Poor Gas Mileage / Sluggish Performance

lcrakel87

New Member
Hi, new to the site and so far I really like. Lots of good information.

So currently I'm having some issues with my gas mileage and performance. I'm down to about 23mpg and trying to drive up a hill at low rpms the car just drags. There has been a lot of things that have happened to the car so I will try my best to describe all the problems. I do not have a lot of knowledge about cars but my dad is usually the one who helps with repairs so I have picked up a little bit.

My car is a 1998 Honda Civic DX automatic transmission with about 210,000 miles. Everything started when I started my car one day and as soon as I put the car in "drive" it stalled. Would not start up immediately after and I was running late for work so I grabbed my girlfriends car for the night. When I got home that night, the car would start but when I put it in drive, the car ran very rough. I searched online and saw that if you spray some water over your plugs and see "arching" then its time for new wires. I tried this saw the arching and my car even stalled again. After getting some advice some from friends I bought OEM distributor cap, rotor, spark plug wires, and some iridium plugs. Everything went together fine but my car wouldn't start. Tried enough times that eventually the battery died. Got some jumper cables hooked up and still nothing. Next we tried spraying some starting fluid into the throttle body. Still nothing. We eventually got the car started by loosening the distributor and adjusting it. Once the car started the distributor was put back to the way it was and everything seemed to be working fine. That was about two weeks ago. I did not notice it at first but the car is just extremely sluggish. Plus my gas mileage has dropped about 9mpg.

Any suggestions, tips or any point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
 

lcrakel87

New Member
Haha thanks man. I keep searching and can't find much. Hopefully something will show up. I'm on vacation this week. Hopefully ill be able to get things back to normal or even better with the tune up.
 

CIVIC_VTEC

LOW AND SLOW!
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
have you ever replaced your o2 sensor in your exhaust? my 99 ex with 202,xxx miles has that problem and its cause the sensor. The o2 sensor sences the amount of air flowing into your engine, so if it goes out then its sencing that your cars not getting any air flow then shut off. i see alot of lost hp and gas millage in my as well. but just throwin it out there, if you havent ever replaced the o2 sensors, could be a possability.
 


lcrakel87

New Member
I replaced the pre catalytic sensor about a year back when I had by exhaust manifold repaired (cracked). That was only repaired by a weld. I haven't checked it again but if it were.cracked again could that cause the issues. I also had the head head gasket replaced if that might give any clues.
 

lcrakel87

New Member
Ok I took off the heat shield today and it looks like the exhaust manifold has cracked again. Right along the weld. I have yet to see a check engine light though which is what happened the first time. Anyone have any experience replacing a manifold with a used one from a junkyard or anything?
 

emerican

New Member
Registered VIP
junkyard part would be cheap, but no gurantte it wont crack in 100 miles or could last years no way to tell, because no way to know what its been put thru and its current quality.
 

lcrakel87

New Member
emerican said:
junkyard part would be cheap, but no gurantte it wont crack in 100 miles or could last years no way to tell, because no way to know what its been put thru and its current quality.
Click to expand...
Yeah I see what you are saying. How about aftermarket? Is there anything decent out there or is this on of those things were its better to buy OEM?
 

emerican

New Member
Registered VIP
do you have the header with the cat built into it?
cant remember off the top of my head
 

STEV0

New Member
im quessin the cat isnt in the header because he got the header welded and replaced cat? you can get aftermarket headers cheap, u can get a 4-2-1 aftermarket for like 50, id try that first and if not try the timing or compresion test it
 

emerican

New Member
Registered VIP
thats what i was gonna say if its the one where the cat isnt built in then just get a cheaper header like megan if you dont have to pass emmsions
 

EJwood

New Member
Did this problem start before or after the head gasket was replace? Incorrectly lining up the oil pump or the cams slightly can cause major problems, affect timing and thus could also cause the stalling. You stated that you replaced the spark plug wires because they were damaged right? Are you sure you reinstalled them in the correct order?

Also what do you mean putting water over the plugs? If you add water along with your spark plug wires and spark plugs then wouldn't the water act as a conductor.

Since you had to adjust your distributor after the tune up I think your problem has to do with your spark plug wire order or timing.
 

lcrakel87

New Member
The car was running what I would call normal until it stalled the first time. It ran fine after the head gasket repair for 8 months. We double checked the wire positioning while trying to get the car started once the new wires were installed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXAFQa0R9hA
That's what used to determine that the wires were bad.

Im almost certain the exhaust manifold is cracked. I can try and get some pictures up if you would like to take a look. I've yet to see a CEL though. The codes were for a bad o2 sensor. Found the crack when replacing.

As far as the timing, the car ran fine up until the first time it stalled about three weeks ago. Not really familiar with this topic but could the timing change on its own? Like if something were to become loose?
 

STEV0

New Member
yes it could jump a tooth,over time the belt could of stretched abit alowin the belt to jump, stoling could of jolted it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Top