Loss of engine power, revs weird, & check engine light on - Honda Prelude Forum

Mario · 04-27-2002, 09:01 AM

Ok, I was headed down the highway and was going about 65 mph, when all of a sudden the car losses power and the engine feels like the revs are cutting out. Kind of a jerky feeling when the engine drops RPM's. Then almost immediately, the CHECK ENGINE light comes on. I pulled over and checked the oil, fluids and all are ok. It does have 160K miles and I just got the timing belt changed on schedule at 150K. The previous owner kept meticulous records of all the servicing he got, so I know the car was pampered (although driven a lot). I read somewhere that this may be a spark plug, fuel pump, plug wire problem, but being that this happened to me on Saturday morning and most if not all shops are closed Saturday and Sunday, I was hoping someone could give me some good advise. If I drive in the city at reg. speeds, it runs fine but the check engine light still is on. Please help guys, thanks.

kevie88 · 04-27-2002, 09:29 AM

You're going to have to jump the service connector with a paperclip and find out what the CEL (check engine light) code is. Armed with that information, you can then find out what's wrong. Retrieve the code and post it here when u can cuz' I can look it up, my service manual is in the car.

Ã¾Â®Ã©Â£Ã¹Ã?Ãª95 · 04-27-2002, 07:55 PM

The same thing happened to me in my Mazda. The vibrating of the engine due to that problem is what caused the check engine light to turn on. The problem with mine was my spark plugs. They should be changed every 40,000 miles. What I did to prevent the problem for a while was took out my worn out spark plugs and cleaned them real good with a towel as you'll notice they'll be covered with black grease stuff.
This should fix your problem..for a while at least. The check engine light should also turn off after maybe a day or so. Just simply buy new spark plugs and you should be set, unless something else is wrong with your car.

Let us know what happens.

Mario · 04-27-2002, 08:54 PM

Well given that I was in desperate need of getting this repaired ASAP, I was willing to take it anywhere. I was trying to hold out to take it to a shop that specifically works on Hondas, or at least imports only, but given that it was Saturday and the dealers wanted ~$150 just to look (diagnose) it was crazy. I called this local small independent shop. They're price quote was fair enought, so I took it there. They guy there was great, he really took the time to explain to me what he found, what the possible cause was, and repaired it all in a small amount of time. You guys can imagine the joy I was knowing that my fix was only going to put me out $75, instead of over $1000, I thought I was going to have to spend on a ECE/CAT/Who knows what...
Well the problem was that I got my timing belt changed about 4 months ago (12k miles ago) and the great guys over at Honda-Acura Connection who gave me a 'great deal' and I was acutally very satisfied with thier work, up until today that is, didn't take the time to correctly place the crank sensor wire back into its desinged clip holders and left the wire just dangling right next to the spinning transaxle! The wire was literally rubbing against the spinning transaxle and it took the plastic tuibing that wraps the wire right off, it also work the wire's insulation clean off, leaving a nice streak of exposed wire there just waiting to come into contact with another metal part and provide a short, which is what happened on the freeway. I'm going to definately bring this to thier attention!
Man as soon as the car reved down in a jerky manner and I stepped on the gas and the only thing it did was continue ro loose power, and the Check engine light was on, I thought it was going to burn a hole in my pocket. It really bothered me too because I do somewhat baby my lude because of it's higher miles, by taking proper maintnance seriously. Well now that she is back to her old self, I felt confident driving her to Marin (50 miles from here) to look at a couch I wanted to get. Learn from my mistakes, make sure you check your timing belt service puts the 'crank sensor' cable/wire back in it's designated holders to avoid this problem. Thanks for looking into this guys, I've had a few other minor problems so far with my lude since I've bought her this past December, but I have been able to find the simple and cheap solutions to them on this online community. Keep the knowledge flowing!