First I'd like to apologize for my first post being THIS long I'm in a bind here tho

Hey, I just recently purchased a 1997 Honda Accord LX with 194k miles. The car seemed to be not too bad when first drove it, with just a rattle at idle that the previous owner said was just the heat shield but now things seem to be going bad...about 5 problems im curious about, any insight would be much appreciated.

1)The car seems to be starting to shift hard, it goes to about 2.5k-3k rpms before shifiting into 2nd and 3rd that ive noticed. Could this be just the transmission fluid or is there anything else that could cause this other than a rebuild being needed?

2)The car has small amounts of heat that come through the vents but it doesn't work, the previous owner said he tried replacing the blow motor and it didn't fix it, could this just be a switch or anyone have any ideas?

3)The car rattles sometimes at idle but I'm told that's just a heat shield, any quick fixes?

4)The last thing is the car idles at about 1.7k rpms when i start it up and then returns to normal after a few minutes of idleing, the car shut off tho while i was driving it down the road the other day and i turned it over and it kicked right back on and kept going down the road? Could this just be a bad ground, or once again any ideas?

 

1. Does the check engine light turn on, or does the D4 light start flashing while driving? Regardless, I would stop by a parts store and have them scan for codes. Your connector is behind the ash tray. Post any codes on here. They start with the letter P and have four numbers, like P1234.

You may want to change the transmission fluid. Use the Honda ATF that you can pick up at the dealership.

2. Is there any air flowing through the vents? Or are you not getting any hot air?

3. You can get two big hose clamps to put around the catalytic converter heat shield to stop it from rattling.

4. Since you just got the car, I would consider doing a tuneup and some basic maintenance.

Get the NGK V-power spark plugs that are recommended for your car that you can get at any parts store. Check that your spark plug tubes are not filled with oil. I would inspect the contacts inside the distributor cap and the distributor rotor. You may want to replace them. I prefer the Honda distributor cap and rotor.

The EGR ports likely need to be cleaned. See the common DIY thread on top of the gen tech help section.

Can you get the car to stall out by shaking the key while driving?

 

for the heat shield you should be able to look at the cat converter and you'll probably see a small bolt that is rusted through and not holding the shield on anymore and that is where the rattle is coming from. Theres enough meat usually to attach another bolt.

 

I re-attached a heat shield by using large-diameter fender washers. Then after a couple years that rusted through. So then I used hose clamps to hold it on. The heat shield is pretty low-tech, all you have to do is figure out how to put wires or bands or something around & hold it together.

If the rattling is actually coming from the converter itself (or busted exhaust pipes) then you'll have to fix that.