96 Civic Stalls Under Acceleration

96 Civic DX, 225,000 miles, auto, D16Y7 engine.

Trying to help a friend with his (actually his wife's) Civic. Since this is
the wife's car I really can't get any info on maintenance. When I ask his
wife about when was this or that done/changed, I just get the stare of "you
expect me to know that?"

Car starts fine and idles fine. Cruises at speed and decelerates fine.
Problem occurs only on acceleration. When accelerating the engine always
hesitates to some degree, and on most occasions it stalls. The car will
restart without difficulty, but it goes right back to the
hesitation/stalling under acceleration. Does this hot or cold. For those
of you that ever owned a carburated car it feels just like a broken
accelerator pump. Even with all of the stalling, there are no codes set in
the ECU.

With no codes stored it makes me think it is something more conventional
like plugs, wires, cap, rotor, timing, ect. The only test we ran so far was
a misting of the plug wires to check for insulation breaks. No arcing,
sputtering or stalling with that test. I know I need to check the plugs and
check the cap for burns/cracks, but before I go much further I would like to
know if anyone has experienced such a problem with their Civic.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cousin It wrote:
> 96 Civic DX, 225,000 miles, auto, D16Y7 engine.
>
> Trying to help a friend with his (actually his wife's) Civic. Since this is
> the wife's car I really can't get any info on maintenance. When I ask his
> wife about when was this or that done/changed, I just get the stare of "you
> expect me to know that?"
>
> Car starts fine and idles fine. Cruises at speed and decelerates fine.
> Problem occurs only on acceleration. When accelerating the engine always
> hesitates to some degree, and on most occasions it stalls. The car will
> restart without difficulty, but it goes right back to the
> hesitation/stalling under acceleration. Does this hot or cold. For those
> of you that ever owned a carburated car it feels just like a broken
> accelerator pump. Even with all of the stalling, there are no codes set in
> the ECU.
>
> With no codes stored it makes me think it is something more conventional
> like plugs, wires, cap, rotor, timing, ect. The only test we ran so far was
> a misting of the plug wires to check for insulation breaks. No arcing,
> sputtering or stalling with that test. I know I need to check the plugs and
> check the cap for burns/cracks, but before I go much further I would like to
> know if anyone has experienced such a problem with their Civic.
>
> Any help would be much appreciated.
>
>
>
replace plugs - use only ngk or denso
replace plug leads - expensive coiled core or oem only
replace distributor cap and rotor - oem
run injector cleaner through the tank.

visual inspection does not work for any ignition issue unless /real/ lucky.

"jim beam" > wrote in message
t...
> Cousin It wrote:
> > 96 Civic DX, 225,000 miles, auto, D16Y7 engine.
> >
> > Trying to help a friend with his (actually his wife's) Civic. Since
this is
> > the wife's car I really can't get any info on maintenance. When I ask
his
> > wife about when was this or that done/changed, I just get the stare of
"you
> > expect me to know that?"
> >
> > Car starts fine and idles fine. Cruises at speed and decelerates fine.
> > Problem occurs only on acceleration. When accelerating the engine
always
> > hesitates to some degree, and on most occasions it stalls. The car will
> > restart without difficulty, but it goes right back to the
> > hesitation/stalling under acceleration. Does this hot or cold. For
those
> > of you that ever owned a carburated car it feels just like a broken
> > accelerator pump. Even with all of the stalling, there are no codes set
in
> > the ECU.
> >
> > With no codes stored it makes me think it is something more conventional
> > like plugs, wires, cap, rotor, timing, ect. The only test we ran so far
was
> > a misting of the plug wires to check for insulation breaks. No arcing,
> > sputtering or stalling with that test. I know I need to check the plugs
and
> > check the cap for burns/cracks, but before I go much further I would
like to
> > know if anyone has experienced such a problem with their Civic.
> >
> > Any help would be much appreciated.
> >
> >
> >
> replace plugs - use only ngk or denso
> replace plug leads - expensive coiled core or oem only
> replace distributor cap and rotor - oem
> run injector cleaner through the tank.
>
> visual inspection does not work for any ignition issue unless /real/
lucky.

Run the engine at night in a dark area. Sometimes you see arcing.

I agree with the proposed plan.

Earle

could be timing but do the parts your talking about before you change
timing....good luck.....


--
Scrapper
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Cousin It wrote:
> 96 Civic DX, 225,000 miles, auto, D16Y7 engine.
>
> Trying to help a friend with his (actually his wife's) Civic. Since this is
> the wife's car I really can't get any info on maintenance. When I ask his
> wife about when was this or that done/changed, I just get the stare of "you
> expect me to know that?"
>
> Car starts fine and idles fine. Cruises at speed and decelerates fine.
> Problem occurs only on acceleration. When accelerating the engine always
> hesitates to some degree, and on most occasions it stalls. The car will
> restart without difficulty, but it goes right back to the
> hesitation/stalling under acceleration. Does this hot or cold. For those
> of you that ever owned a carburated car it feels just like a broken
> accelerator pump. Even with all of the stalling, there are no codes set in
> the ECU.
>
> With no codes stored it makes me think it is something more conventional
> like plugs, wires, cap, rotor, timing, ect. The only test we ran so far was
> a misting of the plug wires to check for insulation breaks. No arcing,
> sputtering or stalling with that test. I know I need to check the plugs and
> check the cap for burns/cracks, but before I go much further I would like to
> know if anyone has experienced such a problem with their Civic.
>
> Any help would be much appreciated.
>
--------------------------------

Injector cleaner will help a plugged fuel filter, but you probably need
to replace it _AND_ use injector cleaner more often.

There may be something deeper though . . . .

'Curly'