I have a problem with my 2002 honda civic. after driving for about a half hour, my car will just stop accelerating and eventually die. i pull over to the side, wait about 10 minutes and it starts again. if i try to drive before then, it still doesn't accelerate. the cooling fans are working. the radiator has been flushed, the coolant is clean. the thermostat has been changed twice. the temperature gauge never goes over the middle so i have no indication that the car is about to overheat until it just goes dead. and we just changed the sensor in the thermostat casing because it was cracked. i don't know what else the problem could be and i don't want to continue changing things here and there if there is a bigger problem at hand. HELP!!

 

Weird i have a 2002 honda civic LX with orginal everything..it was my dad's never changed anything but oil and tires and runs fine..but you might want to check your if you thermostat is open or closed, check your pipes in the engine and check for leaks in the coolant hoses but i bet is a leak...

 

Any CEL codes?

 

i took it to a shop and they are telling me a blown head gasket. i said i've been driving it like this for over a year, if my head gasket was blown is that even possible and he told me yes it was. and he's telling me it's gonna cost 1000-1500... i have no idea what to do because when i initially brought it in he told me he thought it was a computer problem.

 

Get a second opinion.

 

so he realized that it was not the head gasket which is awesome and he replaced the sensor that seemed to be causing the issue. but then he said that there was damage to the catalytic converter and that it needed to replaced. he says the car is not exhausting properly and it is losing power and seems to be cause of it going into "limp mode" and shutting down for 15 minutes after the car is running for awhile... does this even make sense? could it be anything else? could it be just the oxygen sensor or a clogged valve? before i change it i want to make sure that that is the problem