Ok so just made it in to work this morning. I have a 12 mile commute, nothing major but there are some hills and dips to it. Anyways about halfway through I would feel my acceleration start to slip at lower RPMs in my 1998 Civic DX. I don’t have a tach but I would notice it any time I’d drop below 45mph in 5th gear or when I would go uphill. After downshifting to get into higher RPMs I’d have no problem going but any time my RPMs would drop I’d have to downshift (which normally I wouldn’t have to) to keep steady acceleration. Once I got into town, acceleration from a roll or standstill was very difficult and the car vibrated and stuttered a lot. Finally the check engine light started flashing just as I was pulling in to work. Did a quick search and this link is pretty damn close to what I’m experiencing: http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?p=39167374
This person ended up replacing the air filter and that seemed to cure the problem.
Any ideas?? I don’t think it’s the clutch since it still has been shifting fine. All help is appreciated. I’ll try to check back as often as I can throughout the day. Thanks in advance!!
it could be sooo many things really. If your CEL was flashing that means 1 of 2 things usually. 1. Bad ecu ground. 2. you are experiencing major misfiring. Sounds like number 2 to me. But why? The list goes on and on: Doesn’t sound like a timing issue because it would run like shit all the time, not just intermittantly. So, could be spark, fuel, or shitty electronics.
Obviously check your plugs and make sure they look ok and don’t have a rediculous large gap to them as well. Ignitors on hondas are known to shit the bed, but it doesn’t sound like that. Could be your cap and rotor, which usually when those go bad, moisture (like when it’s raining) will affect that a lot and that’s when you’ll begin to feel problems.
Onto fuel which I think is your problem even provided a semi-vague description. A dying fuel pump that can’t keep the pressure up will cause what you’re experiencing, however it’s pretty rare that they die and still work a little bit (I’ve seen only a few pumps like this) They usually just die completely and it’s easy to spot cause the car won’t start/run. My guess as to what your problem is, would be a clogged/dirty fuel filter. Especially if the car has sat for any period of time. Very cheap and easy thing to replace and can cause tons of problems when on it’s way out.
If it is your air filter, I’m going to punch you for posting this and allowing me to waste 5 minutes of my life. Fuck, it’s like 3 snaps to get it out, go take a look at it, NOW!
Thanks for the input guys. I will get out and check the air filter on my lunch break, can’t really do anything until then. I will say that we have had a stretch of rain for pretty much the entire week and the car sits outside. I drive it daily though so it hasn’t sat without use for any long periods. I’ve had a cap and rotor go on my old Integra but when that happened it just completely died and wouldn’t start again.
To Pauly, yes I did only find this problem happening under load. When I was cruising at 60 on flat land there were no issues. But as soon as I slowed down I’d have to downshift to accelerate again without it slipping. It literally felt like I was giving it gas and then after a 1-2 second delay it would accelerate. And only when RPMs were low, I’d estimate 2-3k range. Above 3k I think it was fine, but I don’t keep the car running that high at all under normal driving conditions.
My first instinct would say fuel filter. Does a civic have a pressure port on the rail? Just hooking up a gauge and seeing if pressure decreases would be an easy start…
Just had a minute to check the air filter, doesn’t look too bad. I’m gonna try to check the plugs before I leave this afternoon and then maybe limp it over to a shop 1 mile away.
I’d start by pulling the code. If it’s a misfire in cylinder X, check the plug in that cyl. Try swapping a wire with a working cyl with the one misfiring.
Get the code and I’m sure we can help you narrow it down.
take the 3 philips head screws from the dis. cap, clean the water out and drive it home. youll hafta put some gasket maker on it, my civic did this all the time because of my vented hood.
I would if I had the means to. I not very mechanically inclined, and have never pulled any codes for a car before. I don’t have the scanner for it. I’ll try to get a look at the plugs and distributor cap after I get out of work.
If not, does anyone think there can be much harm done if I can drive it 1 mile to the shop?
Fuel filter first, then plugs and wires. Air filter can’t hurt but it’s a lot less likely it’s causing the problem. Wouldn’t hurt to do the cap and rotor as well, not sure but I thought they still had them to that point, and/or change the coil.
It’s called maintanence. If that stuff doesn’t work, vac leak or bad gas is my next guess.
edit:don’t start looking for bad wires or sensors if you haven’t even done the routine maintanence stuff yet.
I have bad sparkplug wires in both my subaru and civic and this caused the unload misfire.
Money on the wires!
i dont think the distrubutor if there was no water taht entered the top of the motor ie: washing the engine bay with the dizzy uncovered, vented hood, or no hood lol. etc.
pulling the cose on the civic are easy run it to advance auto parts and pull the code tell us what it is im gonns ay it will pull a misfire code. which could be caused by a bad wire.
You’ll spend more randomly replacing the parts people have suggested in this thread than you would on a scanner that would point you in the right direction.
The majority of the things people have suggested could be causing it. Plug, cap/rotor, wires, fuel filter, fuel pump… who knows. That stored code should help you cross several off the list though.
Internet cookies to all of you who voted wires! Sadly, I work in a small town, nearest auto parts store is back where I live 20 minutes away :banghead:. So I checked the plugs, they were excellent. I didn’t want to chance driving home. Couldn’t tell the wires were bad but I drove it over to the shop and they scanned it. Man it’s frustrating because it’s such a simple fix, and I would do it myself had I known.
JayS, thanks for the link! I’ll have to pick one up some time to save me this trouble in the future. Thanks again for the help everyone.