OK, here's the history of the car:

1999 Civic DX hatchback with 132k miles. 5-speed manual tranny. I'm the original owner. Had a garage replace the timing belt at 95k, then immediately replaced the plugs, wires, distributor cap/rotor myself. Just replaced the air filter last month.

And here's the symptom; just started last weekend:

On acceleration, and only in 1st or 2nd gears, the car will intermittently stutter or pulse as if it misfired. If this happens at all, it will happen only once or twice during accelerating in 1st, then maybe again only once or twice while revving through 2nd, and then that's it. Don't think I've ever felt the stutter in 3rd through 5th gears. Only happens on acceleration; never when holding a steady speed.

Because the plugs/wires/distributor/timing belt have been serviced, my first guess is to blame the fuel filter, which I've never replaced. Do you agree? If so, is it documented anywhere on this forum as to where the fuel filter is located, and what the replacement procedure is?

Thanks!

Steve

 

I had the exact same symptoms, but new wires/plugs/rotor button fixed it. Did you replace your rotor button when you replaced the distributor cap?

 

I think so, but it was a few years ago. When you say "rotor button", are you referring to the thing that spins inside of the distributor cap? If so, I'm sure I replaced that.

 

So now I have a new annoying problem. I took off the distributor cap so that I could clean the contacts on the rotor and cap with an ignition file. But when I was installing the cap again, I must have cross threaded one of the screws and ended up snapping it off so that the thread of the screw closest to the firewall is stuck in the metal distributor housing.

Suggestions on how to fix that? If you're going to say to drill it out and then tap new threads, then my next question will be how to get a drill into such a tight place. Or are there other ways of backing a cross-threaded screw out? Or, better yet, are two out of three screws enough?

 

OK, fixed my problems. Here's how:

• Regarding the stuttering in first and second gears during acceleration, this problem was solved by cleaning the metal contact points on the inside of the distributor cap with a file. I also filed the metal contact surface on the rotor button.
• Regarding the broken distributor cap screw, my solution was first to buy slightly longer and slightly thinner screws to replace all three of the distributor cap screws (the original screws are M5; I bought M4 screws that were approximately 1/2-inch longer than the originals). I also bought 4mm flat washers, lock washers, and lock nuts. I then removed all three screws from the distributor cap and used the new bolts/washers/nuts to secure the distributor cap using the two holes without broken screws. Because I used longer bolts, I was able to feed the bolts through the distributor cap and through the distributor housing holes, then secure with the washers and nuts. With the distributor cap now held in place with two bolts, I used the distributor cap's 3rd hole as a guide for my drill bit, and drilled out the broken screw in the 3rd hole (I had to remove the air box on the passenger side in order to free up enough space for the drill to do this). I then used another set of bolts/washers/nuts to secure the 3rd distributor cap hole.

Now the car runs without stuttering, and the new bolts/nuts/washers won't break in the future in a way that will leave them stuck in the distributor. Because they're thinner than the original screws, if these nuts/bolts rust and break in the future, they'll just slide out and can then be easily replaced (why didn't Honda think of that?).

Problem solved!