Jacked up power band?

[reichbc]

Looked through the forum's threads and found nothing similiar to my problem.

About a couple weeks ago, I noticed that my car started doing something odd with the way it gets up and goes.
When I first came back to California, this problem was not existent...

99 Civic Si

Here's a description of what it does.... When I'm sitting idle and I shift to first and start going, the car feels a little sluggish to start. When i hit 3000rpms, it's like a stage of VTEC; all of a sudden it just gets up and goes. It's more dramatic through the rest of the gears, especially 2nd and 3rd. Sluggish under 3 grand, but as soon as it hits, it's full power.

VTEC still engages properly at 5400. I've looked as hard as I can - someone mentioned clogged up fuel injectors but I had the feeling that it wouldn't cause this dramatic of an effect.

Any ideas, tech gurus?

 

[joe1231]

im no mechanic but the fuel injectors bieng clogged sounds somewhat right. when the car is in idle theres not alot of fuel pressure. so ur injjectors bieng clogged makes it feel sluggish. once the engine revs more and demands more fuel pressure the prussure of the fuel uncloggs the injectors. i mean like i said im no mechanic. whats the worst u can do put a bottle of fuel injector cleaner and see if it does anything. also got to check up on ur fuel filter. jst throwing out guesses here.
good luck hope you find a solution

 

[SleepingSol]

when is the last time you changed the spark plugs?

 

[reichbc]

I've got a tune up planned for next week - just gotta gather up the dough and the parts. Thanks for the spark plug recommendation - that one passed me up completely.

 

[reichbc]

Thanks to SleepingSol for the spark plug thought. I found where my lack of power was.

The spark plug wire inside the cap had been sucked up into the connector and wasn't contacting the spark plug. Replaced the plugs and fixed that issue (planning new wires and connectors).

Thank you all for the suggestions!

 

[XpL0d3r]

check O2 sensors, I had an issue like this and it drove me crazy....

car would be VERY sluggish under 3k, but once I hit that, she opened right up fine. My only thought as to why this happens is because the car relies less on the o2 sensors higher up on the power band, the computer's basemap takes over. Kind of like running open loop tuning.

But yeah, check our your O2 sensors, wouldn't hurt to find a buddy who has a civic and swap his known good sensors in to see.