Changed my distributor about a month ago 2000 Honda Civic LX d16y7 all stock- no problems. About a week after, it Runs fine- anytime I stop after reaching operating temp, say at a red light I notice about every 10-12 seconds it "hiccups" for lack of a better description. It basically has a slight miss that I can only notice at idle, it may do it during load but I dont notice it, no issue as long as Im moving. It seems to never resolve- every 10 seconds or there abouts until I start on the gas again. It doesn't die - or at least it hasn't but I haven't stopped and idled more then just normal red lights.
I was guessing it needs the timing slightly advanced? I dont have a timing light with me at the moment, but was going to advance it a turn (by rotating the distributor towards the firewall) and see what happens. Then I thought that through and decided I better ask you guys.

 

Advancing your timing is only asking for much deeper problems. It's where you run into detonation problems that can melt pistons, blow ring lands etc etc.

First thing you want to do is inspect your ignition system, spark plugs, spark plug wires, rotor, distributor cap etc.

If you know those are all new then you move onto compression testing to make sure you don't have any major variance in between the cylinders.

And you also look to see if you have oil present in any of the cylinders.

All of these things can cause a miss. I've had a miss in my 95 civic for 2 years or more now due to oil in #4 from bad rings.

You have to find out what exactly is causing the miss then go from there.

 

I *think* the issue was the primary 02 sensor. (no CEL) but today I was going up a hill and I couldn't get the car under full acceleration to get past 65mph and the vehicle was bucking on flat ground. I had a spare that I swapped out to check (after burning my arm on the manifold) and problem solved. ( at least for the meantime ) no drive to confirm just a quick around the block trip.

 

had similar symptoms resolved in both a 91 and 99 accord. neither threw a code, but both were hesitating and bucking badly from a bad primary o2.

 

yea - it was stock, so 200k and 16 years old---probably out of spec enough to malfunction, but not enough to throw the CEL-

ill report back with updates however i feel like its probably the issue

 

150-200 miles later
no issues

definitely was the 02 sensor.

 

An ECU will not normally throw a code unless it receives a signal that is outside of normal parameters for that sensor. So your O2 sensor was most likely giving the ECU a "normal" signal, but it was obviously the wrong signal. That's why its important to replace things like that at normal intervals, even when there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them. O2 sensors get messed up pretty quickly when a car runs too rich or has a miss that lets all that fuel into the exhaust. Glad you got everything figured out.
Gator