This is the wife's car. We're looking for SUVs, and I think the Civic knows it and is pissed.

1998 Civic LX 4-door
Automatic
43k miles

Plugs, wires, cap + rotor are about 3k old, and generic.

It started this past saturday out of the blue. It was about 60 degrees, no rain, and we got out of the bar around 1am. Hop in the car, start it up, and put it in drive (SHE did, I couldn't spell the word drive at that point). It shudders and shakes like a ****. Give it some gas and it's ok. I finally got to drive it around tonight to diagnose and these are the symptoms:

Only happens at low RPMs. Say, under 1500. If you start it up and it's in park, it's perfectly fine. Put it in reverse or drive and hit the gas softly and it'll sputter and choke and it has stalled several times. Once you give it some gas it'll go just fine...I took it on the highway, the backroads, it's all fine. Just when you slow down for a corner or a stoplight, it'll sputter and cough. I went to the Honda dealership tonight for a fuel filter and asked about injectors, and the svc manager said he can almost assure me that it's not those, not at 43k miles on a stock AT Civic. The check engine light has not come on.

I don't have many ideas...I'm going to check the cap and rotor I replaced to make sure those are tight and that the screw didn't back out...but what else could it be? O2 sensor? I'm also gonna take out a couple plugs and make sure those are OK...

Thanks in advance.


Modified by SlalomHonda at 11:28 PM 8/16/2004

 

is the check engine light on? see what codes its throwing if its on

 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. The check engine light is NOT on. **** I wish it would throw a code so I'd have a better idea...and we have an extended warranty on it but if I bring it in and it's not covered I'm gonna be pissed...

 

take it to a parts store and have them test the battery and the alternator.

 

Thanks, I'll do that after work today.

I also forgot to mention I added some drygas and chevron with techron last night...neither seemed to have an effect.

 

OK, I changed the fuel filter last night, and it didn't have any effect. I took the car out for a little drive and I filled up the gas tank with 93 octane. About five miles later, it ran pretty good. Later on last night we went to drive it to the mechanic because I won't have any more time this week, and it didn't sputter or stall once. Maybe a bad tank of gas? Maybe the higher octane is temporarily fixing whatever the problem was? Maybe it'll come back once we put 87 in the next time around?