Those doofuses. Valve adjustment can, but is rarely the cause of the random misfire codes.

I'll wager, by the time it's all said and done you wind up having plugs, coilpacks and injectors done. All at a hefty dealer parts markup.

Probably the easiest thing to have done is buy some cheapo Autozone copper NGK for $10 total and borrow a friends coilpacks. If that solves the problem, great. Probably a bad coilpack or two. You can figure it out by reinserting yours. It's super easy to do with basic tools.

If it doesn't solve the problem (and this tends to be the cause of the more nebulous random misfire), then injectors.

When they start to go, they still work fine at idle and light load. But will stumble a little on high demand / rpm. But it's messy to rule out injectors and easy to rule out the other things first.

 

So, the dealer has rechecked everything and all checks out fine. They pulled a fuel sample and checked it, it "looks" okay, but they've added some fuel cleaner stuff and the CEL has not come back on.

New total is $170.41 and I get to go pick the car up.

 

 

Thanks Harry.


I was just going over the bill...$140 for the valve adjustment & $28 for a new valve cover gasket. Not bad!

Car runs much smoother than it has in quite some time, I think it may have needed the adjustment for quite some time.

 

Keep an eye on it. I wouldn't be surprised if the CEL came back within a year. The fuel injector cleaner can help temporize wonky injectors... but ultimately they may need replacing. Watch for intermittent stumbling at high rpms / WOT.

 

^ Will do, the service guy said to keep an eye on it as well They did test the injectors, but he said if there's some crud leftover it could make its way into them and cause the same issue again.

I just hope the weather stays somewhat decent for the next few days so I can get rid of the fuel in the tank and get some fresh stuff in there.

 

Hmmm, I have almost as many miles as you (I'm between 28k and 29k right now), maybe I should check the valves this winter...

I definitely need to order some fuel injector cleaner for all of our vehicles as a preventative measure, as well.

BTW, Sounds to me like you got a decent deal on the valve adjustment. The Ann Arbor dealer once quoted me over $250 to perform one on my old CRX, and that was back in 1996 or 1997 (of course, they were trying to rip me off because the actual problem was a $10 heat sheild clip).

Hope it works out for you, sometimes an extra tank or two with more fuel injector cleaner isn't a bad idea either.

 

Kamron, I'd have it checked out just in case. Mine was at Art Moehn in Jackson, they quoted me $185 for the adjustment, which also included a new valve cover gasket ($28) so I'd definitely call around.

I've only got 4-5 bars left on the fuel gauge, so I'll be filling it up and adding in some more cleaner very soon. I think I'll also put in some Stabil this winter, I've never done that before, but I think I need to start.

 

I think this may be a DIY for me. Following the quote mentioned above, I ended up adjusting the valves myself on my CRX before I discovered the real problem; so, I have one prior experience doing it (and I didn't break anything). From reading the DIY thread, it doesn't look too much different on this car; so, I think I am capable. The only cost to me should be the cost of the gasket (well, I may just replace the spark plugs anyway since I'm in the area).

 

Well then, I'll just call you next time