My friend and I were about 250 miles into a 500 mile (one way) road trip in his 200k mile '97 Acura 1.6EL when the CEL started flashing and the car became incapable of climbing a moderate grade in fifth. We pulled over and it was idling rough. We started pulling injector wire connections one at a time and found that the #2 cylinder was unaffected by the state of the injector connection, so we left that one disconnected, cable-tied it up, and continued on in fourth gear with the CEL flashing. When we got to the destination - another friend's place - we checked it out and the plugs looked good except that the #2 plug was oily. It was getting spark and fuel, but we couldn't register any compression on the #2 cylinder. We checked another cylinder to make sure the tester worked, and it functioned normally, quickly coming up over 150 psi. We pulled the valve cover; the cam looked good, the timing belt looked good, and the rockers appeared to be functioning normally. We drove the 650 miles home (including a detour to visit yet another friend) and the engine ran okay in fourth gear at 70 mph on the highway for the trip but it was, of course, down a lot of power and had terrible fuel economy. It did about 18 mpg.
What is the likely cause? Rings? Valves? Would it be worth it to do any more testing or inspection of the engine? We figured it was on its way out because it has been consuming a quart of oil every fill-up for the last year or so, but we didn't expect to not be able to register any compression at all.
Despite the slight hassle - I actually thought the experience was interesting, maybe even fun - I'm glad we took his car since it got hail-damaged one evening there. He was hoping for a write-off, but it's only an $1100 paintless dent removal estimate. His new S4 should arrive sometime in August. He'll probably put another engine in the Acura anyway if it can be done for less than the value of the car (about $3500). He wants to keep it as a winter beater and for gravel road driving to work locations.
What is the likely cause? Rings? Valves? Would it be worth it to do any more testing or inspection of the engine? We figured it was on its way out because it has been consuming a quart of oil every fill-up for the last year or so, but we didn't expect to not be able to register any compression at all.
Despite the slight hassle - I actually thought the experience was interesting, maybe even fun - I'm glad we took his car since it got hail-damaged one evening there. He was hoping for a write-off, but it's only an $1100 paintless dent removal estimate. His new S4 should arrive sometime in August. He'll probably put another engine in the Acura anyway if it can be done for less than the value of the car (about $3500). He wants to keep it as a winter beater and for gravel road driving to work locations.
