Good Luck.
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The Japanese have a saying......"The nail that sticks out gets hammered."
I hear ya' man. You've got one of the most elusive misfires on the planet. I really hope that it doesn't come down to being something internal. Even though you've already done pretty much everything outside of the engine. Did you ever get a fuel pressure reading?
Unfortunately you don't live near me, because I'd gladly help with as much as I could. I'm not Super Mechanic, but I know enough to do basic maintenance and routine ****. I don't know if I'd want to "tear into" an engine without help though. Doing a valve adjustment is about as far as I go into an engine without help or the trusted advice of somebody with a little more experience than myself. The tolereances on these engines is too tight to work inside the engine and have anything even a little bit off.
Hey, if your buddy works at Honda, you should talk him into helping you with it, like not at the dealership, but on his own time. That way he doesn't have to charge you all the overhead that the dealership wants. Maybe he'd work for beer, or at least a discount.
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The Japanese have a saying......"The nail that sticks out gets hammered."
Thanks man, you've been a great help since the first page of this thread. I'd really appreaciate your inputs. As far as the engine work, I'll ask him to work on it. He normally stays after hours at Honda and work on my car. That way Honda doesn't charge me by the hours. Leak down, compression, fuel pressure reading. anything im missing?
Sh*t, I don't know. I'll try to look through the rest of this thread and see if anything jumps out at me that we may have missed. But, like I said, you've pretty much covered it all already.
Okay, from what it looks like, here is what you should try that you haven't already:
Do the nonfouler mod on the Secondary O2 sensor
Check for vacuum leaks and bad grounds again
Compression and leakdown test
Check fuel pressure to see if the fuel pump may be bad
Valve adjustment (if you never got it done)
Try these and see what you come up with. And once again, good luck.
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The Japanese have a saying......"The nail that sticks out gets hammered."
ok so i got a compression test and results are these 1-200 2-200 3-150 4-150 so compression is not all good but this still should not be the cause of a multiple missfire. What i was told was it could be my distributor going bad, Cylinder Position Sensor or Crankshaft Position / Top Dead Center Sensor
depending what is causing it bad rings, o bent valves. So i finally cleaned out the egr ports and egr valve again and still the Cel came on! I ran codes and still getting random miss fires but i also got a P1399 i was told either egr valve sticking open or distributor going bad.
Low compression can cause a misfire. Maybe you just REALLY need a valve adjustment, Speck. At least, if you are lucky, that's all it is. Low compression caused by bad valve seals, bad piston rings, etc. is gonna be costly to fix. I did a valve adjustment on my car today. I only adjusted the ones that needed it. I think 6 of the 16 valves were out of range. I adjust my valves every Spring, usually the day after I change my ATF. Now my car shifts like butter and runs smooth as silk also. Except I need a new rear wheel bearing, I think. It's humming like crazy from the right rear, and I checked it out, and there is a little play. *SIGH* It's always something. Good luck guys.
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The Japanese have a saying......"The nail that sticks out gets hammered."
itzroyal, did you replace your egr valve and your distributor? but if you compression is good then you do not need a leak down
Yes.. replaced EGR Valve and Distributor.. both OEM from HONDA! Not dealing with aftermarket parts no more. Gonna get fuel pressure and compression hopefully this week.
I have to say that i've been monitoring this thread for a while. I too have the same B.S. problem with my 98. Random missfire! Mine is primarily cyl #1 but from time to time (now I just jynxed myself) it will give me cyl #2 as well. My car for some reason (bless her) doesn't like low speeds. Thats where mine will occur. I know one of you was saying up hills, but mine could be in a parking lot going 10mph! But above 70-80mph she's smooth as hell! She'll even clear the code out from time to time on her own! One day she flashes, next its on then sometimes, gone. I have gotten the 1399 but hasn't come back for a while. I have pretty much done ALL the same things as you itzroyal. Lets see, new wires, new ngk laser plat plugs, EGR valve and gasket, new injector seals, injector treatment, new distributor cap AND rotor, new fuel filter, knock sensor, battery, BOTH O2 sensors, and compression test. All equal big $$$. Now have eighter of you tried isolating if you have a bad injector? Itzroyal, if I remember right, you had a cyl #2 prob. Try switching the #2 injector with #4. If #304 pops up on the scanner, your injector is the issue. But my question to both of you is what type of engine do you have, h22a4? Mine is an H22a1 conversion but I don't belive that should make a diff on the sollution. I feel yall's pain. The next thing I'm going to try is the ground. I've been told this can cause a miss. I hope this solves it cause this sh*t is getting old! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my car, but damn!
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