Hey all..

sorry this isn't S2000 related, but the guys here seem to be more knowledgable (in general) than at some of the other boards. Hopefully someone knows something.

I bought a used 2000 Prelude (5spd) a few months ago, and it was throwing a CEL at the time, indicating a bad secondary O2 sensor. I replaced that sensor this past weekend, but now the car is throwing a new code, 67, which indicates a bad cat. The car only has 32K miles. I have no idea why the cat would be bad. The car runs really rich (light black smoke at WOT and in VTEC), and I'm really not sure why. When I replaced the secondary O2 sensor, the tip was covered in carbon soot. I have I/H/E, but I can't imagine it would cause the car to run so rich. Anyone have any ideas as to why? Also, does Honda typically honor it's 8yr/80k mi warranty on emissions system parts if you have I/H/E? I'd hate to pay $300+ for a cat. ack.

Matt

 

check fuel system (fuel pressure, injectors) to see if it's really running too rich.
running too rich will kill your o2. how's the gas mileage?

 

Well, as I understand it, all Preludes run rich, so I was under the impression it wasn't anything to worry about.. but apparently it was bad enough to ruin a cat, so...

The gas mileage isn't too terrible. I've made 400 miles on 14 gallons of gas, so it's not incredibly bad. That's ~28.5 MPG.

I'm planning to have a chat with a service guy at Honda today. The car is still under warranty, but I'm not sure if they'll try and deny me due to I/H/E. the cat obviously sits right between the header and exhaust, so I'm sure they'll try and tell me that the header caused it, which is a load of BS..

Matt

 

hi there, i have a 2000 prelude 5 spd also. i only have 42,000 miles on the clock however, after about 37000 miles, i noticed that i didnt get a hard power surge at vtec. rather, i would only hear the vtec's roaring soudn, but no extra power. And i also got the check engine light, same as yours, so i took it to Honda, and it WAS a cat problem. It was plugged up. After replacing it under full warranty, the car flies again.
I'm pretty sure you can get a cat under warranty if you haggle the dealer, which is what i did. Or you can go buy a racing cat, which are typically cheaper then an OEM piece, and offers less backpressure then the OEM cats.
i hope this helps

 

o and also, if the car is under warranty, they will fix it. i had basically all types of shit on the prelude that would negate the warrant for my blown tranny, but they fixed it after i kept haggling them. sure they took 30 days to fix it *they lag on purpose* but hey, they gave me a rental car to drive for those 30 days for free, so i got to rack up free miles as well as get a new tranny.. tahts my kind of deal.
:]