Problems with motor stuttering - Honda Prelude Forum

neldogg · 12-12-2004, 11:39 AM

ok so, this started about two days ago. while accellerating, sometimes, but only sometimes, when i give the gas about 75% throttle, after being at like 20%, the engine would just bog for about two seconds then finally start gaining power. it has done this about 6 times in the last few days and its really pissing me off.

my guess is that i got bad gas. i filled my tank up at an exxon about a week ago but it only started doing it 2 or 3 days ago. now i filled up with chevron and it seems to run a lot better, but i'll probably get the suttering back. aslo just to let you know, it started doing all this just after i cleaned my motor with some degreaser, i'm not sure if it was a coincidence, but i cant see how that would affect this. i made sure there was no water in the spark plug tubes, and took off my air cleaner.

well what do you guy think?

neldogg · 12-13-2004, 07:23 PM

ok well so far i've changed my fuel filter, spark plugs, dried everything out and i still have no idea. i was thinking it may be a header leak but i'm not sure if that would cause all this, or how it would happen after just washing the engine.
btw i've also noticed that i've lost power throughout the band, not boggin all the way through, just overall power is not the same. i'm almost thinking now it has something to do with ignition. could the coil have gone bad? what about the resistor box? do you think that because water was down in the spark plug tubes, i may have caused damage in other parts of the ignition system? i checked my rotor and dist cap and nada, no moisture at all, they're also only about 2 months old.
do you guys have any ideas??

Phamine · 12-14-2004, 07:04 PM

Reset ECU maybe?

X01VTEC · 12-17-2004, 01:13 PM

what a coincidence, im having the same prob

started about 2 weeks ago, back then it was a rare occasion, a couple times a day at most, now it progressing to a couple times every short trip.

i havent tried another fuel filter but i did recently use a fuel cleaner cause the motor had been sitting for a while.

I decided to buy a new dist. cap and rotor, as i had the jdm motor for a couple years and it was still using the rotor it came with and a 96 usdm cap that was at least 5 years old so i figured new ones were in order anyway. I still have the "missing" or "stuttering", my plugs are less than a month old.

My next guess is spark plug wires. Mine are about 4 years old with maybe 50,000 miles on them but they are MSD wires, so i dont really wanna just replace them, im going to look for the originals and see if itis the wires

oh, and resetting the ecu didnt help me, feel free to try and hope tho

eric739 · 12-18-2004, 12:40 PM

I get that same problem. I have Ultra plug wires and it still does it. It seems like it's getting flooded. I think I am going to upgrade to a MSD SCI ignition. I think it may not be getting a big enough spark. I could be wrong, but my car has over 200k on it so I figure it can't hurt.

X01VTEC · 12-18-2004, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eric739

I get that same problem. I have Ultra plug wires and it still does it. It seems like it's getting flooded. I think I am going to upgrade to a MSD SCI ignition. I think it may not be getting a big enough spark. I could be wrong, but my car has over 200k on it so I figure it can't hurt.

the only reason an aftermarket ignition system would resolve this issue would be if something was faulty in the stock ignition. theres no reason to go and buy an aftermarket ignition for this problem alone, as the stock ignition should be more than adequate if it is working properly

X01VTEC · 12-22-2004, 12:59 AM

update, i got a chance to swap my plug wires, now my car idles and runs perfectly.

i kept popping the hood and finding one of my msd wires had popped out of its hole, different ones at different times too. i wanted to be able to keep the msd wires, so i kept popping them back on the plugs as they came off hoping i could get them to work, finally i gave up when i managed to make a short trip around the block and back, long enough to get the stuttering, then popped the hood and found the wires were all seated as they should be, so i swapped them out once i was sure the wires were bad.

hope your problem is resolved soon, maybe this might help, good luck

siklude · 12-22-2004, 08:16 PM

its been happening to me latley...i thought it was dirty fuel injkectors so i put fuel injector leaner in there it worked temporarily but then i jsut filled up again an well its doing it again..i use good gas IMO ( Shell V power)...i havent changed my wires..that might be what i need to do....

xMrM02x · 12-28-2004, 04:02 PM

I had the same problem.. except it was for my nissan. I changed the fuel filter, vacuum lines, cleaned IACV and AIV , cleaned the throttle body..nothing. Just happened to be my spark plugs and spark plug wires. I"d try changing those and geting a new dist rotor/cap aswell...

siklude · 12-28-2004, 04:37 PM

okay i just changed my sparkplug wires and its started well and isnt bogging or stuttering or anything and the ride seems stronger and smooth and start up is immediate when i turn on the car, i did this 5 or 6 times. so i believe that may be the case. ill keep everyone updated as time goes on. fingers crossed this was the problem. btw i changed my wires to the 11mm crane cam firewire, i havent changed my spark plug wires for about 60k miles, spark plugs and rotor/cap i changed not to long ago after tune up....if it still occurs i will go ahead and changed the fuel flter (which ive been meaning to do for a while)

65coupe · 01-04-2005, 06:14 PM

What spark plugs do you guys run and what gap on what engine?
And what do you recommend if changing plug wires? Size/brand?

ViZ · 01-05-2005, 02:09 PM

Also something to keep an eye on, when i get issues like this i always throw a timing light on just to check it before i do anything else.

Sonik_Fury · 01-08-2005, 02:07 PM

Isn't it true that the gas sold in colder climates is different during the winter???

achemze · 01-08-2005, 03:03 PM

Except san diego isnt a "colder climate" :P Nor is the bay area.

Like i always say, if you've missed maintenance on your car, you should do _all_ of it first, just to be absolutely sure its not something you should change anyways.

But i would suggest looking at the O2. I had weird hesistation when i would go to WOT from "crusing". It would not only shoot a cloud (bad a/f), it would then bog past 75% increasing bog to 100%. I changed the O2 and it got 10x better, i changed the wires and it fixed up the other 25%.

With fuel filters, according to the helm manual, you only change them when the fuel pressure is below a certain point. Not at any interval. And thats only after you've checked the fuel pump pressure, as well as the fuel pump itself. I would suggest measuring the fuel pressure first, before you start buying stuff you wont need. B&M FP tester is like $20 @ kragen. The filter will cost you more than that :P

With cars, however, similar symptoms, are usually different components for all of us.

65coupe · 01-08-2005, 03:56 PM

I had this stuttering/hesitation for a while and turned out my distributor was loose. The 3 bolts where not tightened well and there was just enough play for me to turn the distributor back and forth slightly. Tightened the bolts and engine runs smooth.
Then went and had a tune up and the timing checked and it now seems to run just fine.