I was shaking up my car a bit after several days of inactivity by bringing it up to 1st gear redline on a downhill straight near my home. The problem was that just before reaching 6000 rpm (still in 1st), the engine would stop responding even though my right foot was floored. My friends think that it might be because of the VTEC pin being somewhat stuck from inactivity (I am usually a mild driver). This sounds about right because the engine had no trouble exceeding 6000 rpm afterwards. However, a few days later, I did the same acceleration at the same place and the engine froze again. Is this a serious mechanical problem, a problem with the location, or should I just "exercise" my car a bit more?

I am bringing my car in for its 1-year service soon and it would be helpful if somebody could let me know what I should tell the technicians to look at.

Also, would this be a good time to switch to a synthetic oil? Would I be able to get the dealer technicians to do the change?

 

You must allow your car to warm up before it will rev beyond 6000 RPM. I would suggest waiting for three bars on the temp guage plus 5-6 miles of easy driving. Until you have at least achieved three bars Honda has decided to protect you from yourself by limiting the revs allowed. Do a quick search, this has been posted several times. Go easy on your cold engine.

James

 

Does the engine refuse to rise above 6K RPM or is there a lack of VTEC response?
Do you get the same result on level ground or uphill?

My VTEC solenoid sprung a leak (bad o-ring) last year. I had sluggish VTEC response but no failure to accelerate.

 

Please don't drive your car like crazy before it's warmed up. You would never attempt to run 10 miles without a good stretch, so why do it to your car? Good thing Honda has that build in cold limiter...

-Shing

 

It has been so long since the car has taken less than a minute to warm up I completely forgot about the limiter. At around 100 degrees the car feels like it has no VTEC most of the time anyway. Three bars takes very little time to reach these days.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by svann
[B]It has been so long since the car has taken less than a minute to warm up I completely forgot about the limiter.

 

I'll try and answer the next few questions for you. First of all, how many miles does your car have now? Have you ever changed your oil during this 1st year of ownership?

The maintenance should be the same as most cars with the following exception. Make sure they don't rotate your tires. I'm sure you're aware that the front wheels/tires are different than the rear wheels/tires.


[QUOTE]Originally posted by T6S2K
[B]
Also, would this be a good time to switch to a synthetic oil?

 

Thanks for all the responses. I think it's probably the rev-limiter on a cold engine. It's pretty warm down here in SoCal we're usually more worried about temperatures when they get too high. I'll take your advice and keep my driving moderate until the car has sufficiently warmed up.

I have just under 13,000 miles on the car and three oil changes each at the times prescribed in the owner's manual. According to the posts on oil and synthetics, I shouldn't have had my oil changed at just under 4000 miles like the manual said. I'll head over to the oil thread and browse a bit more. Thanks.