Engine Sputtering At Low Rpm

[shanal123]

Hey,

My car sputters/misfires at idle and low rpm(throttle barely pressed). The problem first came up(might be best if I start from the beginning) on a thursday night. Car ran fine in the morning, problematic in the evening. If I accelerate, the engine loses revs(like it's about to stall). Once it finally gets going, it'll hold that speed with no issues. Couple of days later, can't accelerate above 30kmph. Stalls if I let it idle for over 10 seconds. And then finally, refused to start up at all.

Problem diagnosed to a bad distributor. Coil was replaced(old one was burnt) and car started up fine and ran fine.... for around 50km. Sputtering and stalling started again. Took the car to a different garage. Injectors cleaned(tune-up done 4 months ago though they were dirty again), throttle body cleaned, manifold cleaned and new spark plugs installed. Distributor timing done and car accelerates fine(better than ever) and throttle response improved. It still sputters at idle and low throttle. Loves to rev though.

The mechanic says it's still the distributor, that the new coil's resistance doesn't match the ignitor (googling this gave me no answers). So it would be best if I get a new distributor installed.

What I want clarified is, is this true(coil resistance thing)? Will I have to get a complete distributor put in or just a new ignitor to go with the new coil(only one shop in delkanda had it)?

Also air filter is clogged up(from the inside, car has been backfiring). Anyone know where I can get a cone airfilter? Checked panadura(one shop called a few more shops in panchikawatta) and kaduwela. No luck . EBay shipping is $50+ . Car pulls even harder without airfilter.

Car is a 1998 Honda Integra.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post!

[MasterDon]

Check oxygen sensor.That most probably is the culprit...

[Rumesh88]

As I understand you car run fine at high revs but not on low throttle and idle. Am I right? If so what is your cold start RPM? Does the car start on cold start without a problem and rev close to 1,500 RPM and then come down? I am asking these questions just to eliminate possible issues with Idle Air Control.

[shanal123]

Check oxygen sensor.That most probably is the culprit...

Thanks, will get that checked out. Though around 5 months ago I had a similar problem. The car never stalled but sputtered randomly(both when accelerating and driving at a constant speed). Problem diagnosed to be bad IACV (by stafford and 2 other garages). 3 weeks after the problem, CEL came on. Using a piece of wire on the diagnostic port, found the problem to be O2 sensor. Removing and cleaning it fixed the problem. I dismissed the O2 sensor as the culprit for my current problem because the symptoms are different. Could still be O2 or MAF sensor.

Going to get the car scanned tomorrow(CEL keeping coming on with speedometer not working and ABS randomly turning on). Not going to pull a code with a paperclip since I might have more than one error code at this point

@Rumesh88

Yes, car runs fine at high rpms(anything over 1200). Cold start rpm is close to 1500 and then drops down to around 800. Even when the engine sputters, I can press the accelerator and the car accelerates with no hesitation.

Edited November 22, 2014 by shanal123

[MasterDon]

Thanks, will get that checked out. Though around 5 months ago I had a similar problem. The car never stalled but sputtered randomly(both when accelerating and driving at a constant speed). Problem diagnosed to be bad IACV (by stafford and 2 other garages). 3 weeks after the problem, CEL came on. Using a piece of wire on the diagnostic port, found the problem to be O2 sensor. Removing and cleaning it fixed the problem. I dismissed the O2 sensor as the culprit for my current problem because the symptoms are different. Could still be O2 or MAF sensor.

Going to get the car scanned tomorrow(CEL keeping coming on with speedometer not working and ABS randomly turning on). Not going to pull a code with a paperclip since I might have more than one error code at this point

@Rumesh88

Yes, car runs fine at high rpms(anything over 1200). Cold start rpm is close to 1500 and then drops down to around 800. Even when the engine sputters, I can press the accelerator and the car accelerates with no hesitation.

Well your symptoms like sputtering(not misfiring) at low revs indicates something with the induction system.On 90s Hondas the O2 sensor is the main cause.I basically had the same problem as you with my CRX Sol ....Rumesh is ofcourse far more more knowledgeble than me when it comes to technical matters like this so I'd wait for his conclusion too.

[Rumesh88]

I am with Master Don on this. Even if you have more than one code still you can pull them out one by one - although a messy process. Cleaning an old O2 sensor would not always guarantee a lasting solution. You seem to have a few other problems as well like wheel sensors. But if they ar intermittent search for possible signs of mess up in the electrical wiring to the engine block? Particularly the grounding returns from ECU to the block (Do you have any grounding kits installed BTW?). Also eliminate possibility of air leak to intake manifold at high vacuum (like during idle) particularly through injector seals.

[shanal123]

Took the car to an electrician today. The car had 7 pages worth of errors. Errors cleared and then drove the vehicle until the CEL popped up again. Now there's only 1 error code(17-02(P0501)) VSS No pulse or noise = related to speedometer not working. Vehicle speed sensor has a broken pin.

O2 sensor was removed(because the car kept revving between 800 and 1500 rpm). That sorted out the rev hunt and almost fixed the bad idle. Cleaned the sensor and re-plugged it. Car runs almost fine now.

I'll have to get down an O2 sensor, VSS and MAP(might as well change that). This electrician also suspects bad distributor.

Wiring seems ok though I'll start collecting up for a new wiring harness. Don't have any grounding kits that I know of. Also I'll have to get a gasket kit(planning on removing the intake manifold and cleaning that as well).