Suddenly I lost half of the power..........

Gerard van Santen

Gerard van Santen

Experienced Member
Joined
10 September 2001
Messages
1,175
Location
Netherlands
This morning I pulled of my CTSC NSX with half throttle from a traffic light. All of a sudden I heard a lot of rattle from the engine bay and lost almost all of the power. Idling the engine wasn't possible anymore.
The first thing I thought of was a broken timing belt but that would stop the engine. Then I thought of a broken supercharger. I loosened the belt and turned the pulley. It felt ok.

I checked the codes and it came with code 4 and 5 from the check engine light and 31 from the TCS light:confused:
I have not an automatic so I don't know why 31 was shown.

4 says something about the CKP sensor and 5 about the map sensor.

Than I pulled of the clock fuse to reset the codes. I started the engine and tried to let it run for a few minutes. I didn't hear any mechanical noise. I stopped the engine and checked the codes. I could never recall 4 and 5 again. The TCS light kept on showing 31. I checked all the vacuum lines and they appear to be ok (also in the control box).

I checked the oil level. The oil looked clean and was still on level.
Than I checked the breather pipe for oil. It was dry. So I don't think something is wrong with the pistons.
I pulled out the spark plugs. The spark plugs of the front row were all black. The rears looked ok and were light brown.

Please is there somebody who has a clue what is wrong.

Thanks,
Gerard
 
Guess: A/C compressor went sour. Check it now!

If you allow it to grenade then it will force bits of scrap metal through the system...and then you will be in a World Of Hurt (like removing the dash, taking all a/c piping apart, replacing stuff and flushing it. Major Havoc, Sir).

Drew
 
My guess is that your map signal modifier went bad and when the unmodified signal from the map sensor got to the ECU it just went nuts. The stock ECU only knows how to handle the signal from the map with a vacuum. CEL 5 is a map sensor problem which makes sense, 32 on the TCS light tells there is a problem the engine ECU which also makes sense. Repair, replace or see why the map sensor signal modifier is not working properly and all should be good.
 
BrianK: Gerard wrote he had error No. 31, not 32.
Drew: Manual says it's a failure in the A/T-FI data line so why should the AC system be involved?

Or do we miss something and No. 31 on the TCS light means something different than it would have been on the check engine light?

I personaly would disconnect the Supercharger (is it possible to just remove the belt?), reset the ECU, pull and plug in again the TCS fuse, start the engine and see if you still get the 31 code. Just the 1st step before more serious operation.
:confused:
 
Thanks you all for the input.

hlweyl said:
Wouldn't hurt to do a compression check also.
Click to expand...

I don't have tools to do a compression check at this time but I did check the breather pipes and they were dry. If someting was wrong with my pistons wouldn't they wet of oil?

NSX-Racer said:
I personaly would disconnect the Supercharger (is it possible to just remove the belt?), reset the ECU, pull and plug in again the TCS fuse, start the engine and see if you still get the 31 code. Just the 1st step before more serious operation.
:confused:
Click to expand...

I did remove the supercharger belt. And turned the pulley. It looked ok. Than I started the engine. Nothing changed. I still had only (I think) a three cylinder engine instead of a six. I than changed the ECU for a good working other one. The problem didn't go away. I didn't get the problem codes from the engine light, but the code from the TCS light was still there.

Could it be possible that three spark plugs (front row) stopped working in just one moment:confused:

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Please more suggestions?

Thanks,
Gerard
 
Last edited:
This morning I changed the spark plugs from the rear for the front cylinder row and vice versa. With no positive result. So there is no problem with the spark plugs! The front spark plugs came out black and wet.

I get no codes anymore:(
 
It could be a couple of bad coils but what scares me is that you heard a distinct rattle from the engine as described in your first post. That along with the wet plugs means it very well could be a piston or even a valve seal. Hopefully NOT!

Are you getting any smoke out the tail pipes? When you say the plugs are wet, are they wet with oil or fuel?

One of my other cars had a bad piston (the lip between the ring grooves had sheared off), it would only blow oil through the breather under hard rpm.
 
hlweyl said:
It could be a couple of bad coils
Click to expand...
Could it be possible that three coils go bad at the same time?

hlweyl said:
but what scares me is that you heard a distinct rattle from the engine as described in your first post. That along with the wet plugs means it very well could be a piston or even a valve seal. Hopefully NOT!
Click to expand...
The rattle was only at the moment the problem started. After that I couldn't hear anything that points to a mechanical problem.

hlweyl said:
Are you getting any smoke out the tail pipes? When you say the plugs are wet, are they wet with oil or fuel?
Click to expand...
I get a lot of smoke out of my right tail pipe. It looks like the plugs are wet with fuel.

hlweyl said:
One of my other cars had a bad piston (the lip between the ring grooves had sheared off), it would only blow oil through the breather under hard rpm.
Click to expand...
The breather is dry, but I can not make a lot of rpm with only three cylinders working. I can hardly start and run the engine.:mad:
 
From what I have read I think your TCS computer has died. Recheck the codes from the TCS and/or Disconnect your TCS ECU and see how it runs. The TCS does tell the Engine ECU to reduce power if it can not control wheel spin with reducing the throttle. The engine ECU cuts power by turning off the ignition to some of the cylinders.
 
Last edited:
Briank said:
From what I have read I think your TCS computer has died. Recheck the codes from the TCS and/or Disconnect your TCS ECU and see how it runs. The TCS does tell the Engine ECU to reduce power if it can not control wheel spin with reducing the throttle. The engine ECU cuts power by turning off the ignition to some of the cylinders.
Click to expand...

Thanks Briank for your input.

I have reconnected all three connectors from my TCS computer. Nothing changed. Only the rear cylinder row worked. Than I checked the codes. The TCS didn't give a code but the engine light gave a 36 which is obvious because I disabled the TCS computer. No other codes were shown.

The problems do also occur standing still. So the TCS computer doesn't have to measure the difference in speed between the front and rear wheels.

Thanks,
Gerard
 
Last edited:
Seems like Engine and TCS ECU's have been eliminated as to the cause of your problem. You may want to look at the common power connection for the front coils the black/yellow wire and the ground connections for the igniter. Also above you noted a crank angle A error, the crank/cylinder sensor is behind the front intake camshaft pulley there is a slight chance you spun the pulley on the cam shaft.
 
Last edited:
Briank said:
Seems like Engine and TCS ECU's have been eliminated as to the cause of your problem. You may want to look at the common power connection for the front coils the black/yellow wire and the ground connections for the igniter. Also above you noted a crank angle A error, the crank/cylinder sensor is behind the front intake camshaft pulley there is a slight chance you spun the pulley on the cam shaft.
Click to expand...

Hi Briank,

I think you're right. I checked the sparks plugs front and rear and I got a clear spark of all the sparks plugs.
I asked my friend (who is a mechanic and worked on my NSX) and he suggested that the timing belt slipped on the camshaft. That explains why it happened while accelerating and if I recall my memory right at the moment I shifted to second gear.

After I had reset all the codes, the crank sensor saw the new position as a correct position. That's perhaps why I had no codes anymore.

Does this sound right?

I hope nothing is wrong with the valves or pistons. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks,
Gerard
 
If it happened while you were changing gear your foot would be off the throttle. My mechanic said the belt can slip in this case, as the engine is changing from accelerating to slowing down. This causes a change in the belt tension. He has seen cam belts slip on cars before in this way. Hopefully just by one tooth, and was not enough to damage anything. Explains why one bank is not firing properly.

I hope you will be fitting a new tensioner.
 
NSX-Racer said:
That's what I did besides looking at Prime - we have enough commercial breaks or boring race time to do that.
Click to expand...

We don't have commercial breaks and YES it was boring after the first stint :o

NSX-Racer said:
Good luck with fixing your engine problem!
Click to expand...

That's what I need.

Thanks
 

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