benitom

Sorry for the long post, but pls bare with me.

I own a 2000 civic coupe ex with automatic transmission with 85000 miles and I am going to explain the problem below which has been very disturbing for years because I don’t know how to fix it.

First of all, I know that I am driving a civic, yes, it’s a sohc and it’s not meant to be a Ferrari.
I’ve done extensive search on this issue and haven’t found the cure yet. Here is the issue: My car runs very sluggish below 3500 RPM to the point that it is dangerous when driving in traffic. No matter how little/much I step on the gas, my car just doesn’t pick up speed until it reaches 3500 rpm. I drove my friend’s car which is identical to mine except his car is a 4 door version and it accelerates very smoothly between 1-3K rpm.

These are the things I’ve done to my car in terms of maintenance:

1. New spark plugs
2. New Distributor cap and rotor
3. Drain and fill (4 times) Transmission fluid about 5000 miles ago
4. New oil change
5. New fuel filter

I visited 2 repair shops (second shop is a reputable shop in Fremont)

1. Two mechanics at the first shop tested my car and both agreed that it is really sluggish. They replaced the fuel filter and it didn’t help. Then they advanced the ignition timing and I felt much better. Before I left, they told me if I changed my timing belt, my car should not feel sluggish anymore… is this true?

2. I visited the second shop in Fremont and the mechanic checked the timing again and turn it back to the default setting. After that, my car felt very sluggish again.

After my visit at the second shop, I set my ignition timing back to advance again. I didn’t have a timing gun with me, so I don’t know how advance it is. I just advance it as much as it could go.

What could possibly go wrong here? I was thinking about spark plug wires and ignition coil, but could these two cause my car to run this sluggish? OR could it be my timing belt?

P.S. after I advance the timing with new spark plugs, it now looks like this

Any suggestion is greatly appreciated!

Modified by benitom at 9:05 PM 7/10/2008


Modified by benitom at 9:06 PM 7/10/2008


Modified by benitom at 9:06 PM 7/10/2008

ke98248

iTrader: (1)

My Guess:

The E.G.R. can cause problems exactly as stated.


http://www.napaonline.com/Mast...Valve

I selected GX for the model type this may not be what you want.

Former User

I think the first mechanic is correct -- the timing belt is one tooth off from synchronizing the cam and crank at TDC. Replace the timing belt as soon as possible.

94EG8

Whoever told you replacing your timing belt will make your car not sluggish either lied through his teeth or he doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about, its one of those things that either works or it doesn't, it is however a maintance item, i belive its every 90,000 miles or 6 years, whichever comes first, if the belt snaps you have a good chance of driving the pistons into the valves causing catastrophic engine failure, but replacing the belt will not give you any performance gains. As for whats causing your problem i'm hoping someone will have a better idea than i do, i'm thinking possible lazy O2 sensor, or possible bad map or TPS sensor, but i'm really just guessing here, don't go out and just start throwing parts at a problem, really try to narrow it down before you try replacing parts.
EDIT hmm, I think i see something i missed earlier, if your timing belt was off a tooth it would cause the car to run poorly, if thats the case then yes replace the timing belt, even if its not due, the labour is costly enough that unless you just had a belt put on last week or something you might as well just do it now and save having to pay to do it again later, while your at it you might as well put on a water pump

Former User

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94EG8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Whoever told you replacing your timing belt will make your car not sluggish either lied through his teeth or he doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about, its one of those things that either works or it doesn't...
</TD></TR></TABLE>

This statement is incorrect. In many cases an engine will run with the cam and crank out of synch by one tooth on the timing belt -- just poorly.

94EG8

I understand your point, what i was getting at was that a new timing belt doesn't work any better than an old timing belt, provided they are both timed correctly, i didn't originally pick up on the fact that the belt may have jumped a tooth.

benitom

I uploaded a picture of one of my spark plugs (all 4 taken out and they all look identical to the picture) and that is how it looks like after I advanced my timing and been driving for 600 miles.

By the way I think the second mechanic checked the TMS (temperature sensor or something) and it was doing just fine.

benitom

So old timing belt stretch which causes it to skip a tooth? OR what could be the cause? I've never changed the timing belt.

benitom

Do you think EGR valve could cause my car to run sluggish?

Former User

By the way, do you have a D16Y5 engine. It's the only one with a EGR system.

94EG8

In the original post he states that its an EX, so D16Y8 unless someone swapped it.

ej1love

i had the same problem then i figured out it was the o2 sensor...car ran crappy.

JeffBro

This is a difficult problem to pin down over a forum. Generally speaking engine performance related problems are. I have never helped someone fix one by listening to them say what was wrong and just knowing what it was. Usually its more of a gut feeling and some research AFTER an extensive test drive and listening to the engine run and checking a few things. That said the timing belt being off could be causing a mild lack of power but is not necessarily the only possibility. Other other possibilities would be ignition timing, tps sensor(calabration), a sensor acting up(O2), maybe the throttle body being dirty. I dunno its a tough one. Maybe your engine is just weak? Not all engines produce the exact same power even with most thing being equal. You might just have to live with it.

benitom

I have a D16Y8

benitom

BTW regarding that spark plug picture above, is it dangerous to keep running my car with advance ignition timing?

benitom

JeffBro,

I seriously doubt it's the stock performance because it is extremely sluggish. When i drove my friend's car it's like day and night difference.

benitom

ej1love,

So how did you fix the problem with O2? Can you tell me how to go about fixing that?

Former User

If you are handy, you can take off the valve cover and the upper timing belt cover to see the condition of the timing belt and whether it may be off by a tooth.

benitom

Is there any post that shows how to check whether my timing belt has jumped a tooth?

Former User

I sent you an instant message regarding the timing belt information.

benitom

thanks a lot.
By the way, I got my car from my sister back in 2005 and I have been experiencing this problem since. Note that the car was sitting in a garage for nearly 2 years... my best guess is that something might have been clogged internally... would that be possible? I am thinking of sea foaming the gas tank, brake booster, and the place where I fill engine oil.

benitom

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RonJ@HT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I sent you an instant message regarding the timing belt information.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Do you know how can i access the crank pulley?

Former User

Put front end on jack stands, remove driver side wheel and splash guard. This will give access to turn crank with a 17-mm socket. Turn only counter-clockwise.

juda7

Double check:

Distributor?

Bad Coil or Igniter?

Bad sparks plug or plugs?

Not enough spark?

benitom

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by juda7 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Double check:

Distributor?

Bad Coil or Igniter?

Bad sparks plug or plugs?

Not enough spark?</TD></TR></TABLE>

My car actually runs even slower when i gets pretty hot, but not right when I start my car because it runs pretty strong after i start it for a few minutes. I am thinking it would be ignition coil, does that sound like a reasonable cause?