Hey,

1) Acceleration seems fine from 0-40mph, but on the highway acceleration 40-60mph struggles noticably. Any help here? I know for one I need a tune-up.

2) Every morning when I start the car, a huge cloud of smoke comes out the muffler that lasts a couple of minutes, any tips?

3) When the car is in park the engine noise is normal, but when driving and fully stopped at a light for example... the car vibrates and seems a bit loud, it gets annoying when the music is down.


Thanks.

1) see 2
2) Sounds like seriously worn valve stems. I don't think I've ever seen an Accord of that age smoke, so it must be unusually worn. This could cause 1)
3) Most likely motor mounts.

BUT, are you actually firing on all 4 cylinders, I wonder?

Extreme case - a broken valve. But I'm not sure you'd be running at all (without leaving pieces of your motor along the highway) if that were the case.

what color is the smoke...black, white, or blue? It is pretty common for older hondas over 100k to start leaking oil from worn piston rings...this will cause some blue smoke...however, are you positive this is smoke and not just condensation from overnight getting vaporized when you first turn the car on?

As far as vibrations...it could be the motor mounts, it is common for them to get worn out as well over 100k, but it could also be something alot easier to fix, such as re-balancing tires, getting a new alignment, making sure your brake rotors aren't warped, etc...can you locate the source of the vibrations?

For instance, can you hear it coming from one wheel more-so than the others?
Does it get worse when you brake? Can you notice it through the steering wheel?

Dam*, this is the second time I wrote a reply only to hit submit and had to log-in again.....so I'm going to try to keep it short!

*The smoke is white, and it smells, so I doubt the condensation thing,
feels like I have a dirty fuel sytem, don't really know, probably need
to get it checked.

*Vibrations can be felt via steering-wheel, the glove compartment rattles
a bit also. (this is only when car is fully stopped, otherwise it's fine)

*To note: a couple days after I bought the car the engine oil light came
on, so I got an oil change and an hour later it came back on. Now a
couple of weeks later the oil light is off, when I check the receipt of
oil change it had a little comment box in which they recommended I
have them do a black light test b/c the oil was leaking everywhere,
and that the engine need to be cleaned.... I bought a bottle of some oil leak stopper (Gumont I think) and was thinking I'll use that instead of getting service done on it to save a little money, but I've checked my oil many times and it seems full, my dad said he thought it seemed like it had more than neccessary, so I don't know wiether to just ride as is, or go get it checked out.

Smoke: White is steam. If there's a LOT of it, it MIGHT -- maybe --- be early-morning condensation. You're in VA, and it's cold there. Look at other cars starting from cold - do they have a lot less steam than you? If Yours is MUCH worse, I'd suspect a head gasket.

Vibrations: probably motor mounts. (Not cheap)

Oil light on? BAD news, especially AFTER an oil change, when the oil level SHOULDN'T be low. The oil light should NEVER come on during driving. The oil leaks could be an expensive problem or a fairly cheap one (judging by the other problems, I suspect the previous owner got rid of the car while it was still running). The black light test is just a way to tell where it's leaking from.

Where did you get this poor baby? Does it have super-high mileage? It sounds like it's in really lousy shape - probably poorly maintained.

Sorry about the bad news, man - it just doesn't sound like anything better than a handyman special -- hope it was cheap.

Hey,

LOL, you might be right.....the owner sold it just to get rid of it maybe?
The thing is I had a 91 Accord EX, which my dad bought new over a decade ago, but after wasting money on repairs and the fact it needed a new radiator I donated it and got this car....it turns out it's almost the exact car except it's body seems to be in better shape. I had to get new brakes and a new radiator on this car, I also had to waste another $320 on a motor for the window....the damn thing stuck while I paid the toll and it was freezing that day (snowed the earlier night) so much for luck huh? I bought the car for $2250 really though it was 300 plus for the radiator, 300 for the window motor, another 250 for brakes, so around $3000. I feel like an a$$ now, the main reason I got the car was to hook it up, now I'm wasting money fixing it!

Yo think thats sad?? Last year (winter time also) I bought the same type car 91 Teal Accord via on-line, it was in Chicago! I drove from VA down there in a rented Neon, lol, only to get there and see some messed up crap! The car had a huge HOLE on the driver side door! The car looked like it fell in the harbour and they had just taken it out that morning....the trunk release handle broke when I pulled on it, and something else fell off when he slamed the hood, lol, I got my money back but wasted over $600 on gas, food, and the rental. What made it worse was the dealer was telling me how he sold a lot of cars to people who didn't like them, bought it anyway, lol...and that damn Chicago accent, KURRR instead of car.

Anyways, enough of these 90-91 accords their bad luck.

Well, don't write off the entire model years. I put 100,000 additional miles on a '91 with 100,000 already on it. I, too, had to replace the axles (and, eventually, the radiator). And one of the back windows died (I taped it closed). But it was a great car - very low overall running costs. I only sold it when a '93 was offered to me.

Sadly that one was wrecked a year ago, and I bought a '93 EX for $2700 which has only had one expensive repair since -- air conditioning. (165,000 now and counting)

I decided to work w/ the car and get stuff done.......I want to get 17's and drop the car, but I just looked underneath and in the front of the car theirs this big black plastic thing that looks screwed on, It's kinda hollow you can push into it a little.....what is that? The guy mentioned struts in the front and shocks in the back or vis-versa????? Anyway, the stupid thing comes down like an inch or an inch and a half from the bottom part of the front bumper....... in other words it looks like I can't drop it as much as I would like b/c that plastic cover might hit the ground! Can this be removed? I see the screws, but don't know how important it is.... I can tell you that everytime I hit a deep bump in the road in makes a squeegee sound, I guess it's the shocks. This is making me mad b/c I want to drop it as much as I can and if this can't be removed I'm stuck. I want to take a picture to be more specific but I just moved and can't seem to find the box that has my digital camera, can anyone identify my problem?

My experience is a "valve seal leak", cause by engine oil leaking into the seal.(WHITE SMOKE) The only way, is to do engine top ovalhaul. If your engine is a SOHC maybe you can do it without removing the cylinder head & save
$$$ of gasket set. I have solve this kind of problem before.