I have a 98 civic ex and I have recently been having misfires that I have been unable to fix. At first my car only misfired a few times then didn't at all for a month or two, and now it does every time. The check engine light is flashing at me, the car makes a rough putting sound when idle and the engine is running louder and not getting as much power. I have replaced the battery, spark plug, spark plug wires, fuel filter, distributor cap and rotor, changed the oil, added antifreeze/coolant, and reset the battery after all of this as well and I am still misfiring. If I have to I will just take it to a mechanic soon but if I don't have to I would prefer not to. Does anyone know what else I could do to fix this problem on my own? Also my car had some oil in one of the spark plug sockets before I changed the spark plugs, but I guess it may have just been a foul spark plug? Also another symptom my car will have is when it is usually only colder outside I hear a rattling noise from under the hood when accelerating in first gear. Thanks for any help.

 

First check and see what cels your throwing

 

Yes X2 on the check the CEL first.

The oil in your spark tube is from a failed valve cover spark plug grommet. (A good excuse to do a valve adjustment since the seals need to be replaced)

Take a long screw driver and place the tip up against your injectors, and the butt firmly into your ear. Listen to each injector and make sure each one is clicking normally. Do this while it's mis-firing.

 

Sounds like it's past all that. Start looking into pricing a replacement engine.

 

You may be right, he should see what's going on with the current motor before planning to replace the motor.

 

Pull the CEL codes (click the CEL sticky at top). Reset the ECU and run engine until CEL turns on again. Pull codes again. Troubleshoot only those codes that repeat.

 

Why does everyone jump to conclusions, cooling problems, oh it's a headgasket, oh it's a misfire new engine time.

I had a misfire it was a 10 dollar plug wire.

Go to parts store and let them pull your code, then come back and post.

 

Obviously you are SUPPOSED to check for simple things and one ASSUMES you have done that PRIOR to posting on a forum. Exploring all options in a thread cannot possibly hurt can it? Enough people will post to cover all scenarios.

 

I agree..but it seems now everyone that posts a tech thread doesnt bother to check anything even their cel codes, they expect us to spoon feed them and tell them exactly what's wrong, when they don't put any effort in on their side

 

Agreed. Start small and work your way up. I only went to the worst case scenario because we just had this issue on the hatch. Rings were gone, headgasket blown and ECU blinking like it had a nervous tick.

In this case most things have been replaced that would qualify as small so codes need to be pulled. You can do it yourself. Don't need to run to the auto parts store. My wife can even pull codes.