I have a 2004 civic EX with 222,000 miles on it. I got a new clutch put in about 6 months ago. Since then it has developed a problem that feels like the clutch is slipping when starting in 1st gear or changing to 2nd gear. The front end has some major vibration/bucking. I took it back to the shop that did the work (a great, reputable shop BTW, really good people I trust) and they seem to think its an ignition problem, not the clutch. So they took the plugs & coils out, everything physically looked fine, so they put it back together and the problem went away.

They didn't charge me anything so I took it back home. The next day the problem returned. I replaced the plugs, but that did not help. I'm hesitant to pull the trigger on coils as they are pretty expensive.

I'm still not convinced it isn't the clutch, since it only seems to happen when the clutch is engaging. If its already in gear, the problem doesn't happen. But I'm not sure why this would happen on a fairly new clutch. The car doesn't get driven hard. I should also note that the problem isn't always present. Some days it drives perfectly normal. Any ideas?

 

Check for spark.