Hey all. My lil bro has a 97 Civic Hatchback, and has a problem that sometimes when he's on the freeway, the car just stalls. He says it immediately will start again if he cranks it after waiting 5 secs or so (halted on the freeway). It's only happened 4 times or so, but we'd like to figure out what the possibilities are.

He just had the timing belt done hoping that it would help, but it happened again after.

 

does it only happen on the freeway? check alternator, battery, dizzy, anywhere where there can be a short or something is disconnected.

 

Does the car misfire and then die or does it just die? I doubt that the problem is the battery or the alternator b/c he did say that after 5 sec the car will start. If the problem was with the alternator, then the battery would not be charged and the car would not start up after 5 sec. If the problem was with the battery the car would also not start up. Is there any stored trouble codes or a check engine light? I would hook up a scan tool and check the injector pulse width around the time the car stalls out. If you can figure out a way to recreate the problem in a garage then that would be ideal for diagnosing the problem. Shorts blow fuses so thats out of the question. I think that something is getting really hot and failing. After you wait 5 sec it cools down and you can run the car again. However, even this doesn't make sense to me since 5sec is a really short amount of time for something to cool down to the point where it wil begin to work right after it has failed.

 

try replacing the fuel filter.......five bucks

 

Where can you get a fuel filter for 5 dollars?

 

My car did the same, only in 4th and fifth though at high speeds for a long duration of time. It was because the fuel pressure was to high. (found out vacuum lines should be hooked up ha-ha)

 

^lol

could this be cause by one of the relays? Maybe, try those if everything else is working.

 

is this only happing on the freeway or will it do it anytime? because honda's stock ignitors are know to crap out or the coils. that controls your spark and fuel.the heat causes them to fail easly.