A few weeks ago it became more difficult to accelerate from a stop smoothly. The clutch release became extremely finicky and I needed to rev the engine more before releasing the clutch to have a smooth acceleration in 1st gear.
Another major symptom is when I put a lot of torque on the engine (punch the gas or accelerate hard up a steep hill) the engine bucks a little. It’s like it studders accelerating, almost like the gas flow is cutting in and out. The RPMs stay low, which is probably a sign that the clutch is fine.
Any thoughts? I’m gonna bring it in soon, but I think it might be spark plug related, which would be great. Or maybe fuel-injector related. If it IS a bad clutch, it puts me in a big dilemma of whether or not to fix it or get a newer car.
I was thinking fuel delivery as well. Either a gummed up fuel filter or a failing pump. The fuel pump could be really easy- in-line someplace underneath- or a real pain if it’s in the gas tank.
-I am guessing that it is not an air flow problem, but it is pretty easy and cheap to check this one. Get a new air filter and see what happens
-Fuel and/or spark is probably the issue.
Go to Auto Zone and you can try a bottle of STP gas treatment with injector cleaner. $5.00 for a bottle. It really doesn’t hurt anything…and it just might help. Probably not, but usually worth a try.
My suspicion is that you have lost power due to a “lost cylinder”. You are misfiring because of the sparkplug. I am not sure if your car has coilpacks or not (my guess is that it does). You are probably not getting any spark on those cylinders so you have lost power. As another poster mentioned your O2 sensors are probably also shot if you have been driving with this problem.
Usually the computer will spit out the code and tell the mechanic EXACTLY what is going on.
My truck was about a $350 fix for Coil Pack #4 and 2 O2 sensors when this happened to me 3 months ago.
Is your “check engine” light on? It may or may not be, depending on how long the issue has been there. The computer compenstates for awhile by adjusting the fuel mix (better or worse mileage?). Best to get this looked at if the “quick and dirty” fixes don’t yield fairly immediate results.
Check your plugs. It takes two minutes if the lectrode and tip look fowled replace them. It sounds like you are dumping fuel into the engine and its not igniting.
The cheap things to look at would be the O2 sensor, knock sensor, wires, plugs, and coil pack. Maybe the fuel pump.
5 years ago my check engine light went on and it was the 02 sensor, so I had it replaced. Right now the check engine light isn’t on so maybe the 02 sensor is ok?
Check your plugs. It takes two minutes if the lectrode and tip look fowled replace them. It sounds like you are dumping fuel into the engine and its not igniting.
Easy to check the plugs without special tools or risk of zapping myself? I have a book which describes how to, but off the top of my head I think I remember reading that you need a plug puller and need to be careful not to screw things up. I’d do it myself but I can’t afford to make my car undrivable this week…
Check your plugs. It takes two minutes if the lectrode and tip look fowled replace them. It sounds like you are dumping fuel into the engine and its not igniting.
Easy to check the plugs without special tools or risk of zapping myself? I have a book which describes how to, but off the top of my head I think I remember reading that you need a plug puller and need to be careful not to screw things up. I’d do it myself but I can’t afford to make my car undrivable this week…
Can I do it?
Yeah, it’s easy. You just need a plug socket for your ratchet driver. You won’t do any damage unless you like drop something down into the cylinder. Be sure to keep track of which wire goes to which plug, though. If you pull them one at a time that’s not a problem.
If you’ve never done it, you might pick up a Haynes or equivalent service manual for your car model/year. They’re pretty good, and also have troubleshooting lists for various symptoms. They’re available in any parts store, and they’re cheap. There’re also tons of online guides.
At 175k could be quite a few things from what you describe. Start with the cheapest. Go to autozone or advance auto or such place. See if they can hook up a scanner up to it and pull any fault codes. This will help rule out any electrical problems associated with the engine.
I had the same issue with a similar vintage VW a couple months ago. It was the Mass Air Sensor.
As others have said, its probably some sensor in the fuel mixture loop that is causing the ECU to use the wrong mixture under load. Has the check engine light come on? If it does, you can have the code read and it will point you in the direction of the problem. However, with out some knowledge, it can still be kind of a crap shoot to figure out the cause.
I’ve found with my old VW that consulting a good internet forum is a great tool. Particular cars of the same vintage and model tend to have their own quirks as to what fails when (they are all made of the same parts from the same sources so it make sense). Find a Honda forum and you may find 10 other folks with the same vintage Civics who’ve had the same issue and hopefully some wise forum rat will point out that “on these cars the XXXX tends to go at 150K”