A few months back I bought this Honda Civic 4 door as a daily for school. When I bought it; it had a check engine light but it ran fine. I was kinda lazy to check the codes at the time. Now a few weeks ago the car started running bad (sputtering mostly), here I was forced to check the codes and to my surprise I had a long list of codes.

map sensor
idle air control valve
throttle position sensor
random misfire cylinder 3
random misfire cylinder 4
cat converter

The idle doesn't do that annoying idle jump from 1000-1500 rpms every two seconds but it does it slightly and very low. The worst part about this problem is the sputtering while I am driving, its pretty bad.

What should I do first? any similar experiences?

 

What car???

Reset the ECU to see which, if any, of the codes repeat.

 

It is a 2000 Honda Civic ex 4 door automatic sohc vtec stock with about 182k miles. I will try and disconnect the battery now to recheck the codes. I will get back with that. In the meantime any other ideas will be greatly appreciated. Oh and if anyone can please tell me the function of the map sensor??

 

Start by resetting the ECU by removing the hood Back Up fuse for 3 or more minutes. Then drive the car to see whether any codes return. Post back when you have that information.

 

Ron, where can I find the hood back up fuse?

 

Actually I found it right by the firewall the fuse box. the 7.5 fuse I am going to test it right now.

 

I just came back from the drive after having taken out the hood backup fuse. No check engine light at startup I drove for about two miles the car started sputtering once I drove away from my house and sputtered throughout the entire drive. No check engine light ever came back on I even turned off the car and back on an still no CEL

*Note: prior to today.. when the sputtering would get really bad the CEL would start blinking.

 

Inspect/test the spark plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. Also replace the fuel filter.

 

Thanks man, I'll let you know the outcome tomorrow.

 

Here's a thread I made that'll help you out

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/diy-96-00-honda-civic-tune-up-fuel-filter-2872418/

 

The day after I reset the ecu the check engine light came on so I finally had some time to check the codes today and I got

71 random misfire cylinder 1
72 random misfire cylinder 2
73 random misfire cylinder 3
74 random misfire cylinder 4

The other codes didn't come back. Now I really don't know what to do

 

 

Changed out the spark plugs... PROBLEM IS GONE! thanks ron.