Hello, I have a 2002 Civic EX Coupe, automatic.

About two days ago I was going 60mph and hit the throttle, the RPM's went up but the speed droped for about two seconds, then it jutted forward, then slowed with RPM's high. It repeated this a few times, then I had a check engine light come on. I pulled over, had to turn, car dident want to gain speed after the turn. I turned the car off and checked the gas, all the fluids, tempature, and the battery's power. All were good. I disconnected the battery and reconnected it, resetting the computer. After that it ran decent, but not good. It also takes about three more seconds for the starter motor to start the engine. When the car is started you can hear a humming comming from the back seat where the fuel pump is. When drivien and floored, I accelerate slowly. When held somewhat between rest and floor it has decent power. Sometimes when floored the rpms will shoot up and the car will accerate slowly, this is at low and high speeds. The low rpms seem weak, 3k-5k give decent power, and 5k-7k gives nearly no power. There is no check engine light. In nutral the RPM's move very nicely, no problems at all.

I was told that my transmission is going bad. I was also told to flush the system. Also, I was told that it may be my fuel pump. Which do you think is the most likely? Is there something else that could be causeing this?

No mods or additives were done to this Civic any time near this period. It has a short ram air intake which was installed nearly a year ago. All oil changes were done on or before every 3k miles. I drive my car hard daily. Average RPM that gears change is 4-5k and my speed is usually between 70-100mph.

Thank you in advance for any help provided.

 

In between 70-100mph?!?! Where do you live?? Germany?!

Anyways, initially I was thinking fuel system... and if your hearing the pump that may be your problem because I've never heard mine during driving... but since you drive you car nice and hard I would suggest doing it all. Your tranny could probably use some lovin' anyways.

P.S. 7th Gen. automatic civics are notorious for bad trannys.

 

Your transmission is needing some assistance. It's probably due to all the excessive speeding you've been doing.

 

I wish I lived in Germany. I am in San Antonio Texas...

The fuel pump you can hear hum after starting the car for about one minute, then it stops the hum. I had been haveing some problems with my fuel pump in the past. The sensor in it would mess up and give me a false reading on my fuel level. I would be out of gas and the car would read half a tank or more.

I'm still doubtful about my tranny being bad because the car takes longer to start up than before.

The probelm I am experianceing now I experienced before, but only when the engine was below it's normal tempature. Once it heated up i was nice. We are talking about on a 90 degree day.

Going to head to the honda dealership and talk to a friend there, then head to advance auto and look into getting a new pump and fluching my tranny.

Thanks for the help guys. Any new idea, thoughts, suggestions and comments are still welcome.

 

No matter what your problem... flushing the tranny and new fluid and such would be a good idea.

 

Yeah, it needs that atleast. Any ideas on which tranny oil is best?

I went by Advanced Auto and told a friend what was happening, he said it sound like the VTEC Cylanoid. Does this sound probable?

 

My engine light came on again, enigne wanted to stall and popping noises came out my exaust. I had the OBD scanned and got two codes. According to it my O2 Bank 1 Sensor 1 is low voltage and my IAT Sensor is High input. I am going to put new sensors in tomarrow and flush my tranny.

Thank you "Thinknology" and "ToyoMatt" for the help.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Lucid_Nightmare &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My engine light came on again, enigne wanted to stall and popping noises came out my exaust. I had the OBD scanned and got two codes. According to it my O2 Bank 1 Sensor 1 is low voltage and my IAT Sensor is High input. I am going to put new sensors in tomarrow and flush my tranny.

Thank you "Thinknology" and "ToyoMatt" for the help.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's what we're here for

*I got that warm fuzzy feeling*

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Lucid_Nightmare &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My engine light came on again, enigne wanted to stall and popping noises came out my exaust. I had the OBD scanned and got two codes. According to it my O2 Bank 1 Sensor 1 is low voltage and my IAT Sensor is High input. I am going to put new sensors in tomarrow and flush my tranny.

Thank you "Thinknology" and "ToyoMatt" for the help.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Let us know what color the old fluid is, if you can salvage a view of it. Even better, would be some photos, but I can understand if you don't want your camera covered in transmission fluid.

 

Well I replaced the O2 and IAT sensors today. The car runs smoother now. There was still a problem with accleration so I took it to a shop. A tech put an ECU scanner's connector under a plastic panel near my shifter and showed no codes. They had the transmission specialist drive it, he said it's the engine, not the transmission. They have the engine specialist drive it, he said it was fuel related. Probobly my pump, filter, and/or sock. They said the were going to check my fuel pressure, sent me inside for 15 mins. Called me out saying they found the problem. Had the ECU scanner hooked up in the same spot as before and said that my ECU is fried. The scanner showed I had no RPM, fuel or oil pressure, no mph, and my engine was -64 degrees, and that was why my car dident act right. Doubtful, I made and excuse and left. After leaveing I looked where they connected the ecu scanner, there was no plug there for it to connect, the ecu plug was further up, near the stearing wheel. They were trying to rip me off.

I have a feeling it is my fuel pump. The car takes like 5 times longer than normal to start now and engine lacks power. When power is turned on the pump makes a loud humming sound that I never heard before. I am going to buy a new pump, drop my tank, clean it, put in a new filter and sock, and install the new pump tomarrow. I hope that is the problem.

I hope this will cause the ordel to end, but just incase any idea's of what may be causeing the problem are still greatly accepted.

P.S. The transmission oil I havent flushed, but it is a clear clean red-pinkish color and has no burnt smell. Seems alright. Will eventuall flush tranny. Tranny is confirmed to not be slipping.

 

i would replace the fuel filter before the fuel pump. can't hurt and its cheaper, so you'll save yourself some money if that's what the problem was.

 

wow... umm.... wow... have you tried the fuel injector cleaner and such... I know it a long shot but for me it'd be worth it than tearing apart my fuel tank...

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rick1574 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i would replace the fuel filter before the fuel pump. can't hurt and its cheaper, so you'll save yourself some money if that's what the problem was. </TD></TR></TABLE>

.. your fuel filter and pump are inside the tank... might as well replace them at the same time... I wouldn't want to tear apart the tank twice... personally...

 

sounds like you have some serious drivability issues. IAT rarely go bad, high voltage codes normally come on when they are unplugged. Your intake has an IAT port? i know sometimes people get intakes and the wire wont reach, so they just leave it out or unplugged. If your primary o2 sensor was bad, it was probably fouled, which means the car was probably running rich. A car that runs too rich will show signs much like youre describing, like lack of power. Sometimes you'll have similar issues with fuel delivery, but if you had the fuel pressure tested and it's ok, I suppose the problem could be something more like a clogged catalytic converter.

if your IAT was reading cold all the time, the computer would try to compensate by adding more fuel to the dense air thus making the car run rich, frying the cat and killing the primary o2 sensor. It doesnt sound like you have a trans issue to me, nor do i think youll need a new fuel pump/filter if you have adequate pressure. Id suggest taking it to another shop, and ask them to hook up a scanner and tell you what the computers' sensor inputs are reading. They have to make sense. If you had a bad sensor long enough, the computer could get all wacked out. If your IAT was indeed reading -64 degrees, and your engine coolant was at 200+ the computer is gonna have a hard time figuring out who is telling the truth. Shooting parts at your car is going to be more expensive than diagnosing the actual problem IMO..and to add to the list of issues that could possibly be the problem, you might have the ever famous faulty cam angle sensor. If it's going bad, but not quite there yet, this could be causing your slower starting because it's taking the computer longer to figure out where the motor is at TDC compression stroke. Sorry i cant give you a straight answer, but there is only so much i can think off based only on symtoms.


Modified by skipbarber at 8:28 AM 9/26/2007

 

Where did he say that he has good fuel pressure??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Lucid_Nightmare &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">They said the were going to check my fuel pressure, sent me inside for 15 mins. Called me out saying they found the problem.</TD></TR></TABLE>
i assumed they checked his pressure and found it to be ok and that the ECU was the culprit. But i suppose if that place was questionable to begin with, a fuel pressure test wouldnt be out of question. But id still perform or have someone perform this test before i went out and replaced half of the fuel sending unit.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by skipbarber &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
i assumed they checked his pressure and found it to be ok and that the ECU was the culprit. But i suppose if that place was questionable to begin with, a fuel pressure test wouldnt be out of question. But id still perform or have someone perform this test before i went out and replaced half of the fuel sending unit.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Definitely

 

The scan on my ECU the shop did was false. They dident even have the scanner hooked up to anything, just tucked under plastic "looking" like it was pluged in. They dident bother testing my fuel pressure like they said they were going to. They were just trying to rip me off.

By the way, I found and fixed the problem. It was my fuel pump. The connecting arm to the pump and mount were broken and it was slinging around in my tank by it's wires. I'm guessing it hit the side of the tank to hard because the fuel regulator had broken off also and was bearly on the pump. I bought a new pump, took out the tank and cleaned it. It had two springs and some plastic peices from the old pump in it. Then installed the new pump, filled it with gas, and now it runs better than it did when I bought it.

Thank god it was nothing too serious, like my tranny. Thank you all for your help. You guys are great. I could never find help like this on Edmunds.

Take care.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Lucid_Nightmare &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The scan on my ECU the shop did was false. They dident even have the scanner hooked up to anything, just tucked under plastic "looking" like it was pluged in. They dident bother testing my fuel pressure like they said they were going to. They were just trying to rip me off.

By the way, I found and fixed the problem. It was my fuel pump. The connecting arm to the pump and mount were broken and it was slinging around in my tank by it's wires. I'm guessing it hit the side of the tank to hard because the fuel regulator had broken off also and was bearly on the pump. I bought a new pump, took out the tank and cleaned it. It had two springs and some plastic peices from the old pump in it. Then installed the new pump, filled it with gas, and now it runs better than it did when I bought it.

Thank god it was nothing too serious, like my tranny. Thank you all for your help. You guys are great. I could never find help like this on Edmunds.

Take care.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wow, quite the problem indeed. I wonder if that is an issue that could become more common. I may want to start doing some investigation.

 

I believe I bought the car with the pump damaged like that and over time it hitting the side of the tank caused the fuel regulator to come loose. Note the car was hit in the front left and had the frame bent back into position. The crash could have been the reason the pump broke like that. Thought that bit of info would help you in your investigation ToyoMatt.

Take care.

 

Awesome I'm glad you got it fixed....

I don't mean to gloat guys but...<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thinknology &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Anyways, initially I was thinking fuel system... and if your hearing the pump that may be your problem because... </TD></TR></TABLE>

YESSSS!!! I FEEL SUPPPPPPEEER!!!!

E-MECHANICS FTW!!!!!!!

(just let me enjoy it I don't get to feel smart very often )

 

^^^ Hahahaha....