rsmeltzer

Recently bought a 98 civic, completely stock. Ran great on test drive, didn't detect any problems. The next day, I went to drive it. After 5 minutes the car began to shake and sputter. I pulled over, put the car in neutral and it went back to normal in a few minutes. Drove it home fine.

I took it to a mechanic, he said there was a CEL for the map sensor but the previous owner had taken the bulb out for the CEL... so i couldnt have seen it. He replaced it and test drove it, same thing happened. The spark plugs were very used, and needed to be replaced along with the cap, rotor and wires. Test drove it... same problem.

I suggested it could be a fuel problem, so the fuel filter was replaced. It ran fine the first time it was driven... then the same problem happened later that day. So i added some Lucas Oil fuel system cleaner with a full tank of 93 octane gas. The problem went away for a whole day!! The next day, have the same problem...

Had these issues for a few more days, then filled up with more fuel and added more fuel system cleaner... problem went away again for a day! Then CAME BACK!

I dont know if I should do something expensive like the fuel pump or injectors without knowing for sure. Car runs fantastic other than those few minutes, idles great. The problem happens anywhere from 5minutes to 20 minutes after driving.

I am out of ideas, sorry for the long post. I need help!

dlstech

Maybe an air or vacuum problem? I had a car that ran great with fresh gas and then ran like crap so I thought it was a fuel problem. Fought it for a month then found a tiny hose disconnected and it ran fine since. Fuel somehow affected it but it wasn't the problem

mild99civic

How many miles on the car? Did you do a compression test?

rsmeltzer

116,000 miles. Have not done a compression test. Its starting to get worse, yesterday I started it and let it run for a few minutes and the engine almost shut of like it was going to stall. Then it came back and ran like normal. Its gotta be fuel related, right?

rsmeltzer

Checked all the hoses.

kyden

does it throw another code?

JayCunamay

try putting more grounds on the motor, and try to see if you have a friend and try their ecu.

motegicivic

How is the temp gauge, is it running hot?

See any smoke out the tail pipe?

It could be a fuel problem, the fuel pump is easy to get to under rear seat.

MikeB18c

+1 check the fuel system

SykoFerret

I had the same problem in my 94 EX awhile back, My dizzy rotor disintegrated, replaced it and no more problem. high octane fuel and octane booster fixed my problems for awhile as well. Can't hurt to pop off those 3 screws just to be sure.

rsmeltzer

I dont know anyone with another civic to try their ecu. I dont think I'm getting any other codes.

The distributor, cap, and rotor have all been replaced.

I was thinking it was the fuel system, but I wanted to check with you guys first... so I dont spend $150 on a fuel pump, and it ends up being something stupid and cheap. I guess ill try the fuel pump this weekend.

Also, I found out that I can make the car sputter/stall if I drive it, put it in park, then as soon as I step on the gas it sputters and almost stalls.

rsmeltzer

Also, its automatic.

motegicivic

curious did you use OEM parts?

I am not 100% sure but there might be a way to test fuel volume.

JDM_teh_WIN!!

Check the timing. I would assume you had the timing done when you had the distributor checked? Could be that it was done incorrectly. Does it only sputter or stall at low rpms or does it do it higher than 3000 rpms as well?

piagechristine

Did you ever figure out what was wrong? my car is doing the exact thing and we cant seem to figure out the problem. It was taken to the Honda dealership a while back so they could drive it around to see if they could find out the problem and when they went to drive it the ignition switch went out so they replaced that and said that that was the problem, but a couple days later it started doing the same thing. Now months later after trying to fix the problem it still does it the only thing I've found that works to get it to stop is to rev the engine to get the rpm's up.

SykoFerret

I had the same problem with a disintegrated dizzy rotor before. My car has a similar issue did you resolve it?

jbpnoman

Stop. Just stop. You're throwing money at the car without dealing with the actual problem.

Replace the CEL bulb. Pull the codes again (there's a sticky explaining how to do it yourself). Post the exact codes. Diagnose, replace, solve. Not the other way around.

rsmeltzer

Yes, fixed it by replacing O2 sensor.