Short little back story:

Upon purchasing this car, they showed me some front end damage to her bumper and they didn't know what it was. Honestly, I didn't either. And at first when the guy was showing it to me, he said that it looks like someone had a blowtorch accidentally arc up and hit the front bumper. -- Being entirely cosmetic, I didn't worry about this at all. He even popped open the hood and I didn't notice anything in the minute or so look I had over the car.

I drive the car off the lot on the test drive, everything was fine when you're under about 45 mph, which is all I did on the test drive. I didn't take it to open highway as I probably should have because........ AFTER I PURCHASE IT, I bring it out on the highway and it wasn't until I'm halfway home that I notice its starting to hang up at about 55-65 mph. I honestly thought at this point that the transmission was starting to go. So I take a deep breath and swallow my pride, and decided to call aamco first thing the next day.

SO

Next day, get to Aamco to have them give it a once over and look at any potential problems it might have. Its been a while since I've messed with anything on cars and sold my last ride back in 2013 (RIP Nissan 350z, but good riddance Nissan). Aamco tells me that the car is throwing codes theyve never seen and they have practically no idea what to do about the codes. They tell me its "codes theyve never seen before and that it might be something with the evap system"... well, they weren't entirely wrong. They also wanted to show me something else with the car regarding that front bumper damage. They had determined that someone was using a trickle battery refill and left the trickle going for an extended period of time to the point where it MELTED THE FUCKING BUMPER and some of the plastic parts inside the car (primarily the engine cover and the air intake). Luckily for me, I was planning on replacing with a SRI (from DC Sports). Aamco warned me that there could have been a problem with the sensor, might be a faulty sensor, and that they'd have to run most diagnostics on it to figure it out. They also said I had a worn out crank arm for the front tires that should be replaced, and the quoted me at like $650 for everything.

Yeeeeeeah, how about not.

At this point, I decided to see what I could come up with myself and thanks to some of the help on this forum, I think I've narrowed it down. I went out and got myself a basic OBD2 scanner, codes posted were P0303. Misfire on the 3rd cyl. I went out and purchase/installed some new E3 DiamondFire spark plugs and honestly, I don't think this car EVER had its spark plugs changed. I cleared my code and off I go, no check engine light. Been driving the last 2 days with no problems yet. Best of all, the drive performance is significantly improved with no stuttering on the highway past 55mph. I kinda cant believe that the dealership that sold me this car didn't even replace something so basic, or at least think to look that part over.

I don't know if I'm out of shits creek yet, but hopefully! If so, I will have made a pretty good purchase! Loving Honda so far, and this community is great!

 

They are in over their heads....Get it the hell away from them!

The original plugs are precious metal plated (Iridium) and have 100k replacement interval.....but really they wear so slowly the plugs might outlast the car as long as nothing fouled them out.

I know of many car owners who only do "crisis based maintenance" still running original plugs at 200k, even 300k miles.



I'd throw away those gimmicky E3 plugs and install the correct NGK or DENSO plugs. If the correct plugs are too pricey for you, install the copper version of the same plugs and replace every 30k.
DENSO SKJ20DR-M13
NGK IZFR6K-13
(cheaper: NGK ZFR6K-13)

Misfires in Fits are frequently caused by failing ignition coils (well known problem).....so watch out for the misfires to return shortly.