2001 CRV engine misfire

Maintenance/Repairs
,
1

I have a 2001 Honda CRV with about 140,000 miles. It is an upstate NY car, so has seen its share of salt and rough winter driving, has a little bit of rust.

I recently brought it in for repairs because it was overheating. It was over the holiday weekend and I had a job interview to get to so I brought it a chain, which was the only open mechanic I could find. They told me there was a coolant leak and replaced the radiator.

The next day, the check engine came on. Cylinder misfire code. I took it back to them and they wouldn’t give me a straight answer on what was going on but insist they told me that would happen and it needed more repairs which I had apparently refused. They told me it’s probably the spark plugs/wires are old but maybe there’s more damage, but basically that they didn’t want to deal with it.

So I brought the car to my regular guy. He says, yeah it needs a tune-up. So he replaces the spark plugs and wires etc and gives it back. I drove it for a day and the light came back on. So I brought it back to him again and he refused to do anything. Wouldn’t give me some possible causes or explanations, just says come pick it up. Didn’t say stop driving it, take it to a dealer, he just reset the check engine light and said its probably fine.

The next time I drove the car, while it was warming up the check engine light was flashing. By the time the engine was warm the light had stopped flashing and was on.

I’ve already spent over $1200 on this 12 year old car this month and no one has fixed it or even really tried to figure out what’s wrong with it. My commute to work is about 150 miles a day so I really need this stupid car (that I actually really love) to get me there and home safely. Should I just cut my losses and try to get some cash for it and buy something else? Is it ok to keep driving it or should I stop completely? What is wrong with it and why won’t anyone fix it???

2

The next day, the check engine came on. Cylinder misfire code.

What specific error code? It should indicate an error starting with “P” followed by 3 numbers)

Post the results here.

3

I can’t find the paper I wrote it on, but there were two. One was P1399 and other was P0-something.

4

@joleso2 when the MIL flashes, there is a misfire present which is bad enough to damage the catalytic converter.
Has your valve lash been checked and adjusted? Just because they’re not noisey doesn’t mean they’re okay. If they’re too tight, you could get burned valves and a misfire.
I just googled P1399 and it seems to be a random misfire code.
I’d bet that the other code was P0300, which is a random misfire code.

5

My vote is with db4690 in regards to the valve lash. A vacuum guage will reveal a problem and a compression test will verify it.

I will only add that if a valve (or plural) is tight and especially in regards to the exhaust valves, adjusting them may not fix the problem or fix it for the long term. After adjustment another compression check should be performed to see if there is any improvement.
It’s also possible for any fix to be temporary as any near microscopic valve face and seat damage due to burning may worsen over time and lead back to lowered compression and misfiring again.
This means a valve job or cylinder head replacement depending upon the route chosen.