Hello fellow honda lovers!
I am having a major problem with my 1998 Honda Accord (190,000 miles). It is the EX model with the 2.3L Vtech and automatic transmission. I live in Bozeman, MT which as you may know is on a mountian. I have no troubles driving to work (down the mountain and40 miles) but my car starts acting up every time that I come back from work. When I return up the mountian my car will eventually start to cut out. It always cuts out at exactly 4000 RPMs and once it does so will continue to do so until the car is stopped and cooled down for just a short bit. This problem will persist in nuetral. It will even continue to do so in town. It will rev up just fine to 4K and then cut hard. I have replaced my ignition (wires, cap, rotor, and coil). My plugs only have about 3000 miles. When the car is not acting up it is very responsive, will rev to redline, and seems to run fine. I think it ismost likelyunrelated but I getsome yellow froth on my oil dipstick, but antifreeze loss is very minimal. Thishas been occuring for a while. I have no check engine light on, but have never seen it on so can not confirm that it works. It does not come on with the others (ABS, SRS, BRAKE) when I turn on the key. Hope someone can help!! I appreciate your time!!
Dustin Sperling
Beautiful Bozeman, MT

 

Sounds like the fuel pump to me. Might want to get a pressure gauge on there. Look in the DIY section for further diagnostics.

 

What kind of spark plugs did you use - This is VERY important!

 

The Check Engine Light should come On when keyswitchi is turned to On, and should go off a few seconds after car starts. If not, the self test is failing which indicates a problem w/ the ECU. You might try a resetof ECU by pulling the Backup fuse (underhood fuse box) for 20 secs. The RPM limit may indicate the ECU is operating in "Limp Home Mode" which has an rpm limit. Need to clear this issue.

good luck

 

dustin, very good thing you noticed the irregularity with your oil. you ex model is equipped with hondas variable valve timing and electronic lift control system. the solenoid that controls this is very particular with not only the oil level but the condition of the oil itself. try changing your oil and see if any difference is noticed.

 

and i forgot to mention. if the solenoid does not like your oil for any reason. it will cut the engine off at the hot cam engagement point which im pretty sure with your model is at 4k rpm.

 

Are you sure about that?

 

I have the same year and engine, and it is vtec.

 

I know of at least 6 or 7 different types of VTEC. I'm not doubting that it is VTEC, but I don't think that it has anything more than the simplest version, aka no variable timing or lift control. I'm pretty sure that it has a simple on/off version similar to my old J30A1.