I have an 88 Accord Lxi, automatic. For the past few months, the check engine light would come on sporadically after the engine was hot. I also had an oil leak, so I would put a quart or two of oil in and the light would go out for another month or two. I thought the two were interrelated. Eventually, smoke started coming out of my tailpipe and the check engine light would come on much more frequently, usually only after driving for a little while. I took it to a repair shop to fix the problem. They cleaned the oxygen sensor, replaced the spark plugs & wires, replaced the valve cover seal (for the oil leak) and said I was good to go. Needless to say, on the drive home, the check engine light came on again.

I actually found where the little LED trouble code light was at and watched it flash 9 times. They never actually checked the trouble code at the repair shop. I took it back to the shop, and according to Alldata, code 9 is the crank angle sensor. They advised me that my distributor assembly needed to be replaced. So I had them replace it yesterday and clear the trouble code, they took it for a test drive and declared it fully repaired. After spending nearly $500 to get it replaced, as I was driving away, not even a mile away, the check engine light came on again. I checked the LED light, and sure enough, it's still flashing 9 times. I promptly returned it and told them to actually fix it this time, now that I've spent nearly $800 total trying to fix the problem.

This is becoming very frustrating and I'm concerned that they're going to try to make me pay more. The Accord only has 94,000 miles on it, and it was well taken care of by the previous owners. The one thing that I have done that is probably hard on it, is move from Oregon down to the hot confines of Las Vegas. In Oregon, I never had any problems like what I'm having.

Is there anything that I can do or that the repair shop can do to actually fix the problem so I can be done with this? Thank you for your time and assistance!