sweetj

Hi guys,

I was hoping you could give me a little bit of insight on the issue I am having. I had a CEL pop up on Saturday, went to Autozone and it pulled up the P0301, which is a misfire on cylinder 1. I have MY '00 with 75k. I have never replaced my spark plugs. I pretty much VTEC on a daily basis. Pretty much for the first 5+ years of the car I did alot of highway miles with traffic off and on.

I just moved recently and now I'm only about 6 miles from work and its mostly city driving. Not alot of traffic though just lights. I decided to go about my business yesterday until I could get some time to look into this today. I had a friend look at the plugs and they don't look bad. Thinking maybe if I just replaced the plugs that could solve the problem. I was told by a friend that maybe I'm not burning off as much stuff since I'm not doing highway driving anymore and thats why it threw the code. So, I was driving up to the store last night and the CEL just went off on its own. So now I'm really confused. I know CELs just don't go away on their own

If anyone could give me any insight on this I would be most appreciative. I was going to go ahead and replace the plugs anyway since its probably that time...

Thanks J

xviper

Please tell me again ........................ NEVER?

Did you know that for all '00 cars (and some '01 cars), Honda had a spark plug recall to put in a plug with a different crush ring and a higher torque spec? If you've "never" changed plugs, you have been very lucky that none of them have loosened and caused major problems. When your friend removed the plugs did he/she notice that any of them were particularly easy to unscrew?
I would suggest that you get new plugs. Nothing wrong with the current OEM plugs. Just make sure they are gapped correctly before you put them in and scramble the coil packs around (ie, don't put them back in the same positions they started out in), reset the ECU and continue to use the car as you usually do. If the CEL comes back, then you need further diagnosis. If ever the CEL flashes while you are driving, pull over, and shut it off and get it flatbedded to the dealer.

As an additional note, have you checked the condition of your air filter and do you use fuel injector cleaner from time to time? Your air filter could be in bad shape and your injectors could use a proper clean by the dealer if you haven't been doing injector cleaner as periodic maintenance (one bottle in the fuel tank every 5000 miles or so).

sweetj

I honestly can't remember if I had the recall or not... I'm pretty good with remembering stuff like this too but I'm drawing a blank... I'm gonna see if I can call honda nad see if its in the system. I have a Comptech CAI and itwas just cleaned last weekend. Could that have set if off?

...

Alright I never replaced them. Are you sure it was an actual recall not a TSB?

xviper

Yes, it was a recall. All original owners should have gotten a letter about this. You would also see a "dot" stamped above one of the digits in the serial number on the firewall near your battery. Your owner's manual would also have had new stickers put into it in two places to show the new spark plug part numbers. If the dealer doesn't have you in their system as having had this recall, you may still be able to get it now. It all depends if they are going to be snotty about it and link it to an expired warranty. Nevertheless, it's not that expensive to have 4 plugs gapped (0.044") and installed to the proper 18 lb/ft. and flip the coil packs around.

It's unlikely that cleaning a Comptech filter would throw a CEL unless you did something really weird like clean it with "boar mucous" or something.

sweetj

Just called the Honda where I got most of my work done and they were replaced in 8/2002 with 32k on the car. So this may change the issue with the CEL now....

xviper

Yes, it does. It's good that your friend confirmed that the plugs looked OK. Those are most likely not an issue at this time.
Still consider those other things I mentioned. A ramdom misfire like this can be a one time, temporary thing or it could be the start of worse things to come. Try to flip the coil packs around, reset the ECU and see what happens. You may not see another light.

sweetj

Thanks for helping me out. I know I had gotten all recalls/TSBs done on this car but couldn't for the life of me remember that one

Well since it went away on its own I'm gonna wait to see if it comes back on or not. With only 42k on these new plugs there shouldn't be any reason to just replace them even if they did look kinda dirty, correct??? I'm not sure what plugs are suppose to look like, I am just a girl

J

xviper

"Just a girl". Give yourself more credit than that.

These plugs are platinum and are supposedly good for over 100,000 miles assuming that nothing else is wrong with the engine. Since the light went away, it was most likely a temporary ramdom issue. If it comes back then proceed with the coil pack flip and ECU reset and go from there. Throw a bottle injector cleaner into the gas tank at the next fill.

SC_Highlander

[QUOTE=xviper,May 16 2005, 02:32 PM] "Just a girl".

sweetj

I probably will replace them but I'm gonna wait for now to see if the light comes back.. Thanks for all the info. I will update with whatever new happens.