I have a honda civic 95 that stalls randomly when driving it.

The first time it happened, i was cruising down the freeway, going around 65mph in 5th gear. The car stalled and the check engine light came on. The car seemed as if it was in lower power mode. When i stepped on the gas, the car wouldnt accelerate but it just gave this really muffled sound. It sounded almost like if i was to put the car in first gear, activate the hand brake and tried to get the car moving. But like bogging. Kinda hard to explain.
So- the car wouldnt accelerate and it didnt die either. I used momentum to get car over to the shoulder lane, I turned the car off, waited couple seconds then started the car up. It started on first turn of key, CEL had disappeared and the car was able to accelerate normally again. I got through all the gears without incident until i reached 5th gear. The same thing happened with the stalling and CEL came on. This time i was in 5th gear for maybe only 10seconds when it happened. The first time it happened - i was in 5th gear for about 2 miles(i had just got on the road to go to work so im assuming its because the car wasnt warmed up?).

I pulled over, turned car off and tried turning it on right after. It started right up and the CEL had turned off again. Tried advancing again only to have same thing happen a qrtr mile down the road while in 5th gear. So i decided to pull off freeway. I let the car rest for about 15mins, then decided to go home. On my way home- i decided i would drive at a slower speed and stay out of 5th gear. I made it home that night traveling at top speed of 50 and didnt have any issues with stalling or the CEL coming on.

A friend told me to check error code by using paper clip method. The code gave me tps error. So i ordered a new one and replaced it. The car ran good without stalling for maybe 2trips to and from work(12miles each way).

After this- The car sat in driveway for bout a half year until i towed it to my friends house. He was pretty sure that it was the tps and maybe i installed it wrong. He checked the power going into tps and ruled that out. He checked ecu and ruled that out. When he checked the tps, he said somehow- the tps that was sold to me (from autozone) was for a Acura. So he bought a replacement and installed it. When he was done with car- I drove home without any stalling problems. It was probably 30mile drive. Car sat until the following night. When i got onto freeway and making my way through the gears- the car stalled and CEL came on when i was in 4th gear. I pulled over- turn car off and then on. It started first shot and I turned back for home. I avoided freeway so i could drive at slower speed. Made it home without stalling at much lower speeds. Couple months went by and the car just sat in driveway until my wife decided she would drive the car into work because her car was in shop. She braved it because she thought that in the case the car would stall on her- she would be able to pull of to the side of road, restart the car and continue on to work. She made sure to give herself extra time to get to work just incase that was what happened. She made it to work without the car stalling at all(about 12miles). On the way home from work- the car stalled even before she left the parking garage. Then again only a few blocks down the city street. Both times she was able to start the car right up and continue on her way. However, when she got onto the onramp to leave the city, it stalled on her again but she could not start the car right away. She said it took about 2mins to get the car to start all the while cars blowing their horns at her. After starting it, the car stalled again less then a qrtr mile down the road. Another long time trying to start the car up. When she got it to start, she got off the freeway and the car survived the rest of the trip home using the back roads.

I took the car out for a neighbor hood drive around the blocks, it stalled on me 3times and the 3rd time- the car did not start right away. Same friend- now thinks it coulde be distributor. I had people tell me its the relay and some say its the ecu. Any ideas or similar issues that was fixed?

 

So I had a similar issue and it turned out to be the ECU did your friend remove the ECU and inspect the resistors for signs of leaking?

 

he did not remove the ecu but he said he did test it and he claimed it was working properly. Not sure what tests’ he performed.

 

You need to drive it and duplicate the issue and without turning off the ignition check the codes. OBD1 ECU's do not really have a memory storage so some temporary data is erased when the ignition is turned off.

 

hmm. Thats a great idea.