Hi there honda tech, I drive a 2000 Civic EX with 163k on the stock motor. I swear the motor has its days. Some days the car will accelerate faster and the gas pedal needs to be pushed lightly to get this car moving quickly, it just flys.

Then most of the time the car feels like its weighed down, gas pedal feels heavy and you have to push it to get it accelerating.

Why is this? The car seems to perform better when it's cold outside.

I've replaced the spark plugs, spark wires, distributor cap, rotor, ignition coil, PCV Valve, fuel and air filter. Do oil changes at 3k, even done the valve adjustment

I know this is not a performance car but if it can perform like it does those days I can't see why it can all the time

 

My old DX(w/350,000km's) did that for a while it did go away after a month or so. I don't have tech answer for you but i know this feeling all to well you let it warm up adaquitly right ?

 

Cold air is denser. Natural boost.

 

Check your tps, might be going bad. Timing adjustment? Gap plugs, too, don't trust the "pre-gap"

 

Is your fuel economy hurting at all?

 

Honestly I don't let it sit and warm up like I probably should. I never Gapped the plugs, I'll try that tomorrow and see what happens. I don't believe that gas mileage is affected, I get about 24 MPG since I do a lot of city driving, I get about 30 when I drive highway. I'm pretty sure that's normal.

 

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record on the forum, but check to make sure your catalytic coverter and PCV valve/hoses aren't plugged.


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No you shouldn't. Not recommended by Honda at all.
Still kinda waiting for a real tech issue to be described here. Other than your feeling, which cannot be troubleshot, you've given us nothing to go on.

 

I think this qualifies as a "tech question". There's a technical issue here, which he is having trouble determining what it is. That's a tech question. It's not like most of the other questions like "what's the best intake for my car?"

 

Then give us something to go on other than a feeling. Is it throwing codes? Anything?

 

grumblemarc if only I knew the what the issue was, It's not throwing codes, the CEL light works and i have an OBD2 Reader which i have scanned and found nothing.

I figure it may be the Catalytic Converter possibly being clogged. Doesn't seem to rattle or anything when i tap it, but maybe ill try taking it off and driving without it to see if it changes anything

 

Did you check tps yet and see if the voltage readings are good?

 

Hey so i just took off the valve cover because i noticed a leakage coming from the gasket. When i took it off i noticed the gasket had silver silicon on it. So my question is do i really need to put silicon on it or will the new gasket do just fine.

 

Hey threadjacker

 

Yes its unfortunate, that the site wint let me start my own threads.

 

run it with no gasket at all.

 

so your saying to only use the silicon

 

 

Thanks for the inspiration

 

X2

 

Just Gapped the plugs today, didn't make a difference unfortunately. next on the list is testing the TPS, going to fetch a multimeter today and see if its out of whack.

 

How did the plugs look? Having the plugs out is a good opportunity to analyze issues with your engine. Should have done a compression test at the same time.

 

x2 on the compression test can tell you a lot leakdown also if needed

 

I did a compression test like 2 months ago, these were the results

Cyl 1 160
Cyl 2 150
Cyl 3 155
Cyl 4 160

Plugs were grayish whitish, which I understand is normal for the plugs I have which are NGK

 

Did the TPS Voltage test, Closed 0.51 Open 4.58 I believe its still in spec, but not sure since im a newbie to all this stuff and this was the first time using a multimeter.