Attn: All Lude Owners (Especially SH Owners) - Honda Prelude Forum

vwong · 10-08-2001, 11:07 PM

Have you guys experienced fuel starvation during the auto-x? Well, I don't know if it was fuel starvation or something, but my car hesitated to go 3 times in a single run yesterday at the auto-x. I lost lots of time because of that. I had a full tank of gas, foot on the gas pedal exiting the quick transition of turns (like chicane, or S-turn), car didn't wanna go. It felt like the fuel had been cut off, but I was only at around 5k rpm. Then a second or two later, the power came back, but it was too late, I had to brake for the next turn. I was frustrating 'cuz it seemed like there was nothing I could do to avoid that.

Then I called my good friend at Progress Springs today, he told me that it could be the ATTS. He said like other cars with traction control that he had driven before, if the traction control (in our case, the ATTS) senses some wheel spin, it'll shut off some power by cutting the fuel. He asked me to try running it with the ATTS disable. So my question for you guys are that (1) have you guys experienced this problem before (especially the SH owners)? (2) if I pull the ATTS fuse, do I need to reset the ECU when I put the fuse back on?

Thanks.....please help a fellow lude owner who lost his 1st place in overall point standing because of this damn problem.

TimeRacer · 10-08-2001, 11:35 PM

I don't know, I haven't experienced this yet. Check for some posts from Marshbb6 I think or just Marsh, they should be by Marshal McLean (sorry if I butchered the name) he's be autocrossing his SH probally longer than all of us. The only problem that I've heard of is that of the power steering and ATTS shutting off at the autocross. When was the last time that you had your fuel filter checked/replaced?

~Doug

Pork Chop · 10-08-2001, 11:56 PM

I've never had fuel starvation and I've run my SH anywhere from a full tank to the fuel light being on.

I'm assuming that the car was warmed up (I've also run the car when cold and the rev limiter kicked in at 5K).

I've had the ATTS fail once during a run and the symptoms seem similar (5K rev limit, but only in 1st gear, 2nd seemed to pull fine all the way past VTEC). Did you notice the ATTS light on? It should stay on until you turn off the car and restart it.

Clogged fuel filter seems possible too.

o0OO0o · 10-09-2001, 12:02 AM

hmmmm maybe you're low on oil or ATTS fluid?

iranman · 10-09-2001, 12:17 AM

Actually, I can't specifically recall where (but I'm leaning towards the PVN Mailing list a couple years ago), but I do remember reading something about the SH's and a problem that occured when going WOT in lower gears (mostly 1st) at sharp angles. Either the ATTS cut out, or the steering, or just the light came on or something along those lines...

Most driver's experienced this when merging with traffic, sharp turns, etc...

Sorry, but that's all I remember. Hope it helps.

vwong · 10-09-2001, 01:47 PM

Thanks for the replies. Well, let me answer some of your questions. The ATTS light never came on, so I would assume that the ATTS was still functioning. And I know that I had enough engine oil because I checked and refilled (if necessary) before every auto-x or road race event. As for the ATTS fluid, I don't know. I've never checked the ATTS fluid. And the fuel filter hasn't been changed yet (I thought it had, but I checked my service records and it was never changed). So what I'm gonna do is to have the my friend (who owns a Honda Specialist service garage) check the fuel system and maybe clean it too. I'll let you guys know how it turns out. I have an auto-x event coming up on 10/27 & 10/28. Hopefully it'll cure that problem.

BTW, this wasn't the only time I experienced the problem. I've experienced the same problem many times before, but never had 3 occurances in a single run.

sk515 · 10-09-2001, 07:33 PM

hey vwong.
were you at eltoro this weekend? i think it was your car that i saw.

what mods do you have cos if it was you.. you can really drive and your car sounds soo good.

vwong · 10-09-2001, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sk515
hey vwong.
were you at eltoro this weekend? i think it was your car that i saw.

what mods do you have cos if it was you.. you can really drive and your car sounds soo good.

yeah, I was there....the only white Prelude (car #107) there. well, if it wasn't that damn problem, I could've knock off a second or so from my best time. Then I could've gotten 1st in STS so I could keep my #1 standing. I ended up taking 3rd last weekend, and it wasn't enough for me to keep my #1 standing.

Did you run? I don't recall seeing another Prelude ran. Anyway, go to my team website (link in my sig) to check out my mods (too many to list here

)

sk515 · 10-10-2001, 01:58 AM

nah i didnt run... i didnt sign up in time... i was driving in a black prelude i was there on sat... my friends ran though... the blue celica. the white gsr, the white civic with the gt style wing, and the black civic.

you are really good though..

awesome mod list btw.. you rock.

71dsp · 10-10-2001, 07:33 AM

Was it during left hand turns?

vwong · 10-10-2001, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 71dsp
Was it during left hand turns?

no....why? does it matter? all 3 occurances were right after the right turns.

vwong · 10-10-2001, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sk515
nah i didnt run... i didnt sign up in time... i was driving in a black prelude i was there on sat... my friends ran though... the blue celica. the white gsr, the white civic with the gt style wing, and the black civic.

you are really good though..

awesome mod list btw.. you rock.

Oh....I thought you were there on Sunday.

I didn't have my number on the car on Saturday since it was a practice.

Yeah...I saw those cars. I was on course working while the white gsr and black civic ran. I believe the blue celica and white civic ran in the same group as me. How did they do?

Jacques · 10-10-2001, 09:59 PM

How much gas was in your tank? How about oil level? I think it could be either one of them.

sk515 · 10-11-2001, 12:20 AM

they did ok. i think like best times were 76 75. yeah. man i love your car. hahaha

vwong · 10-11-2001, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jacques
How much gas was in your tank? How about oil level? I think it could be either one of them.

I had full tank of fuel, and the oil level was midway between the 2 dots on the dip stick. One thing though, not all oil was fresh. Before the event, my oil level was below the lowest dot on the dip stick, and it was kinda dark. I just added about a quart of fresh oil in the engine. Do you think this might be the cause? Hm....

sk515: was last weekend's event your friends' 1st auto-x? If so, then they did pretty good. My best time on the practice day was 70.0xx.

sk515 · 10-11-2001, 02:16 AM

oh no.. only the gsr was a first timer... the rest have been to previous events.

SleepyFish · 10-11-2001, 07:06 AM

Are you sure the car was warmed up? The rev limiter will kick in around 5-6k rpm when the temperature gauge is at the C mark.

I've never had a problem with fuel starvation in my SH while autocrossing even with 1/4 tank full.

71dsp · 10-11-2001, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by vwong

no....why? does it matter? all 3 occurances were right after the right turns.

That's really odd. We have found that the Prelude will suffer from oil starvation (which will kick in a lower fuel cutoff, and kill VTEC) in left hand turns, both sharp and sweeping. It seems that the oil pan is not baffled enough to keep oil from sloshing around so bad that the pickup misses the oil during left hand turns.

Are you sure they were right hand turns? I have never heard of anything happening during right hand turns....

vwong · 10-11-2001, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 71dsp

That's really odd. We have found that the Prelude will suffer from oil starvation (which will kick in a lower fuel cutoff, and kill VTEC) in left hand turns, both sharp and sweeping. It seems that the oil pan is not baffled enough to keep oil from sloshing around so bad that the pickup misses the oil during left hand turns.

Are you sure they were right hand turns? I have never heard of anything happening during right hand turns....

Yeah, I'm sure they were all right turns when that happened. I still have the in-car video. If I know how to make that into mpeg file, and someone host it for me, I'll put it up. You can hear 2 of the occurances, 1 of which was in 1st gear after the 2nd turn, and the other was in 2nd gear right before the last turn. And the 3rd occurance was couple of turns after the sweeper, but it wasn't clear since the camcorder picked up most of the wind noise.

SleepyFish: yes, the car was completely warmed up. And I'm aware of the VTEC not kicked-in with a cool engine. I knew that problem since the 1st week I got my car in July 98.

Jacques · 10-11-2001, 04:08 PM

Then only other thing I can think of is a clogged fuel injector, but then you'd get hesitation/slow acceleration all the time. I'm stumped.