My 00 civic ek is having rough starts...

Every 2-3 days, the first start will crank for about 5-6 seconds, then after I get it started, I dont see any problems starting.

Then rarely, once in a blue, Ill get a rough start randomly during the day.

Any ideas what would cause this?

 

Any CEL codes?

How old are the plugs, wires, cap, and rotor?

 

CEL code of the cat converter (been on for about 2 years tho) Its a beater, so Im not putting in a 400+ part... Rest of the exhaust is fine, and pass emissions.

Plugs/wires/cap rotor are at least 2 yrs Id say.

I was thinking it was the battery....
You think tune up?

 

Am I reading this right.....you being riding on the same parts(plugs/wires/cap & rotor) for 2 years without replacment??

If your car have high miles then consider doing a routine maintenance first then check your compression. If compression is low throw in a can of engine restore since you do not want to spend too much $$.

 

Id say theres 15-20k miles on the cap/rotor/wires/plugs...

guess Ill change em this weekend.

 

That's a good idea.

In addition, because your CEL is on chronically from the bad cat, you won't know whether any new CEL codes have appeared recently unless you look. Pull the codes now.

By the way, a clogged cat can also cause a loss of power.

 

You can definitely tell if your cat is clogged.

When you step on your car right do you feel like you have a fat lady in the car like dragging it down and stuff?

Or you can just do a visual check after you drive the car and see if the cat is glowing or not. If it is then you need another cat.

 

Nope- car runs pretty good believe it or not...(cat wise)

Ill pull the codes in a little bit with my handy tester (a piece of speaker wire) lol.

Ill do the tune-up regardless this weekend...plugs/wires/cap/rotor since its been a while, and Ill make up the money regardless in gas money so...

Just curious...why would cap/rotor etc make it hard start just in the morning? I figured it was a dead ringer for the battery because *in my own theory* the battery was going dead at night, then when I wake up and fire it up- it recharges it via the alternator...

:shrugs:
good thing Im not a mechanic I guess...