hey all I've had my actuators unstuck and I can move them by my hand pulling on them. takes a lot of strength to open them almost hurts my fingers but they're greased. whenever I punch it and at around 3500 I don't feel that so called noticeable "rotary vtec" I don't hear s change in the cars tone or push me in the seat anymore than it already does. could the vaccuum lines clog that go to them? it's an s5 btw.

 

The S5 ports are all activated with pressurized air from the airpump, not vacuum.

 

What he said

 

But you also shouldn't feel a "vtec bump" at 3800 RPM anyway. The ports open gradually unlike Honda's original crude Vtec system that just swapped over the cam instantly.

You can test them easily. Clean of the actuators. Smear some grease on the rods. Run WOT to redline in 2nd gear where it's safe. Now open hood and check to see if the grease has moved.

Or find an old smartphone, tape it under the hood, turn on video, point towards actuators then do a WOT 2nd gear run. Review video.

The S5 system was reliable. If your air pump is working, then the only other failure point is the solenoid or the actuators themselves. But since you can move them, that's likely not it.

 

yeah I know that but there's still hoses that go to it to pressurize them right? they just feel super hard to lift up but when they do they move smoothly. literally can barely do it by hand lol

 

It's a hydrolic thing. Here's the deal, lets say the hose running to the actuator is 3 psi. If the actuator diaphragm is 2" in dia then the force the diaphragm exerts is pi(D)(pressure in psi) which is 18.85 lbs. Considerably more than the actual line pressure.

 

they should move pretty easily by hand. my last couple FC's have been easy to fix, because the part that needed cleaning/lubrication was the actuator to the shaft, and not the actual sleeve.

so if it was my car i'd pop the actuators off, make sure the sleeves move freely by hand, clean everything up and put a little grease on it, and you're good to go.

if the actuator system is working properly you won't feel it, if it sticks a little, then you usually will feel it. if they aren't opening at all, the car will just be slow over 4500ish

 

That only works on the S4 actuators, which pull in.
The S5's push out, so the grease trick (or zip tie or whatever variant) tells you nothing.

The phone would work or a quickly rigged contact switch might do.

 

hey well there's my problem with the coolant getting trapped in the overflow lol the gaskets so swelled up on the old one

 

Grease the rotating parts. Will leave witness marks on the stop rod. Ideally.

 

you don't notice any loss of power from the auxiliaries malfunctioning until well past 4500, more like in the 6500 range where it tends to choke a bit.

swelling cap seals isn't a good sign either, i generally only see it in cars that have combustion gases circulating around, or contaminants in the cooling system.

 

Probably the easiest way to tell if they work would be to unplug the brown and white solenoids behind the alternator and go for a quick drive. You should notice a lack of top end power. If you dont notice a lack of power your aux ports and VDI probably aren't working to begin with.

I hear tales of unplugging the atmospheric pressure sensor vacuum line and TPS to test the ports by free revving by hand. Its supposed to simulate load in addition to RPM. I've never tried it though.