dk127

Hey, my mom has a 96 civic ex, and I was driving it today and after driving I realized the idle was around 500 and it was really sluggish. It barely got up a hill, and the car just has trouble going.

It had a distributor replaced in Jan, and I busted out a timing light and it checked out ok.

I don't know what else to look at. Any one have any ideas? I'm wondering if they changed the knock sensor too, but thats not routine maintence is it? at around 60k?

dk127

wow this board moves faster than itr...
no one knows? ANY ideas?

THEredDEVIL

i dont know much bout the d series engines but i dont think they have knock sensors right? and if your moms car does have one it would be throwing the the code to let you know it was not working. so if there is no KS code then it should be working fine. hmmm my friend with an 1989 corolla sr5 has been having the same symptoms. he took it to a shop and they did a tune up. costed him 300 bucks, but they changed spark plugs adjusted timing, tuned the carb, and replaced necessary gaskets, and an oil change. i dunno exactly whats wrong with ur car but if you dont wanna pay to have it fixed maybe you need a tune up. i know the 98 ex motor is fuel injected of course but maybe other things might be off . im not saying its like my friends toyota, but maybe it needs a tune up? i hope these suggestions help you and dont steer you off in the wrong direction.

JimmyAtlantis

I would say timing...possibly just the belt.

dk127

i busted out the timing gun and matches up on the marks on the pulley.

if the knock sensor is lose or too tight, it could be throwing it off and make it think its detecting detonation, and retard timing. then it would be doing its job, WITHOUT throwing ANY CEL code right?

tune up has been done. unless its dirty injectors.....

but see when you start it up it'll drive fine, when you start moving after awhile is when it slows down. i think something is retarding timing or something..

NextGenRacing

I had this problem, and after doing just about everything possible, it turned out to be a bad water pump. If the pump has never been change, I would start there. If you have an adjustable cam gear, advance the timing by two degrees.

Jaydeep

might be timing problem.

dk127

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jaydeep &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">might be timing problem.</TD></TR></TABLE>
i checked the timing with a gun. hit the pulley with the light, and the dash lined up with the mark on the block.

meh, i'm going to take the car back monday and let them figure out what they did wrong..