INVALID

First off, this is my brother's car and I've never owned an auto, and this is the first auto Honda Civic I have driven. My brother was telling me he was having issues with the car accelerating, stating it would barely make it to 80mph, if did it would take a long amount of time (actual minutes, not like 25 seconds) as well as seem to idle up high once he placed it into PARK and has arrived at his destination (not sure how high - there is no tach) but it would eventually come back down to what sounded like a decent idle. Basically, if he stomps on the gas, it will hesitate a bit, then take off. He has put AT LEAST 500 miles on this car already.

History on the car: it had previously been sitting for a few months before he purchased it, it had not been driven at all during the course of 4, 5, hell 6 months. It has 100,000+ miles on it, most recent maintenance and changes would have been an oil change, flush and fill on the radiator as well as engine, and new tires.

I took the car for a test spin to get an idea of how bad things may be. Well, giving the gas pedal a medium range of pressure it would seem like any other car, eventually making its way up to about 60mph. I take it out on the highway starting easing it up to about 40mph then give the pedal more pressure taking it up to 50mph, 51, 52, 53, 53, 52, 51, 50, 49. I was still applying more pressure to the pedal but the car was actually <FONT SIZE="2">decelerating and stalling</FONT> right at about 50. So I go back to about medium pressure and ease it up to about 70mph and let off. I allow it to drop down to about 10 mph then step on it as if I had a 5-speed. It slowly eased up to 20 mph (it sounded like shi) got stuck on 35 mph, and wouldn't budge until I let off and applied medium pressure to it, then made its way past 40mph and repeated its process at 50mph again. I pull off and sit for a minute and decide I will attempt to manually go through the auto gears. 1, 2, D3, D4, the same thing, as I pull off to the side scratching my head I notice the CEL has just come on. Not having anything handy I head home for some wires to plug into the ECU. I cut the car off and can't get the CEL to come back.. of course not

I take it out for another spin in hopes of finding out what CEL it was, after about 15 minutes of trying to beat on it, I get nothing and bring it back home to make sure the dang light is even working. I unplug the O2 sensor and get nothing. Turn the car on, and there finally is the O2 sensor CEL. So not only does this thing suck, I have to have the car TURNED ON to actually get and check a CEL from it because once I turned it off and switched it to the ON position I could get a read out on the O2 CEL any longer. If I attempt to check the car and it is not registering a CEL, the CEL will basically just remain ON, so I'm just going to leave the jumper wire plugged into it for now.

At this point, for me, everything seems fairly broad, I'm not even certain where I am going to start from. I think one of injectors may be faulty due to the way it kind of won't accelerate when the pedal is stomped down. Maybe something fuel related, but I don't understand why it is getting stuck at those two speeds, both 35 mph and 50 mph. I'm going to suggest my brother change out his plugs and plug wires, he and I will have to check the fuel rail and injectors. With the way the car is acting, could this really be a vacuum issue somewhere. My brother told me the previous owner had the car sitting for a long while and actually encountered a rat living somewhere under the engine bay. So it could have possibly chewed up some vacuum lines somewhere. There are just a number of things I need to check and I would like some <FONT SIZE="3">suggestions either from those who may have experienced similar problems or those who are rather technically seasoned that have dealt with Honda problems again and again</FONT>.

I realize this is one of those difficult problems, so I imagine I will be viewing it from a few pages back every now and then so please bump it when you can as a favor to me. I appreciate your time, thanks.


**This has nothing to do with adding mods or Honda Civics being slow in general, this is a problem that requires an actual answer beyond swap out the engine, boost it, or nos**