Have a '98 Civic LX, all stock with a little less than 130k.

I've just moved to a new house and am leaving one of my vehicles at my old house to make it look more lived in. Left the Honda there this past Saturday and picked it up on Tuesday, so it sat, unused for almost 4 days.

When I picked it up Tuesday, it absolutely would not start and it was making an abnormal sound while turning over. Not the normal turn over rhythm (short and regular), but would drag out some of the revs and go much faster at other times.
Tried starting several times and each time it seemed to get closer and closer to starting. After a few tries it would cough and sputter for a few seconds before dying, then would idle extremely low and choppy for a few seconds longer the next tries.

It finally 'somewhat' started and I was able to feather the gas to get it to stay running. Once it seemed like it would stay on (still idling very rough) I revved it to 4 or 5k RPM and a puff of white smoke came out from under the hood.
Couldn't tell exactly where since I was sitting in the car and the hood was open so my view was blocked, but it seemed to come from the right side of the engine compartment (looking from inside the car). After that it ran fine. The idle seemed a bit high for a few minutes, but it seems to do that after it has not been used for a day or two. Been driving it since then and it's been fine. No issues starting or running.

It has done something like this once before a few years ago....didn't give me that much trouble, but it was very slow to start and was making a very unusual, uneven turn over sound. Took a few tries before it started and was fine after that.

Just curious as to what this could be? It was almost like something was blocked and revving it blew it out (the smoke) and fixed the issue.

Any ideas?

 

BAHAHAHA sorry... i just pictured your civic like coughing a little puff of smoke and then running normally again.


i have no idea what it could be but thanks for teh lulz

 

could be a fuel issue. i'd prob replace the fuel filter and check the fuel pump

the white smoke you saw seems like it popped out of the intake/throttle body and could even be coolant/oil that was pooled up in the intake or combustion chambers from the looks of it. if it started out as long turns then slowly started getting quicker then it might have been trying to compress the water/oil. but just my .02

 

That's pretty much what it did. I wish I could have seen it directly. Like it passed some gas and then felt better.

 

Turn over was just odd. A mixture of long and normal turns...higher pitched too.