TheGoat

I hope to get some help as I have had this car for 1000 miles. I started getting cel codes about two weeks ago. The first time I went and took it in and they said that they could not find anything wrong and reset it. The second time I went to auto zone and came up with P0301 Cylinder 1 Misfire. I thought it could be bad gas so I filled up and the next morning it went away.

Came on yesterday and I went and got the codes.
P0301
P0303
P0300
P1399

I have looked at the past posts on this but need reassurance before I start eliminating possiblities. What should be my first steps?

My other problem is that I bought it from a non-Honda dealer and have a 50-50 warrenty with them for three months. If there is somthing major gone wrong they want to flat bed it to them and then have their Dodge or Chrysler guys work on it. I would prefer a Honda tech on it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

xviper

These are random misfire codes that are classified as temporary. They relate to misfires that are frequent enough to trigger detection of increased emissions during 2 consecutive driving cycles. If these misfires are frequent enough to damage the cat, then a blinking CEL will ensue and you will have to take more immediate action.

When these codes show up, sometimes they are accompanied by other codes. Those other codes must be pulled and dealt with on an individual basis. They may involve things like MAP sensor, primary heated O2 sensor, fuel metering, crankshaft position sensor, Idle Control System, either one of 2 Top Dead Center sensors or Idle Air Control Valve. DID THE SHOP SCAN FOR ANY OF THESE?

You must determine if these misfires occur ...................................
- only at low ROM and load. Check fuel pressure. This could also indicate low compression and/or low quality fuel.
- only during acceleration. Check fuel pressure. This could also indicate a malfunction in the VTEC system.
- at high RPM and load, or under random conditions. Check fuel pressure. This could also indicate that the valves need adjustment.

The above is the "official line" as given in the service manual. For you at home, you might want to try to pull all the sparks plugs and check for condition and proper gap. When putting them back in, you might also mix up the coilpacks so that they don't go back into the same cylinders. Reset the ECU and go for a test to see if you can get a CEL with the different driving conditions mentioned above.
As you can see, diagnosing this situation may prove very extensive and "could" end up being quite expensive (for the warranty holder). Ultimately, the worst case scenario may involve exchanging of many parts, the final one being the ECU itself.

stitos2k

You can swap the coilpacks around? I'll be damned, learn something new every day.

SenderGreen

When my S was new I was getting pretty much the same codes you are. In my case it was "valve lash". The dealer told me that on the F20 (and on a CR-V of all things) that the natural tendancy is for the valves to tighten up on their own. I have no idea if this is true, it's just what I was told. At any rate after several trips to the dealer this what was diagnosed. Incidently I think the misfires were occuring at idle judging from the freeze frame data. The cure was a valve adjustment, actually two, the first was apparently done incorrectly. They checked several things before getting to compression and leak-down tests and finally valves. I think first they tried to blame it on fuel, then spark and coil, and finally they got around to the valve stuff. I'm not saying your problem is tight valves, I'm just sharing my expierience as my DTC's were very close if not the exact same as your's. Misfires could be caused by any number of things though.

xviper

Yes, this has been a recommendation to see if a given misfire code in any cylinder will follow that coilpack to the new cylinder, thus proving one way or another if it's the coilpack or something else.

stitos2k

I never really payed much attention to them before. If they didn't look melted, I ignored them. Today when I was replacing my plugs (ngk 7173) I noticed you could just unclip them haha.

Eluded

Xviper covered the basics. Misfires sometimes indicate very bad things. Perhaps a Compression test and valve adjustment/inspection might help?

TheGoat

Ok, I changed out the plugs just because I thought that the dealer may have pressure washed the engine bay. I also swapped the coil packs. The freeze data indicated the misfire was at 2000 RPM. Don't know what that indicates really. Drove it last night and today and no CEL.
I'll see how it goes now that I have a starting point for troubleshooting.

On a side note, the dealership tried to sell me on their plugs. The cost for one of their plugs was $29.95. I called NAPA and they had them listed for $12.99, which I thought was still high.

Thanks for the help guys, as I will probably need more shortly.