Advice re: a bunch of maintenance I've put off

[doublfelix]

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I've been on the forums, as kids and finishing up grad school have kept me from having a lot of time to do any work on the car other than items absolutely critical to keep it running. I've finally gotten going on some maintenance items I've put off for years, and with nice weather predicted for this coming weekend I'm hoping to do some more. First - the list of issues I'm trying to address.

Long term issues
Gas mileage has been worse than I expect for a while
Exhaust smell inside cabin when using the vent at speeds <30 mph
Seems like it may be running a little rich
Recent issues
CEL - Code 43
occasional bogging / loss of power from 1500-2000 rpm
(both of these symptoms are still happening after last weekend's maintenance)

Second - what I managed to get done last weekend
Replaced valve cover gasket - oil was seeping all over the intake and exhaust manifolds (I thought this might be part of the smell I was getting)
Replaced upper and lower spark plug seals (when i removed plugs this time 3 were absolutely covered in oil - hard to believe it was running at all)
Adjusted valve lash (had to because I removed the rocker arm assembly)
Replaced spark plugs

Third - what I already have planned for this weekend
Install new O2 sensor when I change the oil
Adjust base idle
Check / clean distributor cap / rotor
Have exhaust checked for leaks

Since this seems to be a fairly common set of symptoms (i.e. running rich, repeated fouling of O2 sensors), I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for other things I should be checking when I have the chance or anything obvious that I'm leaving out. Maybe I need to clean the EGR valve finally?

Edit: Not too long ago I did the following:
EGR ports cleaned
new distributor cap and rotor

[doublfelix]

So I wasn't able to work on the car last weekend because I had to leave the car at a shop ~20 miles away. Driving up there on the highway everything was fine. I started the car after a 30 minute appointment, so the engine was still pretty warm, and the bogging issue came back with a vengeance, no longer just in that narrow RPM range but pretty much every time I got on the gas. By letting off the gas and then stepping on it, I could accelerate a little bit each time, so we left the car with a shop near my wife's office. They had it over the weekend, diagnosed a bad IACV which they wanted $450 to replace. Said no thanks (they did at least clean the IACV for me), and drove the car home (again, mostly fine after the cold start). Have just been driving it around town and it drives ok when cold, but at operating temp more often than not I have to get around by gassing it, letting off the gas, and repeating.

I adjusted the base idle before taking it to the shop (it previously idled around 600 but was pretty solid there) and now the idle is around 750 but sometimes it will bog down to 600ish and sound lumpy before something opens up (IACV presumably) and the idle will smooth out around 800-900.

TL : DR car stutters and misfires when warm, has some idle issues, and the shop diagnosed a bad IACV which I'm not convinced is causing the driveability issues.

This weekend I'm going to:
Clean EGR valve
Replace O2 sensor
Adjust FITV
Check / clean cap and rotor


I will be making an order for the following to do next week or weekend:
New plug wires
Coolant temp sensor
Either JY or ebay a used IACV

Good plan of attack? Anything that I'm forgetting about? I found one thread via the search function that sounded like the exact same problem, but it looks like they just replaced the O2 sensor and may or may not have solved the problem.

[4cam4banger]

The oil leak ruined your plug wires. Get new ones that arent soaked in oil and report back. Clean off the spark plugs of any oil residue from the wires...

[doublfelix]

I think you may have guessed correctly. When I pulled the plugs last night to re-seat the rocker arm and re-adjust the valves, the new plugs had oil on top of them from the old plug wires. My new plug wires are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so I'm gonna wait until they get here before I take it for a test drive.

[Accrdwgnguy]

Every 30k you are supposed to replace the cap, rotor, wires and plugs. I would just order up all that stuff and replace it. I'd recommend NGK for the wires and plugs, whatever brand for the cap and rotor. just get regular NGK V-Power plugs, the cheap ones, anything else is a waste of money.

[wagon-r]

Honda does recommend replacing the spark plugs every 30k. However, recommended replacement for cap, rotor, and wires is 90k.

[Accrdwgnguy]

Well, if he's removing the cap to "clean" it, just toss it and put on a new one.

[doublfelix]

Just to help anyone out in the future - I replaced the O2 sensor and plug wires, and checked out the cap and rotor but they looked totally fine so didn't do anything there. Car went back to driving how it should, no more stuttering or misfiring when warm. I think the lesson here is that if the oil is leaking bad enough into your spark plug tubes, no amount of carb cleaner will clean them well enough to have things run properly. Replacing the plug wires is cheap enough and easy enough to be worth doing simply to rule them out as the culprit.

[F22Chris]

Does your temperature gauge read lower than normal operating temp when you know the car is warmed up? That will make it run rich cause the ECU thinks it's cold. I actually have to do this myself, I've just been lazy.