Warning, this is a bit of a wall of text, but I have a couple questions in here, I'll bold those for reader convenience, and some info on some weirder problems that may help someone who's wanting to rip out their hair at some point.
So it's been an interesting year and a half or so for my 08 TL. As I had a few parts need replacing (O2 sensor, evap purge valve, air intake hose, etc.) and some big services (timing belt package, spark plugs, etc.) I've been really putting my time and energy into treating my TL well to see it to some excellent 200k mile+ golden years. It's generally had none of the common TL problems (cracked dashes, transmission issues [which it shouldnt as an 08, but my gratefulness is still there], early engine mount death.), and other than some of the small parts and regular service needs as mentioned, had only had it's alternator needing replacement until recently. This last year we started getting missfires. They were getting severe. We pulled the plugs, which had been replaced maybe 10k miles or less before and all of the nodes were burned down entirely. I replaced them...missfires returned a few weeks later, but the nodes were okay. I replaced them again...a few days later it returns. We replaced a couple ignition coils, but the problem continues. My mechanic was stymied...but I have lost a lot of confidence in them this week. The missfires themselves are never at idle (pull any coil plug off and all of them cause aggressive missfiring at idle). Move plugs and coils around and no changes, but it's not always the same cylinder with the issue. Anytime I open the throttle, that's when it hits, and someone I know suggested checking out the fuel pump as it sounds like insufficiency. I'm bloody well hoping this is the case as otherwise the mystery continues.
As such, on the fuel pump side, can anyone help me with ways to check if this is an issue? I know how to access it, but to check to see if the pressure it's putting out is enough, I'm not certain how to proceed. I could just replace it, but putting the money out before I know if it's the problem and being less certain about the specific origin of the problem makes me want to not skip this step.
Also, because of some of the expenses described below, I'm really wanting to track down this missfire issue because I don't want to sink money into a lot of the below, if I have this continued mysterious missfire issue that may slowly be damaging the car due to the fuel mixture and any compression abnormalities, and making it hard to keep driving or sell. Any other ideas to check for to track down this missfire would be MASSIVELY appreciated.
So, some other interesting things. I'd run into my car dying, not being able to jump it (despite cleaning off the nodes aggressively), and having AAA replace the battery as faulty and confirm it's not the alternator. Two weeks later, the battery is dead again. It's not the battery, nor the alternator, but a parasitic drain which is getting dramatically more aggressive. I bring it in, they find the AC compressor relay is stuck, keeping the compressor on all the time. They fix it, I drive off on a friday, stop for lunch in the city...and my car dies the moment I turn it off. Just before that, the AC went on full power, and woudn't respond or turn off. They take it back, and tell me the blower motor and it's relay are bad, and want 400+ damn dollars for it...thanks to websites like this...and the glory of youtube, it's under $100 of parts and like a 20 minute process with basically just a screw driver. They found that this issue was causing a fuse to blow and stop my car from being able to turn on or even access the battery (the AAA was stymied that he couldn't even get sparks from the negative plug). I'm hoping to actually just disconnect the relay on the street, turn on my car and drive home to work on it myself.
The one other thing really going on is the front and side engine mounts need to be replaced, but it looks like some basic wrench tools and a ground jack should take care of this for about 2-300$ instead of 600+! But again, I'm resisting replacing these parts before knowing the missfire issue can be tracked down and fixed. Any specific suggestions for places to buy these inexpensive, but keep OEM? I see a lot of painfully cheap ones and so expect I want to stick with OEM for these, but don't know if I'll find better options than buying direct from Acura/Honda (which always hurts my soul).
I appreciate any input and thoughts! I'm hoping to get back to another 50,000 loving miles with this car at least before it makes the trip to automotive Valhalla.
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