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Well, today I threw ANOTHER part at it…the Intake Air Temperature (IAT) Sensor. Guess what happened? NOTHING. I’m going to take a sledgehammer to this goddamn thing!!!
Several mechanics have confirmed it is misfiring–although Bill Cole Honda labels it as “missfire” [sic].
The check engine light has never come on during any of this “stumbling” upon acceleration over the last few months. The only time it will come on in relation to this issue is if I purposely disconnect the TPS in order to get it to run without sputtering (but which leaves me with lurching up-shifts occurring at high rpm). After disconnecting the TPS, the check engine light will immediately come on upon startup, and remain lit until I plug the sensor back in. Despite there being no check engine light to “read” via an OBD1-type diagnostic computer for foreign cars, I took it to a nearby Honda dealership yesterday to have it professionally diagnosed. I was so frustrated that I was willing to pay $100.00+ just for their diagnosis to pinpoint–with a laser beam–the faulty part. I will be attaching here a scan of my receipt and what they had to say. They gave a CODE 7 which–upon retrospect–has essentially told me nothing. I asked if they had read the CODE 7 with the check engine light on (which likely meant they had the TPS disconnected), or whether the light was off (and the TPS was, in fact, connected) during diagnosis. They said the latter (which is good) but then they told me the fault was simply “stored in the computer’s memory”. Well, guess what, I have disconnected and reconnected the TPS about 15 times over the past few weeks. In essence, all they told me was that the TPS had been recently disconnected. Here we are, $105 later and have gotten nowhere. My most local Honda Dealership–Andy Glockner Honda in Portsmouth, Ohio–will not even touch it. They say they wouldn’t be able to diagnose it given its age (and the inexperience of most of their mechanics with these older cars).
As far as the IACV is concerned, about a year ago, after startup on cold mornings, the car would idle erratically (jumping up and down for a few minutes) until warm or until it was put into Reverse or one of the Drive gears which forced it to calm down. Mysteriously, the problem slowly “withered away” and it doesn’t do it anymore.
As far as the “head gasket”, I actually meant the “valve cover” gasket. My bad. The mechanic who was performing the timing belt and water pump replacement suggested I replace it since the valve cover was off and “it was right there and could use replacement.”
No service done for months before misfire materialized. Oh, I forgot to mention, I put in a can of Sea Foam which didn’t help one iota.
***I am also attaching two pictures of the throttle body (with TPS already attached) that I purchased on eBay (and which is currently on the vehicle). Remember, I couldn’t buy a new one at any cost, and so this was the cleanest one I could find. When one of my mechanics tried to replace the TPS the first time, he beat on the rivet-style screws with a hammer to get them out (like a monkey), and he broke off one of the entire “ears” from my original throttle body through which the two screws holding the TPS go through. He told me it didn’t matter because it wasn’t a vacuum design. Two other mechanics told me that was “bullshit” and that I now needed to replace the entire throttle body because of the gaping hole that was now in it (thus this replacement unit). Oddly, the service advisor at Bill Cole Honda told me that the TPS you see pictured was an aftermarket sensor, but–unless I’m on drugs–doesn’t that look like the original rivet-style design to you guys? For your entertainment, I’m including a picture of the actual beast…and I don’t mean the Ford GT.