Hi guys,

My brother in law sold me his 2000 Honda Civic EX for about $4,000. I thought it was a great deal. It only had 96,000 miles . . . and hondas are supposed to last forever, right?

Well it ran great for a little while. Since then Ive been bugged by poor fuel economy, poor performance and a pesky check engine light. Went to auto zone, and ran a diagnostic, and its a misfiring cylinder 2.

So I did some research and decided a good place to start was to change the spark plugs. Changed the plugs and after a few driving cycles the check engine light went off, on its own. About a day later the symptoms are back and the check engine light is back. Ran another diagnostic and we're still looking at a misfiring cylinder 2.

Now the wires are still factory, so Im probably going to replace them next, but I hear that it could be the fuel injector as well. Any info on this? How can I tell if its the fuel injector ( a much more expensive fix ) ?

 

injectors are $5 from the junk yard.
take yours off (after relieiving fuel pressure) and clean the injectors with seafoam or some cleaner
are the plug wires definetly all the way on...they can slip off
try a new rotor in the dizzy as well ($10)

 

OK, so Ive done some stuff here.

I changed out all the plugs. Waited a few driving cycles for the engine light to reset itself and it eventually does. Drives great and no check engine light for a few days. But then it comes back on.

Diagnostic says: Misfire cylinder 2.

OK, so the car has 96,000 miles and still has the factory plug wires. So I figure thats the next step. I go ahead and replace all the plug wires. Wait a few driving cycles and it goes off. I think Ive resolved the issue. This time the check engine light stays off for like a week or two. But then it comes back again.

Diagnostic says: Misfire cylinder 2.

So this time I just let it ride out, the car is performing fine, it fires up fine, appears to be doing OK. The light goes off a few times and then comes back on again a few times. Im not sure what to think at this point.

So my question is where do I go from here? Do I follow the ignition path and replace the distributor cap and rotor?

Do I look into getting the fuel injector tested?

Should I take a look at the O2 sensor?

The thing is that the car drives OK like it is. Sometimes it drags a bit but nothing major. I even threw in a bottle of fuel injector cleaner to see if maybe I was gunked up. But no go. Ideas?

 

At least take the cap off and take a gander. Examine how the specific node for cylinder 2 looks (does it look any different (ex. corrosion) than the other nodes?) I would change out the cap and rotor just so you can ignore it while diagnosing...

 

Yeah, it seems like the cheapest easiest way to go from here too.