Ok today while driving to work, I try acclerating and the car feels like it wants to stop between 2000 and 3000rpms, and check engine light flashes, I let go of the gas engine light disappears and car drives fine. It did this sometimes.If I slam the gas hard it has no problem acclerating. Never had this problem before, not sure where to start, anyone with some insight I appreciate it.

Edit: Its a 2007 Fit, Automatic, 67000miles.

 

Theres a lot of things it could be but since it dont stay on, I would not worry about it. Check your gas cap it would come on if not on right and would go off if its on right. It might be the winter gas and the fuel trims are adjusting. You also could have a bad tank of gas with lots of ethanol. The mileage is close to needing a new oxygen sensor but should last to 100000 miles. You can go to auto zone for free and ask them to see if there DTC codes stored and then you would know for sure.

I was thinking it could be a vacuum leak but the light would stay on.

 

Thanks, I drove it home last night from work, 2-3000rpms didnt really have a problem till the last 5mins of driving but the whole time the same problem I had earlier with 2000-3000 rpms happen again but the whole drive but around 4000-5000rpms the whole trip, would show same sympthons as it did earlier in the day when I driving 2-3000rpms, car would seem to lose power, shake alot and check engine light flashes till you let go of the gas and it disappears. Only way it moves through the rpms smoothly is if I slam down the gas pedal full WOT then works fine.

 

Its the gasoline, those are symptoms of summer gas to winter, it happens twice a year but the summer to winter is worse. Run out the gas and go to a different station thats alway busy. When a station is busy its a sign of good gas and is fresher than one thats slow.

 

Oh wow, didnt know that, just filled my tank up yesterday too when it started doing this problem, good to know its something simple. Thanks again.

 

My wifes new car had that problem too. The good thing was she didn't fill up and was able to add premium gas and ran it out, the car is fine now. Just run the car and hope it dont get worse and fill up at a different station. Look for a station that is busy and not necessarily cheaper and get gas there, people go to the same station for different reasons but if they sell a lot its always fresh. All gasoline is different with different amounts of additives and always different from batch to batch and station to station even in the same brand.

 

Alright will do, thanks again. Didnt add any gas yet, but car seemed to run like normal till the end of the drive when I decided to try to test it out alittle more aggressively, check engine light stayed on this time, ran it through my scangauge P0301, going to empty my tank and try premium gas tommorrow.

 

As usual you are right on the money Glenn, it sounds like the OP got a bad batch of gas. Good to know that we have a CEL for knock beyond a certain threshold as well!

I have the knock light in the race car set to come on @ 5* retard, so I wonder just how much the OP was running into? 15* retard?

Shame you didn't have a scangauge or pocket logger attached during the knock episode!

But if the car actually shuddered when pulling enough timing to be noticeable I would say he encountered actual knock or pre-det, which is not cool.

Try a tank of premium OP, if that doesn't resolve the knocking there could be other issues..

Go to Vatozone, have them pull your codes and report back, you may need an 02 sensor as SB mentioned, as you are approaching the end of it's book service life.

 

Ha can you tell I didn't see this post when I clicked submit?

If the car was actually shuddering and pulling so much timing you can feel it, I would immediately baby it to the nearest gas station and fill to the top with 93, or where 93 isn't an option.. 91 and a bottle of injector cleaner.

Any chance you can see the scangauge data and tell us how many degrees of spark advance the ECU was pulling?

 

Just bought the scangauge Im hoping its the IGN reader? On startup its negative number, took a quick stroll on my break, regular in town driving was reading anywhere from 25-32. Now its much more noticable while accerlating, thinking on my next break going to the gas station and asking them to empty my tank. Anyone know how long that takes? I have a 35mile drive back home so not sure if I want to risk it now, already put over 100miles during this bad gas.

 

You should be able to just take an easy cruise to the gas station with out any harm as long as you baby the throttle. Don't lug the engine though as that can also lead to knock.

On good fuel many ScanGauge users are reporting 25-27* timing @ WOT and as much as 45* timing under high rpm/low load.

So it sounds like you are losing as much as 10-13* timing, and who knows how rich the engine is running, I would wager low-mid 11.x:1AFRs vs mid 12.x:1AFRs in an attempt to save things.

I'm 99% sure that unless you were really beating the snot out of the car for that 100miles you are going to walk away from this without an issue.

Could you hear the engine breaking up under acceleration when it was pulling timing? Or any metallic pinging sounds?

 

No, dont hear any sounds. Just went to the gas stations that were open(most are closed at this time) near me, first guy, i asked him to drain it, he said yes he can do that, but instead he just fills my tank up with premium(only 2.6gallons worth), apparently hes new to this country and doesnt speak much or any english, great! Just went to the only other one thats open near my work, its a young kid he didnt know how to drain it nor had the tools he said to do it. Even just driving around town the car is acting up now, not sure if ill make it home but well see.

Incase of any type of damage this might have done, is there an legal actions I can take? I mean I paid with credit card so I do have proof I actually went there. Ive been going to this gas station for about 7years now, only time I ever had this incident.

 

Tough to say, first we have to determine that it is beyond a shadow of a doubt the fuel at fault. If it is, I would bet it simply has too much water >2-3%, which while bad shouldn't really hurt you to much unless you were trying to autocross or something A call to the gas station and a conversation with the franchisee/proprietor about the situation may get you some answers.

If you are lucky it is just water condensing and sinking to the bottom of the tank, causing spark to blow out or corrupting the burn/ignition process (since you are not hearing knock/break-up)

If you can find a siphon or look for a drain plug on the bottom of the tank that should settle it, but be careful though.

Gasoline is one of those seemingly benign substances that can be very dangerous at the drop of a hat. Static, hot exhaust components, sparks, cigarettes, etc. can all ruin your week if not kill you, so please be careful.

You are doing this at your own risk if you don't have a "pro" do it.

Because if there is no drain plug you have to disconnect the fuel lines, vent and filler neck, pump/fuel level sending unit wiring and then drop the tank. Which is a real pain in the ass on a full size pick-up, nevermind a passenger car, without a lift, trust me.

 

Eh, something like that I rather not try myself. I went to about 15 gas stations today, only one said they would do it, but they wanted $250 because they need to lift the car. Is there any other way to get rid of the gas? Thought there was some hose like device that drains the gas? Or if i leave my car on with ac in my sidewalk for acouple hours or something? Its not cold today so the car seems to be driving pretty well with none of the sympthons, maybe drive around till it runs out?

 

You can try buying a cheap siphon or you could try and just burn through the tank driving gingerly.. I would try and empty the tank somehow though.

$250 is rape.

 

Mine is a 2007 Fot Automatic with 174k miles. Wouldn't accelerate and started jerking around 3000rmp. The check engine light came on and started flashing, but would disappear when I let off the gas. Wouldnt accelerate past 45mph. I got off the freeway and pulled into a part store and the only code they could pull was the upstream O2 sensor. My gas light had JUST come on. So I read this forum and drove to a gas station immediately. I got back on the freeway and it was perfectly fine. 20 minutes later it was was worse and I heard a knocking when I accelerated. Now it won't go beyond 25-30mph and I had to drive on the shoulder with my emergencies on and the check engine light started flashing again. My mechanic is coming to look at it, he's hoping just an O2, but said it might be a clogged cat.

Any suggestions?

 

Variable valve timing system has problem

 

When in doubt, half a can of Seafoam.. It will mix the water back in to the gas and allow the car to burn it off. I''m sure there are other additives as well, Marine engines fight this all the time so I'd look that direction if you think there is water in there..

 

Could be coils, spark plugs, fuel pressure regulator, fuel pump, egr valve, any of the dozens of sensors (tps, crankshaft position, map, maf, O2). Could indeed be an exhaust issue but very unlikely since your problem began suddenly.
Have various tests performed including thorough visual inspection to diagnose and correct the problem.
Don't put any snake fluids in it and don't throw parts at it guessing what it could be.

 

OP needs to get the OBD-II code; it most likely failure of the rocker arm oil pressure switch that controls operation of the valve lift at high RPM.
Anyone suggested checking the muffler bearing for drag??