I have a 1997 Honda Civic EX, 90k on the vehicle, perfectly maintained 5-speed, all maintenance is up to date. I have an intermittent problem where I will be driving on the freeway at around 70-80 mph and the RPM gauge will start jumping around and the engine jerking in sync with the RPM gauge for a few minutes, then it goes away. And in city driving, the Vehicle drives fine and then all of a sudden when accelerating the car just lurches and does not accelerate and the RPM gauge keeps dropping to 0 but the car does not stall. Then if I let the car sit for a few minutes turned off, I can start it and drive it again and it's ok, then the concern comes back. I took it to the Dealership and of course the concern didn't happen for them and there was no check engine light or codes. DESPERATELY NEED HELP or IDEAS, thanks!!!

(note, car has newer alternator, new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, battery, intake, Magnaflow exhaust system, no header, strut bar, full clean cluth fluid).

 

considering that it doesnt have that high of mileage, and that you havent molested the wiring harness with a motor swap like i have, id have to say that its probably the distributor. if you have a friend with a 96-00 civic, swap them out and see if the prob stays with the car or the distributor.

 

I will have to look into that. For the time being, I was going to try installing a Genuine Honda Fuel filter, The one I have in there is an aftermarket one that was installed about 10k ago. I have read into the forums here and some people that mentioned the same concern did a complete tune-up and it took care of it. But with my luck, it will be the most expensive part. Thanks for the suggestion! [8D]

 

I just dont understand it because when it happens on the highway, it is only slightly and the rpm gauge jumpst around a little bit and the engine cuts out a little bit. But when I am accelerating from a stop of going like 20, the thing feels like you keep slamming on the brakes real fast as the RPMs shoot down to 0 with the jerking. I thought the Dealership would have been a help, that was $100 wasted as they said my car was in perfect shape.

 

Mech

I'm investigating something similar, but my theory is that the mixture is too lean following an engine rebuild. My approach is to keep an eye on the condition of the spark plugs and then alter the carburation (is yours FI?) to give it a drop more fuel/less air.

In my case its just a stuuter for a second of so and when I back off the throttle it settles down. I'm sunning in athe momnet so haven't tried pushing hard yet.

Tell us what your spark plugs are telling you!

 

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my brother had a similr problem, with his 85 accord [:-] and it was his distributr ne who his rotor came shooting out of his distributr. I'd do the distributer thingy that sacicons suggested