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I find over inflating tires will make bumps much more pronounced.
If the tires are a correct psi…
Do you hear something in the car loose when you hit a bump or is it just the vibration from the bump traveling through the car?
Troubleshooting: Fuel, Air, Spark
Basic tune ups are good to do. You can easily clean the throttle body and intake components with carb cleaner and a rag. As far as the fuel system, Honda fuel systems are pretty good. (says Eric, a few others, and my car) I will occasionally put seafoam in the system but its not often necessary unless you drive your car less than a 1/4 tank often as sediment from the bottom of the tank can get sucked into the lines. If you really wanna you can do a fuel pressure test to see if its up to par. If not then it may be a clogged fuel filter.
You can tell if the fuel pump is bad by listening to it. It will make a loud whining noise that you can hear by the tank filler if its bad. But I doubt thats it.
The simplest thing is to check your air filter if you haven’t already.
Whats coming to mind is a clogged exhaust. If your cat converter is damaged and clogged that will choke your engine. It will take a moment to adjust when starting up if it needs to work harder to exhaust.
As far as the 0420, its not always the cat converter. Since it’s a pilot I’m assuming a V6 with two banks. So the code should specify which cat, unless there is only one. But it can be the downstream o2 sensor or and exhaust leak too. You can verify this by a few tests:
- Knock on the cat converter with a tool. If you hear rattling then the honeycomb inside is broken and you need a new one.
- Use an IR Thermometer if you have one and measure the temp before and after the cat converter with the engine warmed up and at 2500RPM
- Have autozone scan the car but take a look at the upstream and downstream voltages. At 2500rpm you should see the two voltages changing but not consistently the same as each other. If the two are the same voltages then you have a poisoned cat converter that is not working.
I only suggest these things because I find that many dealers just change parts on older cars rather than repair. Plus they can make a lot of money off a new one. Edit: EPA Law states that cat converters are under warranty for 8 years or 80,000 miles
If you do need a new cat converter and there is no warranty then look on eBay. A quick search tells me that you do not have to pay more than $230 for a new one. They are also bolt on’s so you could do it yourself if you’re good with bolts. Or you can pay a trusted mechanic. It shouldn’t be more than an hour or so. Also, often times the downstream and/or upstream o2 sensors should be replaced with the cat converter. If you need to also search on eBay. First go to Denso’s site to find the correct part for your car. I paid $40 for an upstream Denso sensor. Thats basically OEM Honda. Anywhere else would be $80-300. And always ask for the old part. You can sell your old cat converter and get around $100 back for it.
And the last thing is that if you have an 0420 and your cat converter has gone bad then that usually means there’s an underlying issue. Coolant or excess oil can get into the exhaust and poison the cat converter. Or your car can run extremely hot and destroy it. These are problems that are often missed or unknown and the converter is just replaced.
Basically a bad cat converter itself won’t cause any damage but it may mean there’s another problem. Then again a pretty hard smack by an object on the road can break it apart too.
So verify the issue soon and don’t pay anymore for the repairs than you have to.
Thats my speech.
Troubleshooting: Fuel, Air, Spark
Basic tune ups are good to do. You can easily clean the throttle body and intake components with carb cleaner and a rag. As far as the fuel system, Honda fuel systems are pretty good. (says Eric, a few others, and my car) I will occasionally put seafoam in the system but its not often necessary unless you drive your car less than a 1/4 tank often as sediment from the bottom of the tank can get sucked into the lines. If you really wanna you can do a fuel pressure test to see if its up to par. If not then it may be a clogged fuel filter.
You can tell if the fuel pump is bad by listening to it. It will make a loud whining noise that you can hear by the tank filler if its bad. But I doubt thats it.
The simplest thing is to check your air filter if you haven’t already.
Whats coming to mind is a clogged exhaust. If your cat converter is damaged and clogged that will choke your engine. It will take a moment to adjust when starting up if it needs to work harder to exhaust.
As far as the 0420, its not always the cat converter. Since it’s a pilot I’m assuming a V6 with two banks. So the code should specify which cat, unless there is only one. But it can be the downstream o2 sensor or and exhaust leak too. You can verify this by a few tests:
- Knock on the cat converter with a tool. If you hear rattling then the honeycomb inside is broken and you need a new one.
- Use an IR Thermometer if you have one and measure the temp before and after the cat converter with the engine warmed up and at 2500RPM
- Have autozone scan the car but take a look at the upstream and downstream voltages. At 2500rpm you should see the two voltages changing but not consistently the same as each other. If the two are the same voltages then you have a poisoned cat converter that is not working.
I only suggest these things because I find that many dealers just change parts on older cars rather than repair. Plus they can make a lot of money off a new one. Edit: EPA Law states that cat converters are under warranty for 8 years or 80,000 miles
If you do need a new cat converter and there is no warranty then look on eBay. A quick search tells me that you do not have to pay more than $230 for a new one. They are also bolt on’s so you could do it yourself if you’re good with bolts. Or you can pay a trusted mechanic. It shouldn’t be more than an hour or so. Also, often times the downstream and/or upstream o2 sensors should be replaced with the cat converter. If you need to also search on eBay. First go to Denso’s site to find the correct part for your car. I paid $40 for an upstream Denso sensor. Thats basically OEM Honda. Anywhere else would be $80-300. And always ask for the old part. You can sell your old cat converter and get around $100 back for it.
And the last thing is that if you have an 0420 and your cat converter has gone bad then that usually means there’s an underlying issue. Coolant or excess oil can get into the exhaust and poison the cat converter. Or your car can run extremely hot and destroy it. These are problems that are often missed or unknown and the converter is just replaced.
Basically a bad cat converter itself won’t cause any damage but it may mean there’s another problem. Then again a pretty hard smack by an object on the road can break it apart too.
So verify the issue soon and don’t pay anymore for the repairs than you have to.
Thats my speech.
I’m not too good with suspension but the first thing I thought of was tire pressure.
Have you checked the pressure and made sure your tires are aligned with good tread? Even tire brands and types will cause different sounds when driving.
I’m not too good with suspension but the first thing I thought of was tire pressure.
Have you checked the pressure and made sure your tires are aligned with good tread? Even tire brands and types will cause different sounds when driving.
Guess this isn’t an interference engine. I feel kinda silly we didn’t focus on the timing belt since I assumed that if it had been wrong your engine would not have survived past 10 seconds of running.
I see the cams are actually lined up. You just need to turn it a tooth clockwise to get the pulley to line up with the timing mark.
With the crankshaft pulley I can’t see where the timing belt lines up but I do see the pulley and block marks line up.
The sequence that you put the belt on matters though. The tensioner should tighten the belt without moving the pulleys out of line so try checking to see what the sequence to put the belt on is. I think it should end after the cam but before the crankshaft on the opposite side of the tensioner. If that makes sense…
So that the tensioner pulls on the cam and crank shaft in opposite directions to prevent it from going out of line.
If I remember correctly.
Guess this isn’t an interference engine. I feel kinda silly we didn’t focus on the timing belt since I assumed that if it had been wrong your engine would not have survived past 10 seconds of running.
I see the cams are actually lined up. You just need to turn it a tooth clockwise to get the pulley to line up with the timing mark.
With the crankshaft pulley I can’t see where the timing belt lines up but I do see the pulley and block marks line up.
The sequence that you put the belt on matters though. The tensioner should tighten the belt without moving the pulleys out of line so try checking to see what the sequence to put the belt on is. I think it should end after the cam but before the crankshaft on the opposite side of the tensioner. If that makes sense…
So that the tensioner pulls on the cam and crank shaft in opposite directions to prevent it from going out of line.
If I remember correctly.
Get a $10 elm327 off ebay if you have a tablet or smart phone. I use mine to keep tabs on my cars behavior. It will tell you the coolant temp.
Sometimes all your car needs is a little time to adjust though.
Get a $10 elm327 off ebay if you have a tablet or smart phone. I use mine to keep tabs on my cars behavior. It will tell you the coolant temp.
Sometimes all your car needs is a little time to adjust though.
Depending on the engine but I would imagine that in most cases anything that ended up in the cylinders will end up in the EGR. Afterall, it just takes a bit of the exhaust gas and recirculates it. The coolant could have made a sludge of carbon and coolant to clog the EGR. But typically too much EGR flow causes stumbling, not too little. Unless the engine sees high EGR valve lift but doesn’t know theres no flow. Its worth a shot to clean it out and make sure the valve still lifts.
If thats not it, at least you have a clean EGR valve.
Depending on the engine but I would imagine that in most cases anything that ended up in the cylinders will end up in the EGR. Afterall, it just takes a bit of the exhaust gas and recirculates it. The coolant could have made a sludge of carbon and coolant to clog the EGR. But typically too much EGR flow causes stumbling, not too little. Unless the engine sees high EGR valve lift but doesn’t know theres no flow. Its worth a shot to clean it out and make sure the valve still lifts.
If thats not it, at least you have a clean EGR valve.
Its kinda rare but some engines have both MAF and MAP sensors. Most use one or the other. You can tell if it has a MAF sensor by looking at the intake pipe. MAF sensors are located on the intake pipe but have 3 or more wires coming from them. If you see a connection with two that is most likely your IAT sensor only.
I still am leaning towards your EGR valve.
Do you have a service manual for your car?
Its kinda rare but some engines have both MAF and MAP sensors. Most use one or the other. You can tell if it has a MAF sensor by looking at the intake pipe. MAF sensors are located on the intake pipe but have 3 or more wires coming from them. If you see a connection with two that is most likely your IAT sensor only.
I still am leaning towards your EGR valve.
Do you have a service manual for your car?