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Hello folks,
I have a 1999 2 door honda civic completely stock D16Y8 1.6 liter engine with a total mileage of 124K miles aprox.
Recently I have been experiencing a sudden loss of power while accelerating from a static position or even when accelerating from low speeds. I am having a hard time explaining so please bear with me..
It feels like the fuel feed cuts off and the car goes silent while still rolling, then starts coughing, jerking and stuttering until it goes back to normal. Been happening more frequently as time passes and is also affecting the gas mileage.
These were the first things I went for:
-Replaced Spark plugs (NGK of course)
-Replaced Spark plug cables (NGK of course)
-Replaced Air filter (OEM)
-Replaced Fuel filter (OEM)
-Have been running a whole bottle of injector cleaning additive per each 5 gallons(of the best gasoline available) I put in.*Edit 10/02/2014 – Replacing suspicious parts
-Replaced whole distributor.(OEM)
-Replaced IACV, tried 2 other IACVs from other vehicles. (OEM)
-Replaced fuel pump. (OEM)
-Ran more injector cleaning additives in fuel tank (tried all brands available).
-Checked for air bubbles in cooling system (none found).
-Checked and adjusted timing belt. (as per the mechanic it was slightly loose however not yet ready for replacement, timing belt was adjusted accordingly).*Edit 10/07/2014 – More tests and adjustments
-Power balance test -> passed, same power band drop on all cylinders
-Voltage leak test -> passed, no sparks or audible snaps
-Vacuum leak test (carburetor cleaner) -> passed, no RPM change anywhere
-Ignition and engine timing were slightly off, they were corrected accordingly. All belts still brand new.Any kind of help is greatly appreciated.
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So folks, after a very long weekend at my garage with the mechanic we finally finished putting it all together and fired it up. We put in a new crankshaft, crankshaft pulley, all gaskets, piston rings, bearings..since we were on that we also went ahead and took the cylinder head to the cutter to get it straight, replaced water pump, all the hoses and belts.. Basically the only areas left untouched were the fuel system, ignition, oil pump and transmission.
The engine is as good as new and feels great however…the stuttering/power loss thing is still..well a thing so I will try to live with the issue while my wallet recovers from this 700 dollar hit.
I have pretty much ran out of components to check due to obvious reasons and now with all that behind me, I will have the ignition checked as Eric suggested
Sorry to hear it went that way. I would have recommended replacement. It’s actually often less expensive than trying to rebuild yourself and eliminates the possibility of mistakes during the rebuild. That said, I’m happy to hear things have worked out. I’m surprised that you still have a hesitation problem. Let us know what you find after you check the ignition system out.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Guys I have another question in regards to cooling and normal temperature.
The car also heats up very quickly when running the A/C. Temperature gauge skyrockets in a matter of minutes. I am suspecting the AC radiator fan is not kicking in..we will check that soon.
The thing is, even when running at a normal temperature (temp gauge slightly below the middle, which i believe is the normal temp for Honda D16s) the engine top metal cover gets so hot I cant even touch it. Am I getting a false reading from the gauge when in reality it is actually overheating? [My previous car was a 94 corolla DX and it worked the same way..engine cover way too hot at “normal” temperature] just want to know if Hondas work similarly or if both my old and current cars are giving false negatives when it comes to temp reading.
I am suspecting this is a very elemental question but as you already know, I have just replaced all the gaskets, rings and bearings and cut the cylinder head so I am drop dead paranoic about having to go there again just because I had been misinterpreting the car’s actual behavior.
any ideas?
I wouldn’t read too much into that. Engines are designed to make heat. I don’t think you have any reason to doubt the temperature sensor at this time. Also, the AC will cause the temp to rise quickly because your basically taking the heat from inside the vehicle and placing it in front of the radiator by passing it through the condenser.
[quote=”Tomh” post=107496]Have you scanned the computer to see if there are any codes stored?
Does it stutter at all if you rev it up in neutral without moving it?
You may need to get your hands on a scanner that can show you what is happening in real time, and then take it for a ride, and see what your sensors are doing. On the surface, this sounds to me like the kind of stuff that happens when a sensor is on it’s last legs.[/quote]
Hi Tomh – circling back to your question, it is now stuttering when revving in neutral at a stand still [It did not do that at the begining so i guess its just getting worse]. Though it does not always stutter, I have noticed it tends to do it on cold starts, I believe I may also have idling problems… Not sure whether these symptoms change the overall diagnosis of the issue, I will check the fast idle thermo valve and ignition.
any suggestions?
howdy folks,
I know i haven’t given you guys time to catch up with my previous questions but today I ran into one more problem.
It has been raining almost non stop for the last 3 days and I went through a 3hr traffic jam on heavy rain. I started hearing some kind of belt squealing noise like the ones I hear when belts are wet or slippery so I thought it was nothing serious.The whole trip was almost in a straight line so I barely had to turn the steering wheel. As I was approaching my neighborhood and started taking low speed turns the belt squealing noise got even louder and the wheel also felt as if the power steering was on for a second but then suddenly gone the next second..basically the wheel was feeling normal for a second and then heavy, then normal, heavy..so on and so forth..all that with the belt noise I described above.
Checked the belts when I got home and I noticed that the power steering pump belt is starting to wear down from the right edge, it actually had a whole strip of it tangled in the pulley. Let us remember I am talking about the same belt that was installed brand new about 2 weeks ago. Im trying to determine what factor(s) triggered this problem.
So, was it:
a) The excessive rain and the fact that this car does not have any of the plastic covers at the bottom of the engine bay that are supposed to isolate parts of the engine from this kind of thing…not to mention the car also sitting very very low(coilovers).
b) Poor quality belt [or perhaps one from a bad batch]
c) Improper installation (really hope this is not it)
any ideas?
Given that you had issues with the crank, it could be bent or misaligned causing the belts to wear. If this is the case, you may need a new crankshaft or harmonic balancer. I suppose it might also be an issue with the alignment of the power steering pump. I’ll put it like this. In a situation like yours where you have a highly modified car that’s recently had engine work done, anything is possible. It’s very difficult to provide assistance in these situations because with custom work like that, you’re often on your own. We can offer encouragement and guidance, but you’ll have to get in there and do the investigating to find the cause of these problems.
Good luck.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=109372]Given that you had issues with the crank, it could be bent or misaligned causing the belts to wear. If this is the case, you may need a new crankshaft or harmonic balancer. I suppose it might also be an issue with the alignment of the power steering pump. I’ll put it like this. In a situation like yours where you have a highly modified car that’s recently had engine work done, anything is possible. It’s very difficult to provide assistance in these situations because with custom work like that, you’re often on your own. We can offer encouragement and guidance, but you’ll have to get in there and do the investigating to find the cause of these problems.
Good luck.[/quote]
We discovered that the new belt was actually wider than the pulley, the outer most part of it just disintegrated with the friction. Belt replaced, problem solved
Hello everyone, sorry for the disconnect. I have some updates on the actual issue of stuttering/loss of power.
Bought the distributor (the whole thing). It is not brand new but it is OEM and it tested ok before installing.
THE ISSUE PERSISTS. I have to say that it did not stutter for a good 5 – 6 days but after that, it just went back to it..
I’ve been paying attention lately to how the car reacts at idle and during the whole acceleration and release of gas pedal for gear changing maneuver. I have noticed the following:
-When letting off the gas pedal as I proceed to step in the clutch and select the next gear, the RPMs would drop very very quickly to then go back slightly up and stabilize..in other words it looks like they drop way too much and then it kind of tries to compensate by raising a little bit to where it was supposed to drop to in the first place.
There is a very important detail that I have missed all this time that I totally forgot about: All this stuttering problem started AFTER I decided to take out the Idle air control valve in order to clean it because the RPMs were dropping to such point that the car jerked when trying to accelerate after engaging the next gear with A/C turned on. One of the 2 orifices in the valve was in fact clogged with some sort of black dirt; cleaned with some carburetor spray and put it back on. It appeared that the jerking problem got fixed with the cleaning but now I am wondering if this valve is responsible for the stuttering problem or if the stuttering has anything to do with the idle valve at all…OR if this “tested” used OEM distributor is ->REALLY<- working properly. With all this being said, I came to the conclusion that the IACV is not opening up quickly enough in order to let some more air in while I am not accelerating. I haven't been able to find the Fast idle thermo valve yet on this D16Y8 engine so I cant tell at this point whether the plastic thing on the inside had loosen up with time so I cannot comment on that one. **Edit 9/20/2014 Based on the observations I made above, I have been conducting an experiment with the RPM drop for a few days now: I have been waiting for the RPM to drop wherever it wants to and then stabilize during the gear selection, once the RPM are still, I proceed to accelerate through the new gear. This practice has significantly reduced the coughing and stuttering. I am suspecting my IaCV needs replacement but again, I am no mechanic, I am experimenting and testing according to my common sense and logic. This may well be a coincidence and the problem might not have anything to do with the idle valve. I am trying to be as certain as possible before throwing any more parts at it. **Edit 9/22/2014 No major changes, stuttering still significantly less frequent when applying the technique from above. Only instances where I cannot prevent the coughing is when it does it on first gear during launch.
This post appears to have lost traction over the newer ones but I will continue tracking the issue for those of you who may go down a similar quest and happen to come across this thread.
I went ahead and replaced the IACV, no change. Tried a few different IACVs from various D16 engines and still no change.
Had the mechanic test the fuel pressure and it was 40 PSI, supposedly the normal pressure should be slightly above 110 PSI so I had the fuel pump replaced. I almost completed a full commute trip when it coughed a little bit (It happened in the same scenario as always: Under very very gentle, feather-like acceleration at low RPM and low gear) just as I was approaching my destination. I guess the issue is not yet resolved. I don’t know if the way I accelerate has anything to do with this. I used to drive like this with my previous car which was an automatic transmission corolla.
If anyone has any suggestions, please, I am very frustrated.
[quote=”cb7ftw” post=113869]Are you buying the cheapest gas in town?[/quote]
Hi there. Quite the contrary. Been running the most expensive fuel available in town (you’d be surprised to find out how much they charge per gallon). Though this being a 3rd world country I do have my doubts regarding this premium fuel..at least the engine doesnt knock so it cant be that bad.
Don’t recommend running higher octane in a stock 99 Civic. If I remember right, you should be running 87 octane. Around here that is “regular”, so I never look at the number.
Here is a better test. When your sitting in your car, and all is quiet. Turn on you ignition till the check engine light comes on, but don’t start the car. Wait till the check engine light goes off. Did you hear the fuel pump wind up under the back seat? Now start the car. Did it fire right up?
[quote=”cb7ftw” post=113873]Don’t recommend running higher octane in a stock 99 Civic. If I remember right, you should be running 87 octane. Around here that is “regular”, so I never look at the number.
Here is a better test. When your sitting in your car, and all is quiet. Turn on you ignition till the check engine light comes on, but don’t start the car. Wait till the check engine light goes off. Did you hear the fuel pump wind up under the back seat? Now start the car. Did it fire right up?[/quote]
I did this assessment with the old fuel pump but I am willing to perform it again. I was able to hear the old pump with the ignition turned on and the car did fire right up after turning the key all the way. I will give it a try with the new pump and let you know even though I don’t quite understand what is being put to test with this.
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