When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
First post on here forgive me if this is in the wrong section.
The car is a 98 civic ex so d16y8
Only have had this car for about a month. The car had a new dizzy when i bought it. New wires as well. The car was having idle issues, it would randomly die mainly when coming to a stoplight and sitting for a minute. After a couple cranks it would start up and drive fine. The other day cel came on and it was for the iac valve. Car was running and driving just a bit boggy.
Today while driving it died again whilst coming to a light, got it started it and the car seemed like it had a total loss of power, full throttle and car was going 20 m.p.h, wouldn't rev past 3k. The problem has gotten worse now the car will start drive for maybe a 100 yards and the best way to describe it is the car burps and will barley move goes about 5mph.
Took spark plugs out they were extremely black, changed plugs and no change, sprayed some carb cleaner in the tb, no change. This car is currently about 10 minutes from my house so i really just want to get it home and not do a crazy amount of work infront of some random dudes house. Any thoughts, would a bad iac valve be causing all these issues? Main relay perhaps? Fuel pump issues? Bought a fuel filter for lulz haven't changed that yet.
Any help is appreciated i just dont want to throw parts at a 1500$ car.
Post pictures of spark plugs in a 1-4 cylinder order. Take a look at the dizzy rotor. Bench test the ignition coil.Then go from there..
Don't think a bad IACV would cause it to suddenly die even if it popped a code, take the IACV off and clean it with simple green. Main relay causes a intermittent no start. Ignition coil usually heats up and causes the car to die while driving,
Minor update. I got the car home last night limping at idle wouldnt really go past the idle speed. Went to the junkyard today pulled off an iac valve from another y8 cleaned it out, removed old one. I broke a bolt on the tb in the process not sure if the one broken bolt would cause an issue. Replaced main relay as well from same junkyard car.
Just installed new fuel filter, tested plugs and wires. Getting spark to all cylinders, spark seems a bit weak perhaps. Caris barley turning over now and wll on stay if constant gas is applied.
On the way limping home last night the cel came back on, i wasnt thinking and cleared them, but it was bank 1 02 sensor which im assuming is just do to it running extremly rich, and a gear select sensor or something along those lines.
Also im very confused about the dizzy for this car ive seen differnt kinds on y8's and im not 100% sure which is the correct one, mind you this car drove fine with the current dizzy for over a month. The current one is shown in picture
do you have an aftermarket intake installed? Or if you took off the intake before working on the IACV, make sure everything is plugged back in and correctly done so.
Stock intake everything is plugged in, after taking the iat sensor off and cleaning it a bit it starts and idles great but when you give it gas it won't rev past 2k. Going to grab some iat sensors tomorrow the junkyard by my house has about 20 eks there.
That's cool, make sure you find some EJ's instead. Since you have it back home, start with the basics and see what you get. Check timing and compression test it.
Also, you never mentioned if you fixed the broken bolt issue for the IACV or was it the Throttle Body? Either way it would be a vacuum leak I believe and will also need to be fixed.
Update: went to the junkyard found a fuel pump in great shape alot better than the old one after pulling it out, grabbed two iat sensors with the same map settings. Fuse 15 was not blown. Checked timing with timing gun it was fine, in the process of checking mechanical timing now. But the car still starts and idles great, as soon as you give it gas it bogs and wont rev past 2-3k. The last thing i can think of after i check the timing would be to replace the distributor, could a bad dizzy be causing all of these issues? I'm just getting frustrated throwing parts and just treating symptoms instead of the root cause.
Edit: i did not fix the broken bolt on the throttle body, but i really dont think 1 broken bolt could be causing this. It was doing the same thing when all the bolts were intact, who knows i could be wrong about that though.
Buy/borrow/rent a timing light, and check your timing. Buy/borrow/rent a fuel pressure gauge, and check your fuel pressure. Exactly what color is the spark?
You don't need to throw parts at it, you need to properly diagnose it.
Mechanical timing != ignition timing. Don't ignore advice given - the only result of that will be a locked thread.
First off, stop putting Autolite plugs in your car. They're ****. Your car deserves the respect of spending an extra $5 on spark plugs. Second off, answer the three questions I posed in my last post.
This. Your cat was clogged because your engine is running like ****. You're treating the symptom, and not the cause. I wouldn't call your car "fixed" quite yet.