corpsebesideme

1999 honda civic ex auto trans.

problem 1.

Intermittent power loss .

((Happens maybe once a month..i never drive the car hard but the previous owners did of course. The car has a full tune upplugs wires cap , rotor , new injectors fuel pump alternator battery as well... I cleaned the shift and lockup solenoids and no change.I have checked all wiring and sanded and replaced all of the grounds to the car. No help. I have cleaned out connectors with electrical spray, checked hoses for leaks, replaced the throttle body gasket twice,new fuel filter(a year old) and much more.. ))

Today the power loss was worse than ever and upon take off in a parking lot the rpms went to about 4000 and i had to hit the gas hard several times to get it to go. The car never actually dies though.. I also have a brand new idle control valve and set my idle to 750 and tried 800 as well; to no avail.
When this problem first came about the rpms used to fall to almost "0' this time they went the other direction which makes me think its transmission related.
The tranny shifts smooth and has new fluid in it 6000 miles ago. Im wondering if this could be a torque converter related problem? I read that it can be but i need more info than that.

Problem 2.

Sometimes when hitting the brakes (not always) the idle falls again and the car slightly shudders for a split second then jumps back to normal idle. Oddly enough my idle adjustment screw works just fine and like i said i have a new idle control valve.

Just wondering if someone thinks these problems are related and if they're related to a failing torque converter OR a bad ecu? These are my last guesses but i dont have a place to just pull out the trans and check.

corpsebesideme

ignition coil doesnt test out right, would this cause this type of problem? 12 year old coil,how long do these things last?

pityocamptes

I assume your emergency brake or braking system is NOT engaged, correct? It does sound like your AT is going south. Same thing happens when the clutch goes on a stick.

What do you mean by this?

When this problem first came about the rpms used to fall to almost "0' this time they went the other direction which makes me think its transmission related.

corpsebesideme

I meant that at first it would stall out and lose power once in a great while and the rpms would fall to basically 0 , but the recent time i lost power the rpms flew up to 4000. The new stalling sends the rpms upwards not to 0 anymore. Unless im braking sometimes then it wants to fall to 0. All randomly though, less times than more, this all happens. The tranny shifts very smooth still, so would this be more torque converter related?

pityocamptes

It does sound like it is transmission related. Have you checked the fluid levels for the tranny? Have you tried draning it and looking for debris or discolored burnt fluid? I would check that first, and then replace with honda approved fluid. I know sometimes when fluid gets low on an AT it will do all kinds of weird things, usually a shift issue though.