Hello all, I have a 1994 Honda Civic that has developed a problem. When I turn the A/C on, it will not accelerate all the time. Most of the problems I have encountered happens when I am stopped for an extended period of time (stop light, stuck in traffic not moving, etc.) and when I step on the gas it will barely move. It will get up to speed but it takes forever. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Vince


Oh, it is a 94 EX with an automatic transmission and the only mod is a larger exhaust.

 

Normal

 

You already have a puny motor inside that car. When it takes on extra loads like A/C, it will slow it down even worse. This is most likely normal.

 

Normal? I know there is a power loss but I didn't think it would be this bad. I mean, it literally takes at least 10 seconds to get to 10mph

 

put some unorthodox racing pullys to free up some motor weight.

 

thats probably not normal.maybe your compressor is going out and its hard to turn.pull your AC belt off and check it

 

does it sort of sputter a bit? or just accelerate reallyslowly?

 

You'll feel a load going up hills 'n such...but if it's taking as long as it sounds like it's taking to accelerate, no, that's not normal.

Any CEL's?

 

Plugs/wires/cap. Check those. Almost sounds like you're running on 3 cylinders.

 

It has sputtered a few times but mostly it just takes forever to accelerate.

I had replaced the distributor about 2000 miles ago and also replaced the cap, wires and rotor button.

No check engine light since I replaced the O2 sensor about 6 months ago.

The car has about 220,000 miles on it and all of the problems started around 200k.

Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it. I am trying to keep this car running until I finish school. I don't usually run the A/C unless my son is with me.


Thanks again, Vince

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by IslandSi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Plugs/wires/cap. Check those. Almost sounds like you're running on 3 cylinders.</TD></TR></TABLE>

x2

Especially if your sputtering.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hopesfallx2m &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">put some unorthodox racing pullys to free up some motor weight.</TD></TR></TABLE>
dummy...

 

and does it run normally when the ac is off?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by instrument &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">and does it run normally when the ac is off?</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah that. with no torque, and such small displacement the A/C will make you feel like the car ***** slow. It's normal.

 

I will check the plugs, wires, etc. to see if the problem is there. I kind of dismissed them because they are fairly new but all signs seem to point in that direction.


When I am diving without running the A/C, it is somewhat delayed but I have know way to tell if that is normal or not. I guess the best way to describe it is just imagine you are driving a car equipped with a manual transmission and you are going about 25mph in third gear and try to accelerate.

Vince

 

i had a/c on the highway and accelerating in 5th gear is sllooooowww

 

your car sounds not NORMAL... hope you find out what s wrong///

 

likely the timing belt jumped, cam retarded one tooth I'll bet

 

Sounds like the same thing with my 96 DX once my distributor went out and got replaced it was 4x slower then before. Still don't know what the problem is and I am getting crap gas milage went from 35-40MPG to 25-28MPG max.

Mine acts this way even with out a/c it starts going then it feels like it floods for 2 seconds then gets going again. Any ideas on that?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mista Bone &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">likely the timing belt jumped, cam retarded one tooth I'll bet </TD></TR></TABLE>

Hrm, didn't think of that, it is indeed quite possible - check it.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mugenej8power &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

yeah that. with no torque, and such small displacement the A/C will make you feel like the car ***** slow. It's normal.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The time he's describing isn't normal by any means. I have a stock Y8 and I always keep that AC on, and I can accelerate fine.

 

D15B7 running A6 cam 1/2 tooth retarded.......

in the summer heat the ECU pulls timing, then the load of the AC, plus the loss of low end from the cam timing.

FLOORED in 1st gear engine would go above 1000 rpms for a good 100 feet.......

 

This could be the problem since I have replaced the distributor recently. Actually, it was in late February and we still had a lot of snow so it was slow going anyway. I guess the best thing to do would be to put a timing light to it?

Thanks again for all the help guys, I really appreciate it!

Vince

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ar15rifles &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This could be the problem since I have replaced the distributor recently. Actually, it was in late February and we still had a lot of snow so it was slow going anyway. I guess the best thing to do would be to put a timing light to it?

Thanks again for all the help guys, I really appreciate it!

Vince</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well he's talking about the cam gear timing, not the distributor timing. Though yeah, def. check the dizzy timing w/ a timing light, but make sure your motor is TDC on both the crank and the cam. One tooth off can really expletive things up.

 

Thanks Syndacate for the clarification, I misunderstood.

I will definitely check the timing first and see if that checks out OK. If it does, I guess I will need to take it to a shop for the cam gear timing.

Thanks!