Car 96 civic hatch dx. Only mods are a cheap short ram and tonaka catback.

A little back story. Car started running rough and missing terribly back at the end of december. I was able to drive it home (barely) and didnt get to touch it for a week or so. My friend scanned the codes and it was throwing misfires everywhere. Just out of curiousity I changed the plugs and cap and rotor. Ran better for my about two mile test drive then started running bad again. Got it home and it died. That was it. We tried starting it with starter fluid to see if the fuel pump went out and it wouldn't do anything. I figured it was the distributor so I decided to change it. Took all the way until today to get to it and once I changed it and got it to start, which it was hard to start for a sec, it ran pretty much just fine. It would still miss some like in fifth gear if you tried to give it more than half throttle, as well as some in other gears. Some it ran just fine full throttle.

Now just a few minutes ago I went to the store and it was running and had that miss/hesitation as soon as I left. It threw the check engine light which flashed for a mile of so then stayed on and the car ran a little better with it just on. Its now staying on and the car is idling rough. It will idle rough and then clear up then go back to rough. Same driving. You can feel it try to run right then go back to rough. The car has as of it first doing this a new fuel filter, plugs, and a whole new distributor. The plug wires are only about a year old and i was planning on doing new plugs and wires this weekend to see if that would help the problems it still had. Ill be getting my buddy to run the code tomorrow too. Im just tired of having this problem and having to borrow my parents other car. Any help is appreciated.

 

Also it appears there is a spot on the bottom back of the distributor for a ground. There wasn't a wirewhen I oulled my old one off but it had the spot. Is there a ground? If so where does it run to?

 

Post all current CEL codes.

What brand plug wires?

 

I'm going to post all cels once I have my buddy scan it tomorrow. I'm unsure of the brand of wires but they came from autozone. I believe I bought the duralast.

 

You don't necessarily need a code reader. You can just jump the service connector and read the codes from the blinking CEL.

Our Civics only run reliably on OEM spark plug wires.

 

I have never done that before. I would look it up and give it a try, but im about to hit the sack for work. Im worried about the spot on the distributor housing that has a littlw metal screw and clip on it. Is a ground or something supposed to go there?

 

http://m.ebay.com/itm/171198852887 Just for reference im talking about the one by the mounts. You can see it in the pics. You probably know that already. That's not the distributor I bought either I ordered one off rockauto

 

Nothing attaches to that screw.

 

Alright cool. Just making sure. I'll have codes up tomorrow

 

Alright we scanned the code and got a Cylinder 2 misfire code. We erased it and swapped the plugs around to check those first. After running it for a few minutes the engine light came back on and its showing, P1381 cylinder position sensor intermittent interuption, now. Just the one code

 

Lunch bump

 

Post the damn codes, how else are we going to respond.

 

P1381 - Cylinder Position Sensor

It's located inside of the distributor. It's either faulty, or the wiring is going bad. I'd suggest inspecting the wires for any damage.

 

My bad i skipped over your other post and only saw the bump post. Yeah that seems to be the culprit, distributor. Check for any loose wires are check for corrosion inside the distributor plug.

 

Will do. Its a new distributor though

 

If it ain't oem you better believe you will have problems.

 

Yea im starting to see that lol.

 

X2... lol.

 

Alright guys problems resolved. Not sure what did it lol. Filled it up with premium 93 octane and some injector cleaner for good measure the other day and the check engine light went off about 60 miles later. Still idled bad and has some misfire under load. Put some oem ngk plugs in and it cleared up pretty much all the way. Just put some ngk plug wires on today as well. Not sure which part or parts helped the most. Just wanted to thank everyone for all the help.