mmckernan599gto

Hey everyone,

I was running into an weird issue today after taking my car out this morning. Everything seemed fine for the first half hour but then after letting my car sit for an hour at a car show, then taking it it out on the freeway again, I would accelerate in 3rd gear and the car would reach around 8700 rpm with my foot to the floor and then it would stop and the revs would back off a bit to around 8500, never reaching 9000. All with my foot floored. It seemed to do it primarily in 3rd gear. 1st gear could reach redline fine, couldn't replicate it in first. Second gear possibly, but i need to take it out later and try some second gear pulls because it almost felt like it was backing off a bit in second, but I wasn't 100% sure. Possibly just me being paranoid. Additionally, it wasn't doing it constantly, just on a couple 3rd gear pulls i was able to replicate it.

To narrow it down:

• Oil and engine coolant was changed by a honda dealer a couple hundred miles ago
• Valve adjustment was performed less than 1000 miles ago
• Car was fully warmed up (3 bars)
• VTEC felt like it was still engaging as usual
• No CEL or any other lights for that matter
• Car is completely stock

I doubt this is related, but i figured i would mention. I just last night replaced the clutch master cylinder, flushed the systems and replaced with fresh clutch fluid. After being absolutely certain that the system was completely flushed with new fluid and zero air bubbles, there was still some freeplay for the first 10-20% of clutch travel. The solution i found was to adjust the threaded piston spoke and nut that connects to the clutch pedal to get rid of the play. Worked beautifully. Now the clutch pedal has zero play and feels rock solid. Much less spongy than before. HOWEVER, the bite point is definitely higher up that it was before, and it took a lot of getting used to when driving it for the first time afterwards today. The clutch still has the clutch buzz and the car has about 72k miles, so i believe the clutch is original and a bit worn, hence the high bite point. Once again, don't think this is related to the rev limit issue, but i figured it was worth mentioning since i JUST performed that work.

Any ideas?

flanders

Have you checked the oil level?
That's the first thing I would do after it was serviced at a dealer.

mmckernan599gto

I probably should've done that immediately after getting it changed, but i didn't. However, oil looks fine, filled to the top mark.

zeroptzero

What you describe does not sound mechanically reasonable IMO, other than an upper rpm misfire, but it would have to be so severe that you would have CELs going off. If it happened in every gear all the time then it might make more sense. Go out and keep testing it.

lucastauch

Hey guys, 100% check that oil level immediately, I recently was having the exact same issue and because I was so busy with school at the time I hadn't properly looked at it and ended up with a "seized engine", at least that's what the mechanics at Honda diagnosed it as. After opening up the engine myself, and going through things, luckily I think I may be able to salvage the engine, and replace a few key parts to get it running again. Point being, check that oil level asap and save your self a headache! Hopefully I was helpful.

zeroptzero

^ seized engines don't run, let alone get near redline.

lucastauch

I was saying prior to my engine seizing my engine was showing similar symptoms to what he discussed. If you're saying that a seized engine can't be repaired, it can, that would be called being rebuilt.

windhund116

May need new spark plugs?

rpg51

[QUOTE=lucastauch;24759473 If you're saying that a seized engine can't be repaired, it can, that would be called being rebuilt.[/QUOTE]
Good luck with that.

mmckernan599gto

Quick update:

As I mentioned above, checked the oil as suggested. Oil was still at the top mark, looked nice and fresh (not dark like my oil was before i had it changed). I even had a friend check the oil as well to be absolutely sure i wasn't going crazy or anything.

Not that i believe that this was directly related, but it had been a while since I've done an idle relearn procedure on the car, and I've definitely disconnected the battery a couple times since. So i figured what the hell, can't hurt. So i disconnected the battery for a bit, reconnected it, turned on the car and made sure all of the electronics were off, held it at 3k rpm til the temps were up to 3 bars, and then let it idle for 5 minutes.

Anyways, went for a drive a bit later (brought a friend with me to so he could help me keep an eye on things). Let the car warm up, brought it up through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd all the way to redline numerous times. Even let the car build from a low rpm to redline in third gear once or twice to see if that made a difference. Zero issues. Proper VTEC engagement and pull all the way to redline every time. Couldn't replicate the issue at all after many attempts. So for now, i guess i'll consider it fixed. Unless it comes back, then maybe i'll update, but fingers crossed.

My tinfoil hat theory:

Since a couple of you have mentioned oil... i checked the oil and it was fine as previously mentioned, BUT i do know that my year car (2001) suffers from having the original AP1 oil banjo bolts (i doubt the original owner ever replaced them... i mean the car still has the clutch buzz from the original clutch), and when driving at high RPMs for a long period of time, the original bolts can struggle to let an adequate amount of oil through (if i remember that correctly?). So it was a very hot day (at altitude in CO, if that matters), and I had been driving the car a bit aggressively for quite a while this morning and holding the rpms pretty high. Does anyone think it's possible that after a bit of aggressive driving, for a few brief moments, the engine was struggling to receive enough oil due to the old banjo bolts? Maybe causing symptoms of low oil as some others have described? I'm not a mechanic by any means so this might seem far fetched, but I'm struggling to come up with any other possible cause.

P.S. someone mentioned spark plugs, but if i remember correctly, the previous owner claimed to have replaced the spark plugs recently before i bought the car (~1000 miles ago). So definitely not out of the realm of possibilities, but I would consider that unlikely.


How similar were the symptoms if you don't mind me asking? Was is in every gear every time you got close to redline? Or was it only occasionally?