Civic with a problem, any advice?

[tomp]

Can some one please give me some guidance, advise , and or some suggestions on how to repair my car, and what may caused the breakdown in the first place.

I purchased a 1991 Honda Civic Lx, automatic trans, with 65,000 original , mint condition.
The other night, driving home from work, i drove it about 3 miles and i was just about to get on the highway, the check engine light comes on, and the car starts to sputter, and won't run over 1,000 rpm's.
The car would still idle, but i could barely move it, when the smoke starting to come out from underneath. I got out, opened the hood, and noticed the cat converter was BRIGHT ORANGE/RED.
After i let it cool down, the car would pretty much start right up, the check engine light would stay on, and i could only rev it to still around 1,000 rpms.

Has anyone ever been a party to some thing like this, and if so, could you give me some kind of assurance that i did not do anything major in terms of $$$$.
Kind of on a budget. Thank you.!!!

 

[2slo4u]

car is probably running really rich and cat is probably starting to get plugged up

 

[tomp]

In reply,

car is probably running really rich and cat is probably starting to get plugged up

This is the first Honda i have ever owned, and the first time i have owned a car that actually has a Check Engine light, so bear with me.

So a clogged cat does not really give much of a warning when it is gonna go?
Like i said, i drove the car a few miles, with no indication that in 5 minutes, the car would be pretty much immobile.

The weird part, is that when I start it now, it sounds fine, until i try to rev the engine anything greater than 1,000 rpm's.

 

[2slo4u]

im gonna say after 1000 prm your injectors are spitting out too much fuel
if you can, take the car to an autozone or a shop that can check out the code for you

 

[tomp]

im gonna say after 1000 prm your injectors are spitting out too much fuel
if you can, take the car to an autozone or a shop that can check out the code for you

Auto zone is a half mile , and shop down the street is about 100 yards away.
In the current condition, it would take me about 2 hours to get to the zone, and 10 minutes to get to the shop.
Just hope he has the diagnostic stuff to diagnose the problem.
Thank you so much for the quick reply. I am worried the most that i did major , serious damage, to this car, which is in amazing condition for a 20 year old.

I guess i will just wait and see what the damages are, on tuesday.

 

[Hendo]

If your cat is glowing it's probably plugged.

 

[Hendo]

And a bad o2 sensor made my car run really rich, it would fart sparks on the freeway.

 

[tomp]

If your cat is glowing it's probably plugged.

And that would make the car pretty much immobile? I am asking, not familliar with a check engine light problem.

 

[joeshmo]

And that would make the car pretty much immobile? I am asking, not familliar with a check engine light problem.

If the cat is plugged, the engine will bog or just become unable to run normally. Your symptoms describe a plugged catalytic converter. The engine will only be able to push so much exhaust gas out of the engine and the remaining backpressure chokes the engine which will prevent you from revving. It idles fine because the ammount of exhaust generated at idle must be small enough to pass through the cat with no problems. I'm not familiar with the earlier systems but the CEL may be caused by the downstream O2 sensor getting a bad reading due to the plugged cat.

 

[DoubleJ]

did the engine temp get high when this happened? have you checked the code? checked the plugs for wet gas or heavy carbon? taken the cat off and driven it to see if it still does it?

If the plugs are wet after you let it idle for a few minutes, it could be fuel supply related (regulator or one or more injectors)
If they are carbon fouled then id clean them and take the cat off. Let it warm up and drive it to see if your problem occurs again. Of course if you take it off and the insides look fused together then you might ought to get a new one.
You should also check for weak spark while you have the plugs out. :-)

 

[tomp]

did the engine temp get high when this happened? have you checked the code? checked the plugs for wet gas or heavy carbon? taken the cat off and driven it to see if it still does it?

If the plugs are wet after you let it idle for a few minutes, it could be fuel supply related (regulator or one or more injectors)
If they are carbon fouled then id clean them and take the cat off. Let it warm up and drive it to see if your problem occurs again. Of course if you take it off and the insides look fused together then you might ought to get a new one.
You should also check for weak spark while you have the plugs out. :-)

Let's see where should i start, engine temp was normal, no over heating whatsoever.
I did not check any codes
Have not checked plugs for wetness, but if the idle was nice and smooth, i don't think plugs are the problem, since i would most likely hear a missing sound. Maybe i am wrong, but i remember what a car sounds like with a bad or non firing plug. The Civic did not sound like that, at all.
I have no tools that would help me in removing a cat from this car. I need a place with a lift, probably a couple of hammers, and some torches.
If i can get rid of the cat and just put a straight pipe, from manifold to muffler, that may solve the problem. I live in Florida, the land of no vehicle inspections, so i don't worry about that.
As soon as is starts, for a few seconds it sounds normal, until that check engine light appears around 2 or 3 seconds later, then it become impossible to get it to rev up over 1,000 rpms.

 

[joeshmo]

Let's see where should i start, engine temp was normal, no over heating whatsoever.
I did not check any codes
Have not checked plugs for wetness, but if the idle was nice and smooth, i don't think plugs are the problem, since i would most likely hear a missing sound. Maybe i am wrong, but i remember what a car sounds like with a bad or non firing plug. The Civic did not sound like that, at all.
I have no tools that would help me in removing a cat from this car. I need a place with a lift, probably a couple of hammers, and some torches.
If i can get rid of the cat and just put a straight pipe, from manifold to muffler, that may solve the problem. I live in Florida, the land of no vehicle inspections, so i don't worry about that.
As soon as is starts, for a few seconds it sounds normal, until that check engine light appears around 2 or 3 seconds later, then it become impossible to get it to rev up over 1,000 rpms.

I've heard of people actually drilling holes in the catalytic converter to diagnose a clogged cat (which is exactly what this sounds like to me.)
Cats go bad over time as the internal platinum honeycomb breaks up. You could always try whacking the cat with a hammer but I doubt it'll help.

Check the exhaust stream while someone revs it. See what happens.

 

[tomp]

I've heard of people actually drilling holes in the catalytic converter to diagnose a clogged cat (which is exactly what this sounds like to me.)
Cats go bad over time as the internal platinum honeycomb breaks up. You could always try whacking the cat with a hammer but I doubt it'll help.

Check the exhaust stream while someone revs it. See what happens.

Purrs nicely as long as i do not touch the gas pedal. Cannot really do anything close to revving it, it just boggs down.
Did not notice any type of white or black smoke coming out of the tail pipe.

 

[joeshmo]

Did you check the code yet? My bet is still on a plugged cat. Did you try whacking on the cat with a pipe/stick a few times and see if it changes at all?

 

[tomp]

Did you check the code yet? My bet is still on a plugged cat. Did you try whacking on the cat with a pipe/stick a few times and see if it changes at all?

NO, since it is very wet and DARK outside at the moment. I will try that procedure at 1st light. I just hope the car has enough power to make it up my set of car ramps.
Or i can just check the codes 1st, and see what the heck they are telling me.
I have the Haynes manual, so i will follow their instructions step by step.
I just need daylight and some dry ground.

 

[joeshmo]

NO, since it is very wet and DARK outside at the moment. I will try that procedure at 1st light. I just hope the car has enough power to make it up my set of car ramps.
Or i can just check the codes 1st, and see what the heck they are telling me.
I have the Haynes manual, so i will follow their instructions step by step.
I just need daylight and some dry ground.

Check codes first. I doubt the car will have the power to make it up the ramps. I had a problem that caused my engine to be as weak as a lawn-mower so I jacked the car onto my ramps to perform some maintenance.

I bet your code will be a bad o2 code.