1996 Honda Civic Misfire/Stuttering Under Load After Warmed Up

Hello everybody,

A bit of info about the car: It’s a 1996 Honda Civic, has the D16Y7 engine, has 272,xxx KM on it (169,xxx Miles).

The problem: Car starts up well, sometimes the idle will sound a little low, but it has never stalled out on me while idling. If the idle is rough, I give a quick punch on the accelerator and it idles great after that. When I’m taking off from a standstill with the vehicle pointed downhill, there is no misfire/stuttering problem. But when the vehicle is on even a slight grade pointed upward, when I take off from a stand still the vehicle misfires/stutters very badly, misfiring/stuttering also occurs after shifting but seems to only occur below about 2,700 RPM (hard to tell exactly as I don’t have a tach).

It’s like I’m pressing the accelerator but the power’s just not being made by the engine, I say stuttering/misfiring because the feeling it makes is like the same feeling I’d get if I was driving in too low of a gear and about to stall.

The vehicle starts up great, no problems there, always fires up within the first couple of cranks. The vehicle drives like there’s no problems at all while it’s warming up, the problem only shows up after it’s been warmed up, shut off, and then started up again. For example: I could drive the vehicle from home to the grocery store and experience no problems, however, on the drive home the problem begins to show itself.

I’ve done some research and have read it could be anything from spark plugs, distributor cap/rotor, spark plug wires, ignition coil, or a weak/dying battery. I don’t want to just start throwing the whole parts store at it. There’s no CEL or Battery light on the dash.

Spark plugs are 4 years old and have 56,xxx KM (34,xxx Miles) on them
Distributor rotor is 2 years old and has 17,xxx KM (10,xxx Miles) on it
Fuel filter is 1 year old and has 12,xxxx KM on it (7,xxx Miles) on it

Thanks for reading this, any info. is appreciated.