Car: 98 Prelude 2.2 VTEC

So here's the deal -----I've had it for about 2.5 - 3 years and have just now started to run into some troubles.

I took the car in for hail damage about 4-6 months ago and When i picked it up, and drove it to work for some reason, it lagged a bit. Enough to make me think something wierd happened at the Body Shop. So i called my insurance agent first, just to make sure he had my back. I then called the Body Shop and asked them what was up. They said they didn't touch a thing and they couldn't help me. I proceeded to drive it to the mechanic and see if they could find out what was wrong. I didn't make it there. Had to have a tow truck come and get me.

At this point i'm pissed. I never had a single problem with the performance of the car and all of the sudden the thing won't go more than 10 MPH. I get a call the next day from the mechanic asking me why there would be WATER in the spark plug chambers. I asked him "I don't know, why would there be?"

For the 5 days that it was at the body shop we had over 9 inches of rain fall in our area. Some pretty heavy shit too.I had the hood worked on and i assume the car was left out in the rain with it off. I called the Body Shop and screamed a bit. They agreed to pay for new plugs and wires and the tow. I thought everything was cool.

Since then the CEL hasn't been off for more than a day. I get it cleared and it comes back on. I put a new O2 sensor on and it gives the same code. I've spent about $650 trying to get my CEL to come off. I've changed the PRE and POST sensors and had the Catalytic Convertor hollowed as a last resort.

I'm at my ends here. I've read that bad plugs can fuck your convertor. They found GAS in my oil at the mechanic after the whole body shop incident. So that can't deem to well for the whole fuel injection / convertor system.

I'm a bit frustrated, any suggestions other than going postal on the body shop? I'll save that for last.

 

Check ALL your ground wires for corrosion or rust. If it was outside in the rain, that can cause it. Even if they repainted somewhere, they may have painted over a grounding point and never cleaned it off before they reassembled it. Good Luck!

 

if you hollowed out your catcon (removed the shit inside of it) then you are SOL. a new cat for that is probably 400 bucks. if your plugs werent firing because of the water, then the engine was dumping fuel into the cylinders and it wasnt getting burned. the unburned fuel that the piston didnt push out on the exhaust stroke, plus you having to drive with your foot heavy on the pedal to keep it going probably started to seep past the rings into the crank case. also a bad MAP sensor will load the engine up to the point where it will barely run (excessive amounts of fuel). any decent tech should be able to hook up a scanner and check the operation of the map sensor and all other sensors in a short period of time. now, if the hood was off and it got dumped on then you might have water/condesation in some of your sensor connections, which in time would corrode them, but they are usually weatherproofed pretty good.

 

The body shop is liable for that kind of damage as long as you have evidence that they neglected proper measures to ensure the safety of your car especially since the rain ruined your engine. You have to take action soon though otherwise your SOL.

 

if it runs better with the new plugs i say replace the cat and see what happens. good luck

 

did you check that infact the O2 sensors were bad before replacing them ? if you post the trouble codes it would help alot. if you gutted your cat. the check engine light will stay on until you replace the cat. and they are expensive $700-$900 and aftermarket ones don't burn clean enough to keep the light out.

 

Thanks everybody.

 

what is the code.if it was a bad o2 it would still run good.was that the code

 

yeah the code was for the front o2 sensor. it's been replaced and the CEL still won't go away. It's been cleared twice.