Hi All,

I have a 95 Civic EX with 138,000 miles. It was bought new and always maintained well.

My engine just began"sputtering" when at idle as if it wants to die. If you push the gas at idle, or accelerate while driving, the erratic idling goes away. This happened all of the sudden with no precurser of what could have caused it. Everything else is working fine on the engine. The plugs and plug wires are fairly new, the fuel filter and air filter are clean, no overheating issues, no coolant loss (head gasket fine), and the fuel injectors were recently serviced (cleaned).

Any ideas? I have several, but most of my theories don't work since the problem goes away at acceleration.

Thanks in advance!

 

The first thing i thought of was oxygen sensor.
That's how the engine runs when the oxygen sensor broke/is faulty

another possibility is your ignition timing
if it's off it causes a sputter, but you would usually have to do something to cause it to not be timed correctly. Unless your bolts to the distributor cap aren't very tight

 

If the oxygen sensor or ignition timing was not working properly, would you not detect this when the car is moving (when gas pedal is engaged)?

 

Idle air control valve. As it's name suggests, it is only necessary when idling.

Though checking the timing is also a good idea.

Is your check engine light on? A bad oxygen sensor will almost always be detected and turn the CEL on.

 

The "check engine light" is not on.

 

Take your IACV off and clean out the air passage with spray carb/throttle body cleaner. It's mounted on the back of the throttle body with two bolts. You don't have to undo the water hoses.

 

could be oxygen sensor,i just got a new one for my civic. you said you put new spark plugs in, how close to when your car started ackting up? it could be the wrong type of spark plugs. i know that my civic needs a a special type.

 

New plugs and wires were OEM and replaced approximately 3 months ago. The "sputtering" began yesterday while my wife was driving it. Wait.... maybe that was the problem. [&:]

 

I should be able to work on the issue tomorrow morning, but until then, I have just been very careful and driving very little.

Another piece of info that may help with the diagnosis... I noticed that the idle "sputter" only occurs when the engine is hot. There is no rough idle the first few minutes in the morning when the engine is very cold.

Does this help narrow down the possible cause of problem?

 

clean your IACV out its on the firewall side of the intake manifold, and it will more than likely take care of your idle