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Poor Fuel Consumption on 2.4 Auto

Yes, the car was stationary the whole time. He did test drive it after to see how it drives.
 
That might explain why it was okay to start with but then the ECU adapted in response to the faulty component.
 
I think you are right. I guess I will have to see what code comes up and get that part replaced? I ***ume that of all the codes he reset only the one with the faulty part will come up on the rescan.
 
Possibly, although I'm not sure a faulty O2 sensor will always trigger a fault code in the same way as it doesn't always make the engine management light come on, but the article in the link seems to suggest that might be the issue.
 
I think that issues in this thread are becoming very confusing.

I've been back to the first page, and it's not until your post #85 (page 5) that you mention anything about the engine running "rough" ....yet in #85 (and further on) you imply that it was running "rough" previous to #59 (page 3, when the "mobile mechanic" got involved)..

**** a "rough" running engine with poor mpg is very different from a car with poor mpg (your thread ***le and #1 imply poor mpg only, due to many possibilities) ****

A "rough" running engine implies a fault somewhere, and a fault will have a stored code. If the code is deleted and it then returns, this indicates that the fault is permanent. You would not require an HDS for this, just an OBD reader. All mechanics have OBD readers.

Poor mpg will usually not trigger any fault codes, that includes an O2 sensor that is running slightly out of spec. If the engine is running "rough" then there may be fault codes, possibly ***ociated with the O2 sensor.


edit: it may also be due to faulty spark plug(s) or faulty injector(s) or a faulty MAF sensor or a faulty throttle body or a faulty knock sensor
 
Sorry for the confusion, the only reason that I mentioned the rough/underpowered drive later was that I didn't realise that the car was running underpowered and not as smooth until the mechanic reset the code. Only then could I feel the difference as originally, I thought it was just the way the car drove.
 
danny35 said:
Sorry for the confusion, the only reason that I mentioned the rough/underpowered drive later was that I didn't realise that the car was running underpowered and not as smooth until the mechanic reset the code. Only then could I feel the difference as originally, I thought it was just the way the car drove.
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clearing a code does nothing, he must have done something else in 90 minutes. If the car was not moving when he had the HDS connected then I reckon he cleared codes and reset the fuel trims.


I'm not sure what you now mean by "smooth" ???
 
It is hard to describe. After he did whatever he did, the car was driving easier with less effort and felt more effortless. Now it still drives okay, but seems to need more power on the pedal to get up to speed and it feels a bit noisier and heavier, as if the car is workin harder to drive.

He did mention that the car was giving too much petrol and said that he reduced it to the normal ratio.
 
danny35 said:
It is hard to describe. After he did whatever he did, the car was driving easier with less effort and felt more effortless. Now it still drives okay, but seems to need more power on the pedal to get up to speed and it feels a bit noisier and heavier, as if the car is workin harder to drive.
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as Cliff says, that implies a remap, but a remap is not possible over the OBD port on this car

What did you mean by "rough" in #85 and #118 ???
 
freddofrog said:
as Cliff says, that implies a remap, but a remap is not possible over the OBD port on this car

What did you mean by "rough" in #85 and #118 ???
Click to expand...
When I drive now, it feels more strenuous and noisier and harder work for the car. Maybe rough was not the best choice of words to describe it
 
Just been reading through this thread first things I would do is check adjust valve clearances and replace fuel filter if it hasn't been done. Both should of been done on the 75k service. As for the tracking issue. The accords run best on 16s if you put17s or 18s it has more of a tendency to tram line. The tourers were worse for this.
 
wookie said:
Just been reading through this thread first things I would do is check adjust valve clearances and replace fuel filter if it hasn't been done. Both should of been done on the 75k service. As for the tracking issue. The accords run best on 16s if you put17s or 18s it has more of a tendency to tram line. The tourers were worse for this.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input, re the steering issues, yesterday when I drove and did a sharp left turn the steering wheel was trying to force itself first left and then to the right. I will go for a alignment once I get the other issues sorted.
 
My two cents worth, for now, let's ignore the matter of the car feeling better for a short while after it went in to the garage and now it feels bad again. Let's focus on the rough drive and poor mpg as it is right now.

  • As the codes have been cleared once, you now need to get them re-read - if the car's thrown a code, then there's your problem - if there's no code, you need to consider other things (or maybe consider them in conduction with the following - often poor mpg is several things combined)
  • So how's the oil level? The 2.4 can drink up to a litre every 1000 miles. This sounds a lot, but it likes quite a thin, synthetic oil and the handbook says a litre every 1K is fine. When did you last check your oil? When did you last have an oil change?
  • What condition is your air filter in?
  • When was your fuel filter last replaced?
  • When was the last time your valve clearances were checked?
  • How many miles have your spark plugs done?
  • Is the exhaust original and if so, is it blowing?
  • Is anything under the car loose (like the engine under tray) and causing increased drag?
  • Are all the wheel bearings original? How many miles have they done? Have the mechanic inspect the rotation and see if the bearings are good.
  • Tyre condition & correct (or slightly higher than recommended) pressures?
  • Tracking/Wheel Alignment?
  • How's the auto box? Has it had a transmission fluid change lately?
  • Do you ever notice excessive heat or a smell coming from your brakes? - the brakes, rear especially, are known to bind on the Accord
  • Are there any signs of anything untoward in the engine bay? Any signs of fluid escaping from anywhere?
It could be any or perhaps a combination of some of these factors, or something else entirely? But if you can rule out all of the above or at least most of them, then we're on our way.
 
Cliffordski said:
IF it's the O2 sensor there are two one either side of the cat I understand the primary one before the cat goes most often if so there are usually one or two on eBay second hand for reasonable money

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Accord-Type-S-K24A3-K24-2004-Primary-O2-Lambda-Sensor-/371504553443?hash=item567f659de3:g:bLoAAOSw5ZBWQJb-
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my #48 (page 3) ..... "There are two sensors in the exhaust on this engine btw : LAF sensor (lean air-fuel, aka wideband), and a standard oxygen sensor (aka narrowband). OEM price for each is the same, £225. Part number for former is 36531RBB003, for latter is 36532RADL12"

note that in the same post I said "One other thought, did anyone check to see if there are any codes"

danny35 said:
When I drive now, it feels more strenuous and noisier and harder work for the car. Maybe rough was not the best choice of words to describe it
Click to expand...
well in #85 it sounds as if the idle rpm keeps changing, any more detail on that ?

wookie said:
Just been reading through this thread first things I would do is check adjust valve clearances and replace fuel filter if it hasn't been done. Both should of been done on the 75k service. As for the tracking issue. The accords run best on 16s if you put17s or 18s it has more of a tendency to tram line. The tourers were worse for this.
Click to expand...
VC's have been mentioned several times already ;)
 
Stevearcade said:
My two cents worth, for now, let's ignore the matter of the car feeling better for a short while after it went in to the garage and now it feels bad again. Let's focus on the rough drive and poor mpg as it is right now.

  • As the codes have been cleared once, you now need to get them re-read - if the car's thrown a code, then there's your problem - if there's no code, you need to consider other things (or maybe consider them in conduction with the following - often poor mpg is several things combined)
  • So how's the oil level? The 2.4 can drink up to a litre every 1000 miles. This sounds a lot, but it likes quite a thin, synthetic oil and the handbook says a litre every 1K is fine. When did you last check your oil? When did you last have an oil change?
  • What condition is your air filter in?
  • When was your fuel filter last replaced?
  • When was the last time your valve clearances were checked?
  • How many miles have your spark plugs done?
  • Is the exhaust original and if so, is it blowing?
  • Is anything under the car loose (like the engine under tray) and causing increased drag?
  • Are all the wheel bearings original? How many miles have they done? Have the mechanic inspect the rotation and see if the bearings are good.
  • Tyre condition & correct (or slightly higher than recommended) pressures?
  • Tracking/Wheel Alignment?
  • How's the auto box? Has it had a transmission fluid change lately?
  • Do you ever notice excessive heat or a smell coming from your brakes? - the brakes, rear especially, are known to bind on the Accord
  • Are there any signs of anything untoward in the engine bay? Any signs of fluid escaping from anywhere?
It could be any or perhaps a combination of some of these factors, or something else entirely? But if you can rule out all of the above or at least most of them, then we're on our way.
Click to expand...
I think we've already been through most of this Steve ....basically it had full service history up to 75k which was 2 years and 10k miles ago


the main issue is that the OP wants a forum to diagnose a problem, the description of which keeps shifting, and the OP has no knowledge of cars and does not know of a trustworthy mechanic and does not want to spend very much
 
I'd like to thank everyone for their help. The only way forward is for me to take the car to the mechanic this week. I will post back with the results.
 
The issues haven't shifted Brian. I originally had problems with the fuel consumption which has now brought me to the bigger problem/s which I am trying to fix. I have never driven a Honda Accord before a few weeks ago so that makes it very difficult for me to notice the changes between what is normal and what isn't. Anyway as mentioned, I will take the car to a mechanic this week and see where I stand.

I don't mind going to a mechanic but there are so many possibilities that the cost will probably stack up which was why I was attempting to try and get some help here.
 
^ that's ok, no problem, it's the description which keeps shifting (I never said the issues are shifting) which is mainly down to your lack of knowledge .....someone I knew kept going to their GP for a year with "pains in the stomach", after a year of the medical profession suspecting this-and-that, it turned out to be a tumour in the stomach, which saw the person off the face of the earth within another year (If they'd found it in the beginning, the person would probably have survived). Not saying there is anything terminal in your car, just that it's a similar problem.

I think that all that we've done is confirmed your list in #1, added more to it, and advised a "be careful out there" (because even the medical profession can take a long time to find out the cause of something, but NHS is free, though a wealthy person may well have had the tumour found within a couple of weeks ....rich people live longer for many reasons)

If I lived 20 miles away and it was a warm summer, I'd be round there in a shot.
 
Yes that's the sort of thing, although you can get them cheaper.

Hang in there, changing a sensor or filter is small beer at the end of the day.
 
Yeah those are the sort of thing to get, I've looked at both but I couldn't tell you why they're a different price, but you should be ok with the lower priced one.

Before you buy one, there is a built-in diagnostic for the heater, which also display outside (air) temperature and engine (coolant) temperature. As it's free and easy to do, it's worth looking at those two.

Before you turn the key in the ignition, press and hold both the AUTO and DUAL buttons on the heater. When the engine starts you can release the buttons.

The front panel display should flash the number 1 followed by the in-car temperature. So if the in-car temperature is say 15 C, the display should flash 1 15 1 15 1 15 .......

then press the rear-defogger button, and the display should now show outside temperature, so if it's say 8 C, the display should flash 2 08 2 08 2 08 ......

press the rear-defogger button again and the display should now show a number relating to the sun-light level, so if it's totally dark the display should flash 3 00 3 00 3 00 or sunny 3 65 3 65 3 65

press the rear-defogger button again and the display should now show engine coolant temperature e.g. 4 80 4 80 4 80 4 80

if you want to get back to item 2 from item 4, you'll have to press the rear-defogger button to cycle round (there are 9 items on the petrol engine, don't worry about 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, though interestingly, 8 will show vehicle speed).

if you press the AUTO button, it will exit this diagnostic, and you will have to switch off and start again.

You should check items 2 and 4 and make sure that they do not wander about and are indicative of what you think they are measuring.
 
Wow, voodoo. Why does it have that functionality? And is that a facelift thing?
 
^ LOL it's definitely in pre-facelift and it's probably in facelift too, AFAIK it might even be in 8th gen

I think that I found it in the Honda workshop DVD about a year ago, I first mentioned it in this thread http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/topic/14575-heater-problems/page-2#entry205013

I've no idea why it shows engine coolant temperature, let alone vehicle speed. Must have been a Japanese programmer who translated something wrong :lol:
 
btw, does anyone know of an OBD reader that Danny could buy that displays things other than codes e.g. live sensor readings ?

(as I say, I bought a cloned HDS , but I think I've seen some cheap generic readers that can also display sensor readings)
 
Hi Brian, I think the one on the link also displays live readings. It says that it can also be plugged it while driving for readings.
 
danny35 said:
Hi Brian, I think the one on the link also displays live readings. It says that it can also be plugged it while driving for readings.
Click to expand...
possibly, depending on what it means by "view live data stream" (I think that some of them just literally record it all, then you have to load it into a laptop/PC and use software to replay it, but this one might let you choose one item for the display)

these Bluetooth ones rely on an app in an Android phone http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321424055302
the app allows you to select and view multiple items for display
£5.95 as opposed to £13.49

but if you're not into Bluetooth and apps, then go for something complete (like #143), I was just wondering if those types are as "viewable" as an app in a mobile phone display (mind you, we're creeping into legal areas about what you can and cannot use a mobile phone for while driving)
 
At under £14 it's worth a try. It seems like a wast3 of money having to pay. at least £40 everytime I need to diagnose a problem.
 
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