Honda Car Forum

I've been having a problem that has been very hard to diagnose, because its so random, it happens on the road, but never in my garage when I try to fix it. It never triggers the check engine light.It seems to be that every now and then the engine will cut out for a split second. It feels like alot stronger of a jerk than just a single cylinder misfire. Enough to throw you forward in the seat real quick. It actually completely cut out about a week ago and wouldn't start up anymore, but I replaced the distributor cap/rotor at that point and the car worked again (although the engine sounds alot different that before and I think it might be lacking power. (gas mileage is still the same though) Anyways I thought that solved the problem, but its happening again. I've got all new spark plugs, cap/rotor, new fuel filter. The plug wires are about 2 years old, the igniter is about 2 years old. The fuel pump makes regular noise like its working. Any Ideas what the likely culprit is?Not sure if its related, but recently the tachometer is having issues. Every time I get up to about 4k rpm's, the tach needle starts wobbling all over the place. And recently when the car was misfiring real bad, the tach was acting up much more than usual, I'd be driving along at about 3K rpm's and the needle would jump up to 5k, wouldn't affect engine performance though.

I know what you're talking about. I have a '93 del Sol Si and my brother tried to tweak at it for me before I took it in, but he thought it was the imbalance in the engine. When I'd reach between 3 and 4, my car would start to get louder. And if I ever did reach 4 or higher while trying to pass a slower car on the freeway, my car would chugg for a moment, then try to regain power. My best advice is to take it up to a Honda dealership and pay for the $85.00 or so an hour. It ended costing me about $400 for diagnosis, labor, and one part. Plus the work it guaranteed and they'll tell you about any other forseen future problems. Now my car goes up through a 4,000 foot canyon for a few miles with no big problems unlike before. Good luck!

you may have a bad ignition coil. you didnt specify if the vehicle is an EX (has an externall mounted coil) or LX (internally mounted coil) remove the ignition coil and take a good look at it. is it discolored or does it smell burnt? the coil provides the signal for the tachometer so i would start here.

Its most likely that your ignition coil needs replacing. Try to use MSD ignition to stabilize the spark in the chamber. Lost of power especially in inclined roads and jerk motion means the car is not properly timed and one big factor of this is lack of electricity in the distributor.

You probibly have too much air in the intake.

the things you're describing are typical for a bad cylinder position sensor. it makes the car run horribly. the only way you can get it is if you buy the distributor housing. It's inside of it. but just so that you won't waste your money with all the guessing, take it to the dealer and get a diagnostic done.