jdm341

I'm stumped. I have a stock '95 Civic EX with a 160k mile D16ZC engine. It has been running like a champ until the other day. After it warmed up on the freeway, I noticed that it would hesitate badly (car shaking front to back) when I would try to accelerate at low RPMs. After attempting to diagnose it further, it seems that it will do this whenever I have it at full throttle from idle RPM to about 3500 RPMs or so. It will do this while driving, or at a stand-still. The check engine light has not come on, and I also checked it for stored codes by jumping the test plug at the ECU. Nothing.

The air filter seems okay and I gave the engine a full tune up roughly a year ago. This included plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and fuel filter. Also (probably not relevant) the T-stat got stuck open, so I replaced that back in January.

It really seems like it isn't getting enough fuel and/or too much air or something. But it is weird that the CEL hasn't come on either. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Former User

Check the condition of the plugs, cap, and rotor, and then check the ignition timing with a timing gun. Are all of the injectors clicking? You also might want to do Seafoam treatment.

jdm341

I checked the plugs and they looked great. Then, I pulled the cap to see what it and the rotor looked like. Now, I'm not sure what I'm looking at. There is some sort of blue material that looks like it melted inside the cap and all of the connections look a little gummed up. The rotor was very hard to get off - I had to pry with a screwdriver. It looks like the inside of the cap got really hot at some point. There is a white dust all over everything too. What in the world happened??? I'll post some pictures in a minute.

jdm341

Here are the pictures.


http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Notice the blue stuff. It is melted on the wall of the cap and also on all of the contacts.


http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Crappy image, but I think you can see the melted goo a little better now...


http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
This is looking inside the distributor. Note the white dust on the screws.

Former User

Consider replacing the plug wires, cap, and rotor. Then clean up the wire connections at the coil and igniter unit inside the distributor. Does the coil or igniter look damaged?

hatchnideas

check your tps sensor. use a multimeter and probe the plug. should read .5 throttle closed and 5.5? wot. i forget the exact numbers, but if its off your car will run terrible low down and not throw a code.

freakasis

start with replacing that cap and rotor, and cleaning as much of that blue crap out of the rest of the dizzy as you can.

jdm341

Well, I also noticed that the carbon piece in the center of the disti cap that makes contact with the rotor is ground down/missing. So, I decided to replace the after market cap and rotor with an OEM one from my local Honda dealership. So far, so good. Runs like a champ and only set me back $50. I'm still not sure what the cause of all this was. I just hope it had something to do with the after market stuff and it will be all good now... weird.

jdm341

Other than the white dust, everything seemed fine. The igniter looks untouched, but the coil looks like it got hot at some point. I replaced the cap and rotor and everything is working now.