Lude Generation

Hi luders,

My 95 Civic's developed a miss-fire

And as this is the bestest forum on the interwebs I thought I'd ask here!

It doesn't do it when warming up, and is intermittent on idle but gets worse as the engine gets hotter. When bringing the revs up, or if the car is in gear and I try and get any power out of it stutters and miss fires. The harder I press on the power, the worse it seems. It's so down on power it's not really driveable. But I've noticed if I hold the revs at about 3K or more out of gear, it sounds smooth and I don't think its miss firing.

I started off checking and replacing all the spark plugs. No problems with the old ones and no change. Then I checked the dizzy cap, cleaned up a little corrosion on the contacts and checked it all over inside. No real problems there either and no change. I've checked all the HT leads and the resistance is OK. Also tried unplugging one of the HT leads and putting a spark plug on it. The spark is very strong and can jump 1cm!

Onto the injectors. I unplugged them one by one and found unplugging cylinder 2 didn't really make any difference. So I figured the injector was probably blocked or faulty. I took the fuel rail off and swapped injectors 2 and 3, as well as removing the filters giving them a good clean up even though they both looked spotless. I figured if it was injector 2, the problem would follow it to cylinder 3.

But it has stayed at cylinder 2! So it can't be the injector either. The plug and wires look fine and wiggling them doesn't change anything.

I'm not sure what to try next, all I can think is a compression test on it to see if it maybe has a burnt out valve or the piston ring has completely gone. Any other ideas guys? I'm hoping I've missed something really obvious!

Have you changed the coil pack? I had very similar symptoms on my 3G accord, ie it would rev stationary but full throttle when moving made the engine run like a sack of jobby. I swapped the coil pack over and it was all fine again

Number two spark plug? I had almost identical symptoms many years ago and it was a cracked spark plug. I missed it a few times as I was holding the spark in the socket and looking at the business end.

Yea this, try another plug first. Then it will be valve clearances/compression test chap.

Thanks for the tips guys

I guess it could be the coil but the spark is really strong and can jump about 1cm.

First thing I did was replace the plugs and there was no change.

Compression test it is then!

Is it definitely just cyl that wasn't affected? Did you try 4 as well? I just wonder if it could be electrical - ecu maybe? The fact it runs ok at 3k revs but not higher makes me wonder if the ignition timing is going out of sync at higher revs?

EGR valve?

I know youve tested the leads but it does sounds like your leads are breaking down with the heat.

newkid wrote:I know youve tested the leads but it does sounds like your leads are breaking down with the heat.

+1 my exact thoughts

^^^^^^^^^^ yep