Sputtering/missing

[beckergm]

My stock '96 (46k miles) has developed an intermittent sputtering/missing at all sppeds under any load. Because the check engine light is not activated, there is no code to retrieve. Car ran fine when dealer checked it (of course). This is irritating and may be related to the OBD2's inability to sense certain engine troubles.

Ideas and solutions are welcome!

 

[ak]

Have you driven through rain lately? I had water in my rear coil bank and it got into the middle cylinder coil/plug hole which gave really bad hesitation.

 

[NSXT]

Are you getting radio static as well? This is result of the weak coil contacts on 95/96 years, but the dealer should have noticed the problem. TSB 97-005 and 98-031 address coil problems.

http://www.nsxprime.com/FAQ/Reference/tsb/tsblist.htm

If not a coil problem, it simply could be a bad tank of fuel, injectors may need cleaning, or its time to replace spark plugs. Berryman's B12 goes a long way to clean up the fuel system.

 

[Spencer]

I had a very similar problem. Every once in a while (actually pretty rarely) my 1991 would sputter and buck and drive terribly. It did it only when warm or "getting on" to warm (never stone cold) and only under load. The dealership diagnosed it correctly; a bad coil. They simply replaced all 6 of the coils and it has driven perfectly ever since. Apparently (although some might disagree) it's fairly hard to tell which one (specifically) is bad...so hence do all 6. This may not be your problem, and at the time mine certainly felt like a fuel delivery problem, but "coils" it was...and I do know that coils are known to be one of the most common sources of this kind of driveability problem. Good luck.

 

[daveh]

OBDII should ,and must easily pickup misfire detection.If you do have moisture in the coils and it misses it will be stored but will only be temporary.if it doesn't occur again within a certain amount of driving cycles the pcm will clear itself.If it is an ignition misfire that bad (bad enough to buck)it should definately store a hard code .the ck engine light should also flash while it,s missing.Almost sounds like it could be clutch related if youve got no codes .Also your 96 has an emmissions extension on it so between 75k and 150k the dealer MUST replace plugs ,coils and an oil and filter change @ no charge .Hope this helps.Good luck

 

[daveh]

woops forgot you only had 46k on it .forget about the emmisions thing.sorry!