Hello fellow civic owners,

I have been having a really strange problem with my car cutting off at random times. Ever since my car was stolen last year it has been acting up. When they stole my car they broke the ignition and when I got my car back I put it back together and ghetto rigged it to the column. I started having problems when the car is decceleratring and just sitting at lights or even around turns it will cut off. It will restart after a few attempts. I thought that a loose wire in the ignition might be causing it so I replaced the ignition. It still does the same thing. The funny thing is I can go a couple weeks with no problems and when It acts up it might do it 2 or 3 times in 1 day. My friend suggested the timing belt might be bad but it seems unrelated to me. I have 120,000 with the original T-belt so I guess its time to do it anyway. Can anyone give me any ideas on this? It is really frustrating when I have a girl in the car and it keeps cutting off!! Help!!

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it may be the Timming Belt, i had a similar problem on my old corolla, the timming belt eventually exploded into a billion bits... so i would look into getting that replaced

 

Allright alright I'll go ahead and throw the timing belt on, I just paid like 90 bucks for the belt and the acc. belts now I just have to replace it. But it is so hot out there!!

 

bah it can't be THAT bad outside... and if it is, then do it when it cools off... like in the evening, or at night(if you have enough light)

 

OK I got the timing belt done but in the process Ithe harmonic balancer broke. And I discovered a bad motor mount, looks like this will have to wait til tomorrow after I can spend another hundred or so on parts.

 

a bad motor mount would definately cause the timing belt to go. infact thats the exact problem with a person i know's civic. my first thoughts when reading this was maybe the O2 sensor, but now that you mentioned the motor mount, im almost sure its the timing belt. hope that helps!

 

Funny you mentioned the O2 because the rear one is out because of my exhaust. I bought an O2 simulaor but I don'ty think it works because my check engine light comes on and off. The code comes up with an O2 code. Would you mind explaining how the O2 will make your car cut off at random times? I thought the O2 was just for computer input on whether engine is running rich or lean. Thanks

 

to be quite honest with you im not sure why it causes the car to cut off. BUT that could very well be your problem. my friend has a '98 civic and his O2 sensor is out and he says that it will every once in a while shut off when he's at a red light and whatnot. its nothing to really worry about. But if its not the timing belt because of the motor mount, then its definately the O2 sensor. but from the problems I see your having it's either one of those 2...i doubt its anything else. I would think that if it was the timing belt the car wouldnt even start up anymore until the motor mount and timing belt were replaced. And if it's shutting off while your at a stop a lot..then the O2 sensor is probably the issue.

on a side note: when i installed my header i took the car for a drive before i put the front O2 sensor back in (dont ask why, haha) and it shut off on me once while i was at a stop and the check engine light came on right from the start up.

Good luck with your problem! If you have any more questions just ask and I'll do my best to help answer them!

 

OK I got the timing belt, motor mount, full tune up and oil change done and I thought everything was cool. I drove about 50 miles until it cut off on me cruising at 55 mph. Funny thing it started right back up without even cycling the key. Wierdest thing ever. Oh and then it started with the engine missing, not too bad but enough I could feel it. What else is there to do without going back to stock exhaust? Maybe I'll just trade it in!!

 

if it happens to be to O2 sensor then take it to a local shop and see if they can tap into the exhaust piping and screw it in there. that may help. let me know how it goes.