Hello everyone, I just purchased a 1994 Honda Civic EX 1.5L 5spd due to my hemi truck sucking down too much gas. The car is in good shape overall, has 218,000 miles on it. The distributor is less than a year old, as are all the belts and hoses. I changed the fuel filter, spark plugs, and plug wires last night.

When it is cool out in the morning, the car will not stay running. It will idle at 1500rpm or so, but it bounces up and down to 500rpm, and dies occasionally. it takes a few extra turns to get it to start after it dies, and i noticed some smoke out the exhaust a few times. Once it is warm, it seems to run okay. Tonight I was driving it around, and 30 or so miles down the road it starts jerking some. All throttle settings, under a load and not. it made me think of failing spark plug wires.

Any ideas on what could cause these problems? My experience is limited to dodge & ford & airplanes..so any Honda guru's chime in! thanks much

Wes

 

how does it idle when its warm? is it over 1000 rpm? i believe those should be at 600-700 rpm warm

 

600-700 sounds about right when its warm. It isnt rough when it's warm, it doesnt jump around or die.. it just has a little.. im gonna call it a hesitation, every few seconds at idle. nothing major.. but its noticible.

 

Regarding the jerking, you should consider a basic tune up (replace plugs, wires, distributor cap, and rotor).

For the difficult cold start, check the Fast Idle Valve:

 

All of those have been recently replaced.

Thanks, I'll look into that.

 

You might want to check whether the ignition timing is set to spec:

 

Thanks.

Quick question, would seafoam be a bad thing to run through a 200k+ mile car?

 

I don't see why seafoam would hurt anything.

 

Okay thanks.

update:
I tried to start it cold again this morning, and the same problem. I can't keep it running longer than 5-10 seconds. I had my girlfriend try and start it while i smelled the smoky exhaust and it smelled strongly of fuel. after a few tries it got to where it wouldn't start at all, and I could smell fuel while sitting in the front seat.

I'm confused!

 

For a no start problem, check whether you lack spark. To check for spark at each plug, remove a plug wire and insert a good plug in the end of the wire. Have the GF crank the engine while you ground the plug threads against a convenient metallic engine part. You should see a bright spark at the tip. Repeat for each plug wire. If you lack spark, you might have a bad coil or igniter unit in the distributor.