So I just picked up a 1992 Honda Accord LX. 135k miles, power everything, upgraded cd player and aftermarket sunroof. Its the first car that I bought with my own money, (drove my brother's truck for a while before I wrecked it, lol). Its pretty nice, and I got it from the first owner who I think inherited it from her late husband.


Anywho, it seems like its been maintained pretty well, and I can't really find any problems except it won't pass emissions here in VA. I took it to my mechanic and he said it was probably because the car had been sitting for a few months before I got it, and to drive it on the highway at like 70mph for about 20 minutes. He said it should pass, but he recommended a tune up as well, and it needed a new valve cover gasket anyways, so I went with it. The mechanic also pulled the plugs and they had oil on them, so he changed the rocker arm seals, changed the valve cover gasket and changed the plugs, NGK's. I asked him to take apart the EGR and it was relatively clean, but he cleaned it further and put it all back together. I told him to put in a new air filter too, as well as a PCV valve.

I can't really find any other problems with it except these:

-The shifter is kind of hard. I press the button and pull back but it seems like it takes a lot more force to make it switch into gear than it should...anyone have any idea why? or how I can fix this? I thought about taking it apart and cleaning it up/greasing it maybe? I've never seen this issue on any other cars and I was just sorta brainstorming.

-Sometimes when I turn, it makes a sort of clicking noise sometimes..I know early accords are notorious for axle problems, but I checked out the boots before I bought it and they looked okay. any ideas?

-No A/C. When I bought it, they said that the compressor was working but it probably just had a leak..I have a bunch of A/C parts from a 1994 Del Sol, including compressor and some of the other stuff, pipes, etc.. Would that stuff fit?

-Anything I can do to help out on the emissions issue? My mechanic is pretty honest, and I haven't really had any problems with him before, but I dont want to have any doubts... heres the info I got on the sheet from the inspection station:


15 MPH (limit/reading) 25 MPH (limit/reading)

HC ppm: 125 / 126 FAIL 136 / 108 PASS
CO% 0.50 / 1/49 FAIL 0.73 / 1.63 FAIL
NO ppm 1636 / 2177 FAIL 1591 / 1272 PASS



ANY help on any of those issues would be MUCH appreciated.

 

even with the boots intact you could still have a CV joint going bad, the DelSol has a completely different setup than accords so more than likely the compressor won't fit, the closest match MIGHT be one off of a Prelude or another Accord, give the tranny fluid a change, everyone on here says use ATF Z-1, you can also use AMSOIL, or Castrol Import multi vehicle, the original ATF specs call for Dexron IIE, just loosen the drain plug, refill, drive for 10 mins, then drain and refill again doing this a total of 3 times to get as much of the old fluid out as possible. that should help the shift issue. If you have tuned it up and still failing emissions tests then run some fuel injector cleaner, or total fuel system cleaner through it, you might have some carbon buildup somewhere. if you havent already change the oil as well, that will help out the emissions, just say NO to FRAM filters.

 

The high NO content can usually be fixed by cleaning out the EGR ports on the manifold. Your mechanic might have just cleaned the valve itself.

Here is a link for the procedure. http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/misc/t2t013.pdf

 

bump^^^^

 

yours specs show you are running slightly rich. this can be due to a lazy o2 sensor, egr problem or even a worn down cat. the true readings are taken before the cat, so those after cat readings youprovided can be misleading.

i'd start with removing the egr valve and inspecting it. is it very sooty/carboned? if so i'd remove the egr plugs and clean them out, then install new plugs. next i'd look at the data from the o2 sensor on my DMM. if you don't have one, either retest or replace the primary o2 sensor with a new honda part. retest it. if it fails again, post the readings and we'll go from there.

 

I had it tested earlier this week. It failed again, and it only passed one of the HC test since it was only off by 1 point..(all i did was clean out the EGR and change the valve cover gasket as well as the rocker or knocker arm seal or something like that... and i drove it about 40 miles before i had it tested so it would be warm).. My mechanic said the O2 sensor needed changing though. any other ideas?


HC ppm: 125 / 126 FAIL

 

well, i'd definately start with a new honda o2 sensor if you can't test it.





if your o2 sensor is rich biased it will cause higher hc as well. look into it.

 

If you have a timing light i'd check the timing. Make sure the cam timing is correct also, I had one off a tooth showing similar numbers a while back.