When a light turned green & I let the clutch out the car out of nowhere began to cough sputter and buck. My check engine light came on. I managed to get into high gear where it seemed to be ok after much sputtering, since I committed to a highway entrance ramp in heavy traffic. But when I needed to slow down the idle stayed at 2000RPM and I lost all power in 1 and 2nd gear.

I took it to my mechanics shop. Air filter looked fine and so did the plugs. He shrugged. When I turned the car off and restarted it, everything was reset and it ran fine till about 8 miles later when I took a corner and downshifted into 2nd gear the same thing happened, exactly. Sputtering, bucking, loss of power and check engine light. I pulled over and turned off the car. Waited. Started it and was able to drive normal again, at least to get home.

Whats going on?

1990 Civic LX 215,00miles.

 

what caused the CEL

 

Whats a "CEL"?

 

Check engine light.
Pull back your passanger side carpet and, with the key in, count the blinks that the LED on the ECU blinks.

Sounds to me like your ignitor is on it's way out. Guessing at this point until you let us know what the CEL is for.

 

The problem is when I turn off the car the CEL (I finally found out what CEL is) goes out. Will I be able to see blinks after the car is shutoff?

 

Yes, your ecu will store them until you reset it or unplug you battery.

 

Where exactly is the ECU on a 1990 Civic LX? What does it look like? Im not sure what Im looking for... Sorry Im such a newbie

 

This car has the carpet removed and has some extra electronics.

The ECU is in the passenger side footwell.
It is underneath the brassy looking plate of metal, however you don't have to remove the plate.
There is a hole in the plate so you can view the LED on the ECU.

 

OK I found the ECM light. It does nothing. It's not flashing. I put the key in the ignition and also tried it with the key on (not starting the car).
No flashing light.

 

Drive the car until it comes on again.
Pull over and count flashes.

 

The flash sequence is usually one set of blinks followed by a second set. I believe it designates the first digit then the second digit of the trouble code. So if you see 3 flashes followed by four flashes, you have a code 34. (this is just an example not a real code)

 

USDM OBD0 is count the consecutive blinks.
Code 34 would be 34 consecutive blinks.

different codes have a pause between them like
111 111111 111111111 would be codes 3, 6, and 9


A couple non-USDM ECUs do the long flash=10 and short flashes=1~9

All OBD1 ECUs do the long+short

 

Driven today, no incidents yet... Im afraid to drive too far...
But Im sure it will happen again...

 

That's right i forgot it's like my old EF not my teg. thanks.