Smelling Gas 1989 Prelude

Status
Not open for further replies.
Tagger,

Do I pull the carpet back on the left side, right side or straight ahead where your feet would normally go?

I've searched and youtube. I jumped the little yellow plug on the firewall on the passenger side.....I tried to remove the right side of the center console. I've wasted a "day"...LOL
 
Gasoline leaks are usually not visible, so you have to run your fingers along the fuel lines and feel for wetness. You'll know when you find a leak; your finger will feel cool and your skin will be shiny. Check the high pressure lines first. Check the fuel rail area where the plastic fuel lines connect to the metal tubing on their way to the injectors.
 
Originally Posted By: Gebo
Do I pull the carpet back on the left side, right side or straight ahead here your feet would normally go?

Straight ahead where your feet go. Pull the free edge at the front-most portion of the carpet where it angles up towards the underside of the dash.

There are little clips holding the edge of the carpet down, but they release fairly easily. The carpet will pull out a little bit from under the kick panel ahead of the door; you just feed that back in again afterwards.

By the way, do not go shorting things you can't identify. This vehicle does not require shorting of anything in order to read the codes.
 
If it's like the Civic, the ECU is on the right side of the car, under the carpet where the passenger's feet would be.
 
I had an 89 Accord LXi for 23 years. Your issue is most likely the injectors themselves; leaking at the juncture between the plastic and metal parts. If so, the only fix is replacing the leaking injectors.
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
I had an 89 Accord LXi for 23 years. Your issue is most likely the injectors themselves; leaking at the juncture between the plastic and metal parts. If so, the only fix is replacing the leaking injectors.


+1.

I too had an 89 Accord and 2 of the 4 injector bodies leaked. Go to a junkyard and get some to swap.
 
Many will tell you to replace the o-rings between the fuel rail and the injectors. In my experience I have never seen them leak. The problem with junkyard injectors is that if they are leaky you may not be able to tell. I always recommend new ones. If you shop around you can get them for as little as $40 each. It's not a hard job to replace them, but who wants to do it more than once.

The interesting thing about my Accord is that once I replaced all four - by the time the car had about 150,000 miles on it - I never had to do it again. They were still leak free at 350,000 miles.
 
The Honda people I spoke with in 1997 told me that these injectors were not rebuildable, however, I do recall seeing remanufactured injectors online somewhere. I ended up replacing mine one at a time for the first two, then the final two at the same time. When I did those, RC Engineering told me that they sold "test" injectors that had been used briefly by North American Honda. I bought them for $42 each and they obviously were fine.

Something like this might fit the bill...

Injectors

You can do the search on eBay or elsewhere. They are quite a bit cheaper than they were twenty years ago.
 
Well, I finally got the carpet up and counted 12 short blinks. It appears that I have EGR problems. Any particular order of events I should follow? Check for cracked hoses, take the body off and use a bunch of Carb Cleaner, ...

Is it possible a faulty EGR could allow this gasoline smell?
 
Last edited:
EGR has nothing to do with the gas smell, but I can tell you what the code 12 probably is because I spent too much time and money figuring out the same thing on my Accord. There is a lift sensor on the top of the EGR valve. It is part of the assembly. I found that even though my EGR was opening it was sticking slightly about halfway. The lift sensor signaled the ECM that the EGR was not functioning and threw the code 12. So, you can TRY cleaning the EGR (the little shaft inside that rides up and down), or you'll just have replace the whole thing. As with the injectors, it's probably cheaper now, but I paid $140 for mine.
 
Originally Posted By: Gebo
Well, I finally got the carpet up and counted 12 short blinks.

You'd better check that again. You cannot have 12 short blinks in a row in the same sequence unless the ECU is damaged.

Code 12 would be one long blink followed by two short ones.

How much time (in seconds) is there between each blink? Is the gap exactly the same between each blink?
 
^On this vintage Honda ECM it would be 12 blinks, long pause, 12 more blinks, etc. Believe me, the 89 Accord LXi and 89 Prelude FI models had virtually the same engine/ECM combo.
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
On this vintage Honda ECM it would be 12 blinks, long pause

So this ECU has NO long blinks? If so, that goes against my factory documentation, which says that the footwell-mounted ECU uses both long and short blinks.

My doscs say that the previous generation Prelude -- with the ECU mounted under the driver's seat -- did use only short blinks.
 
The 1989 models were pre-OBD. I can't say with absolute certainty that the Prelude is the same but my 89 Accord only did short blinks. I had to deal with about three different CEL issues in the 23 years I had the car. I believe that the Prelude's FI engine is also an A20A3 like my Accord's. The ECU is under the driver's seat and there is a little "hatch" on it you pull open after sliding the seat all the way forward.
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
The ECU is under the driver's seat

OP says he "pulled the carpet back".

Maybe he can confirm if he meant the footwell carpet...
 
It is 12 short red blinks, pause, 12 short red blinks.

The ECU is under the passenger side carpet where your feet would be if you stretched your feet out towards the front of the car. You just barely have to pull the carpet back. Directly under the glove box.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
EGR has nothing to do with the gas smell, but I can tell you what the code 12 probably is because I spent too much time and money figuring out the same thing on my Accord. There is a lift sensor on the top of the EGR valve. It is part of the assembly. I found that even though my EGR was opening it was sticking slightly about halfway. The lift sensor signaled the ECM that the EGR was not functioning and threw the code 12. So, you can TRY cleaning the EGR (the little shaft inside that rides up and down), or you'll just have replace the whole thing. As with the injectors, it's probably cheaper now, but I paid $140 for mine.


Thanks to you for the EGR tip!
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
I had an 89 Accord LXi for 23 years. Your issue is most likely the injectors themselves; leaking at the juncture between the plastic and metal parts. If so, the only fix is replacing the leaking injectors.


You are correct...We have a winner!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top