thor2015

I'll warn you that this post is a bit long and drawn out (sorry) but I wanted to be as detailed as possible in the hopes that this helps someone with a similar issue who is at their wits end.

I recently purchased a 1997 Honda Civic LX with a manual transmission and 190k on the clock. During the test drive, I noticed that the car had a slight hesitation under load which I attributed to it probably needing a basic tune up. I ended up purchasing the car since it was within my low cash limit and came with all the maintenance and repair paperwork. It was risky, yes but I've had good experiences with Honda in terms of reliability whereas a lot of the other cars I looked at in my price range were domestic cars with issues such as head gasket failures, etc.

I went ahead and replaced the cap, rotor, plugs, wires, air filter and fuel filter. The first thing I noticed was that at some point, someone had snapped one of the distributor cap retaining screws flush in the distributor housing and relied on the other 2 to keep it in place. I was able to safely extract the remaining screw with a small drill bit so the new cap is secured with 3 screws like it should be. I also noticed that the rotor on the outer contact point was black. I figured that these two things combined were probably the cause of the hesitation. I put everything back together and noticed that the car seemed to take longer to start than it did before, which initially I thought was due to the fuel filter needing to refill and repressurize. The hesitation was still there but was only when the car was under load and warmed up. The most frustrating part was that the car was not throwing any CELs and there were none in the ECU. So, I decided to drive it for a week and see if I got any codes to come up. Two days later, I got my wish. The car started to run very rough under load and refused to go over 60 mph. It felt like the car was going to die, but when I was forced to stop at the light near the house, the idle was fine. The CEL came on, so when I got to the house I scanned the codes and I got a cylinder 3 misfire code, a random misfire code, and an ECT sensor high code. I looked at the ECT sensor and found that the plastic housing on the sensor was completely gone and the mating connector on the wiring harness was simply slid on to the sensor's metal connectors. Since the ECT sensor was going to have to be replaced, I decided to give it a try since it helps the ECU regulate fuel delivery. Made sense to me. Put the new sensor in, and while the car ran better it was still running rough when warmed up.

So, I got online and searched for what the problem could be. I got all kinds of theories past the basic tune up, including the cat and the fuel pump. I happened across a few articles mentioning that Bosch spark plugs did not work well in Honda engines, which just so happened to be the brand I chose at the parts store. Great. So, down to the parts store to purchase NGKs. Sluggish start was gone but hesitation was still present.

I finally figured out the solution and wanted to post it here since a lot of threads I've read on the subject seem to die without any real resolution. I am well aware that this will not be the solution every time but it is something worth looking into.

Ignition coil. Per the shop manual you are supposed to test the primary and secondary resistance and if the readings are within spec, the coil is good. Wrong. My ignition coil tested within specifications but the test was done at ambient temperature. The manual also shows the coil being tested while still in the distributor housing. I removed my coil for testing and found that while the primary and secondary readings were indeed within spec, the plastic coil housing had hairline cracks in it. Around a few of the cracks the plastic was discolored and looked burnt. One side of the coil was bulging, and all of this would have been hidden from view had I not removed it. I think age played a part in its failure but seeing how the rotor was in such bad shape I think the coil was working overtime to deliver spark to the engine and this overloaded it. I put a new coil in, and just for the sake of not having to crack the distributor open again for awhile I replaced the ignition control module and the hesitation is gone.

Again, sorry for being so wordy but I hope this helps someone with a similar issue.

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

I thought you were asking for help at first, classic distributor issue symptoms.