03_AP1

MAP sensor?

hondaS2001

could be, sounds similar to that of what happens on s2ks. I havent heard of this on the ludes but its not out of the question. Do a search on here on "MAP SENSOR" and youll see what we are talking about.

KCLude01

Yeah, I tried the MAP sensor wack and ECU reset. It didn't really help out though. Could it be an O2 sensor problem? The reason I ask is because this problem usually gets worst once the motor is warm.

hondaS2001

If you can get up under there easy enough then it wouldnt hurt to take a look at your o2 sensor. If it is bad enough you might try heating up the tip with a torch to burn all of the carbon off, I needed to do that twice in my 60k miles of ownership as the h22's run really rich.

vng

KCLude01,

I own a 98 Lude and I've experienced loss of power problems too. I had a MIL on/DTC for Primary Heated Oxygen Sensor Slow Response. I have the helms service manual and it points out that the likely culprit was a deteriorated 02 sensor.

Interestingly, I reset the ECU a few times to clear the DTC's and no engine check light would appear for months at a time, but the car would still drive crappy. Anyway, I finally replaced the oxygen sensor and my problems were solved.

On a side note, when I took out the old 02 sensor, the head of the sensor appeared to be white/grey and ashen (not sure if this is what is normal for a used 02 sensor but it might be indicative of a problem). You might want to jack up your car and unbolt your primary 02 sensor and have a look at it. (it helps to have an 02 sensor tool that bolts onto your rachet wrench, about $5 - 8 at the local auto store, otherwise i think the universal 02 nut size is 5/8" off the top of my head).

Once in a while, my car's idle will drop down to what appears to be around 500 rpms (halfway between the 1k mark and 0) similiar to what you had mentioned. Before I replaced the 02 sensor, I reset the ECU and this appeared to have helped temporarily. But after a few trips, the low idling would resurface. After changing the 02 sensor out last month, It still does this on occasion, but not nearly as often. Perhaps it's a normal phenomena.

While I replaced the 02 sensor, I also attempted a valve adjustment. Only 3 out of the 16 valves were slightly out of spec so I don't think the valves were the primary cause of problem.

According to Alldata.com, the 1997 - 2001 ludes all have a technical service bulletin for the primary heated 02 sensor slow response. If your car is still under warranty, this might be something to have Honda look at. I think there is also a state law/ordinance in California that warranties your emissions parts for up to 60,000 or was it 70,000 miles, it states this somewhere in the books/packets that accompany your owners manual. Not sure if it applies where you're at. Ofcourse, I'm not sure if there has to be a clear cut problem (ie engine check light) before they'll replace it. Being that 02 sensors are expensive, they might not be willing to do the job.

Hopefully this info helps. If you do find out that your 02 sensor is the problem and would like to do it yourself, I wouldn't recommend buying it from Honda parts. They sold me the NTK 02 sensor which you can find on the internet for about $150 where as they charged me $260.

Road Rage

Fuel or spark. I am guessing fuel as others said - this sounds like a fuel delivery problem, possibly the fuel filter is gunked up. But you really did not state if the car runs perfectly well at some times, bad at others, or whether the idle is always low, or only low when you are in yout "bad" state. Detailed symptomatic descriptions really will help, but diagnosing over the Internbet for this kind of trouble is challenging. 3 top cylinder treatments? Your dealer was just fishing. Not much diagnosis brainpower there.

KCLude01

Road Rage - Thanks for your reply! Could my fuel filter be clogged up already at 18,500 miles? To answer your questions, yes the car does run perfectly at times. When it is lagging though, it really lags no matter how much gas I give it. It has seemed to get a bit better lately though. Could summer/winter fuel mixtures make that big of a difference? Idle is almost always low, it seems the only time it goes up to 750 is at night when I turn my headlights on. No kidding about the 3 top cylinder treatments, I thought that was overkill to say the least. I haven't taken it back to them since. They also were also dumb enough to overfill my oil a bit, so I do my own changes now. One other thing, I don't know if it is just me being too paranoid now or what, but tonight when I pulled into my garage it seemed like I heard a slight knock. It was coming from the belt area. I could hear it better when I got under the front drivers side bumper. It sounds ever so slight and is only at idle. It only does it when the idle is at operating temp though, when it is fully idled down. I can't really hear it well outside of the garage, are the walls in the garage just amplifying it and worrying me over nothing? Or should I be concerned? I might take it into the dealer and have them look at it for piece of mind. I haven't ever missed a shift or run low on oil that I know of. I check the oil pretty religiously. Who knows how the dealer treated it when I took it in for the power loss problem though, but it hasn't been in since late last year. Could my power loss problem cause a knock or maybe a belt? Sorry for the long post, I just tried to fit it all in there. I am a bit concerned to say the least, I take excellent care of this car. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

vng

Do you get poor performance at wide open throttle?

HondaS2001 had mentioned the timing belt auto tensioner going bad. I had a funny flapping/fluttering noise around idle and at around 2500 rpms and you could definitely hear it during deceleration as mentioned by HondaS2001. Sounded almost similiar to an exhaust leak. The problem was the timing belt auto tensioner as diagnosed by a local Honda dealer.

The tensioner issue started at around 70,000 miles, though, five years after having the car.

When I drive my car into an enclosed area with walls surrounding me, I can definitely hear noises that weren't apparent before. Perhaps the walls are reflecting sound vibrations back to my ears.

KCLude01

vng - I generally don't get poor performance in WOT, usually at part throttle and low RPM's. Although, when this lagging hit hard the car is sluggish no matter what. Would an exhaust leak cause something like this?

KCLude01

Any other ideas on this?