Hello from Santa Cruz, California! Hoping somebody can give me some advice, as I'm running out of ideas.
I've had a reoccurring issue for the last 2 years or so where my Civic will misfire, mostly at idle. I replaced the spark plug wires 1.5 yrs ago and that seems to have solved the problem for about 6 months and then it pulled the O2 sensor code so I replaced it and that seemed to solve the problem for another 10ish months. Well the problem is now back with a vengeance.
Two weeks ago
Starting about 2 weeks ago the car would start up fine for the first 30 seconds and then the misfires would slowly creep in over the next 10-30 seconds. Acceleration hesitates for a second and then 3 or 4 of the cylinders seem to kick in. The worst symptoms are felt at idle. For those two weeks cylinders 1 & 2 were the only culprits (only those 2 cel codes).
I have been driving the car very little, and at low speeds and short trips only. It's pretty much to the point where I can't drive it now though and I do belatedly realize I may have damaged my catalytic converter.
So I swapped the spark plugs and the problem was still contained to cylinders 1 & 2. I also replaced the distributor cap because the carbon piece in the middle of my old one was extremely worn down, but it didn't help at all.
Yesterday
I swapped the fuel injectors and still the problem stayed on cylinders 1 & 2. I also looked at the ignition coil, it had some light coating of white particles on the outside and one of the small bolts with a lead wire on it was rusted and corroded. I cleaned it as best I could.
Today
I now have misfire codes for all four cylinders and the misfires now start immediately rather than before where there was a 30 second delay on startup. The engine will now stall out at low parking lot speeds, only at times when it is going from 0 to 5 miles an hour or 5 miles an hour to 0 miles an hour.
I used an inline spark tester and I'm getting a strong consistent spark on all cylinders.
I just checked the oil today and it was low on oil. I do not believe it is leaking out of the car I think the car is burning oil. It had been many months since I checked the oil level. I added one quart today.
I did a compression test today also. I ran out of time before I could perform a wet test. I forgot to push the accelerator down the first tests that I did. I will perform a wet test tomorrow and post the results.
#1 161 dry test no throttle
#2 163 dry test no throttle
#3 145 dry test no throttle
#4 170 dry test no throttle
#1 155 dry test full throttle (gas pedal to floor)
#2 164 dry test full throttle
#3 100 & 110 dry test full throttle (tested 2x)
#4 179 dry test full throttle
The car has 160,000 miles on it and I generally drive it very very gently. It typically gets between 30 and 35 miles per gallon. The misfires have persisted regardless of how much gas is in the tank. As far as I know everything on the vehicle is stock. And the only other issue that the car has is randomly flickering headlights and instrument panel.
I am not a mechanic and this is my first post on clubcivic so forgive me if I've left out some key information. I'd love to be able to save this vehicle but I am definitely getting out of my depth here! Shoot me some questions if you have any, I can post pictures and I do have a multi-meter as well. Thanks! Brandon
I've had a reoccurring issue for the last 2 years or so where my Civic will misfire, mostly at idle. I replaced the spark plug wires 1.5 yrs ago and that seems to have solved the problem for about 6 months and then it pulled the O2 sensor code so I replaced it and that seemed to solve the problem for another 10ish months. Well the problem is now back with a vengeance.
Two weeks ago
Starting about 2 weeks ago the car would start up fine for the first 30 seconds and then the misfires would slowly creep in over the next 10-30 seconds. Acceleration hesitates for a second and then 3 or 4 of the cylinders seem to kick in. The worst symptoms are felt at idle. For those two weeks cylinders 1 & 2 were the only culprits (only those 2 cel codes).
I have been driving the car very little, and at low speeds and short trips only. It's pretty much to the point where I can't drive it now though and I do belatedly realize I may have damaged my catalytic converter.
So I swapped the spark plugs and the problem was still contained to cylinders 1 & 2. I also replaced the distributor cap because the carbon piece in the middle of my old one was extremely worn down, but it didn't help at all.
Yesterday
I swapped the fuel injectors and still the problem stayed on cylinders 1 & 2. I also looked at the ignition coil, it had some light coating of white particles on the outside and one of the small bolts with a lead wire on it was rusted and corroded. I cleaned it as best I could.
Today
I now have misfire codes for all four cylinders and the misfires now start immediately rather than before where there was a 30 second delay on startup. The engine will now stall out at low parking lot speeds, only at times when it is going from 0 to 5 miles an hour or 5 miles an hour to 0 miles an hour.
I used an inline spark tester and I'm getting a strong consistent spark on all cylinders.
I just checked the oil today and it was low on oil. I do not believe it is leaking out of the car I think the car is burning oil. It had been many months since I checked the oil level. I added one quart today.
I did a compression test today also. I ran out of time before I could perform a wet test. I forgot to push the accelerator down the first tests that I did. I will perform a wet test tomorrow and post the results.
#1 161 dry test no throttle
#2 163 dry test no throttle
#3 145 dry test no throttle
#4 170 dry test no throttle
#1 155 dry test full throttle (gas pedal to floor)
#2 164 dry test full throttle
#3 100 & 110 dry test full throttle (tested 2x)
#4 179 dry test full throttle
The car has 160,000 miles on it and I generally drive it very very gently. It typically gets between 30 and 35 miles per gallon. The misfires have persisted regardless of how much gas is in the tank. As far as I know everything on the vehicle is stock. And the only other issue that the car has is randomly flickering headlights and instrument panel.
I am not a mechanic and this is my first post on clubcivic so forgive me if I've left out some key information. I'd love to be able to save this vehicle but I am definitely getting out of my depth here! Shoot me some questions if you have any, I can post pictures and I do have a multi-meter as well. Thanks! Brandon