1990 Civic hestiation/stumbling

A friend's daughter has a 1990Civc that she bought new.
The car has perfect body work, and she has all routine
and scheduled maintinance. LAst weekend on the way back
from Red River gorge it would hesitate so badly on the
interstate that she got off at the first chance and drove
back on the slower back roads.

I went over saturday and drove it. It acted real funny.
My first thought was bad gasoline, she filled up right
before the trouble started.

So we drained the tank, 10+ gallons is a LOT of gasoline.
We put a gallon of fresh, good gas and I drove to the nearest
chevron. And filled it up. OUCH, glad she was paying!

We hit the road and I went for a spin on the nearest high speed
road. Again, bad hesitation. The worst I have ever seen.

I was ready to start pulling prats and taking measurements but
here son, a Honda biker, suggested we give Gumout "Regane Complete
Fuel System Cleaner." I had some serious doubts, but she wanted to
give it a try. So off to walmart. Bought it for less then $6.
Added it, and filled the car up at the SuperAmerica across the road.
I figured a littel gasohol couldn't hurt.

My wife and daughter's friend and I went for a spin. With a cellphone.
Went to London KY, about 80 miles south on I75. The car kicked and
bucked a little at the start, but soon settled down. I was amazed

So we then zoomed down to Corbin and stopped at a nice little
hole in the wall for a late lunch. We drove back with no
hesitation.

Guys I have to say that this specific Gumout cleaner works great.
I suggested that she get her fuel filter changed after the next
fill up. And that she use this tank nearly up, as close to empty as
she dares.

I will post if anything changes, but I suspect the last load of gas
she got prior to the problem and it left some gunk on the injectors.
The old gas looks and smells ok, but none of us want to test it in out
cars.

Now what do you do with ~10 gallons of bad gas?

Terry

 

wrote in

Mix it 1 gallon for every 9 gallons of fresh gas. Ten fillups and you're
done.

 

---------------------------

There's probably nothing wrong with that gas . .When she got a bunch of
water into the element of the fuel filter, it will act terrible,
preventing even fuel from passing. Even just the Gasohol might have
cured your problem, by absorbing the water and flushing out the fuel
filter. Others have posted the very same story here, but not recently.
We run into that problem WAY more often in Canada, because of longer,
colder winters, and warm damp parkades to park our vehicles in all day.
:-( Changing the fuel filter will help for sure. I try to use gasohol
every 4 or 5 tanks during cold season.

'Curly'

 

lawnmower, weed wacker, etc. they tolerate crappy gas really well. did
it look dark/varnished? id put some in a glass and see if it seperates
into water/gas

 

Does it cut off at all while being driven?

I know this is a VERY rare problem, but a few months ago I had the same
symptoms and it turned out that a coil in the distributor was fried.
You may want to pick up a used distributor at a junkyard and replace
it. An electrical test would tell you better...

 

Distributor coils frying and causing cutouts while being driven, especially
after warmup, are not rare.

I'd call it something to expect within about every five years with early
1990s Civics, among other makes.

 

I stand corrected, it's just what I was told by the dealer here in
Indy. They were about to charge me $350 for replacing it. I bought
the part at a junkyard for $70 and replaced it myself for nothing (but
a few hand scrapes .

 

TeGGer wrote:

Mix it 1 gallon for every 9 gallons of fresh gas. Ten fillups and
you're
done.

--
TeGGeR®

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/
------------------------------------------------------
I have an old lawn mower that I wish would die.
So this morning I filled it up witht he quesitonable gas.
Ran a little rough, but no big problem.

Pulled the spark plug whendone and it was a litle dirty.
There is something odd with this gas and I't ot about to
put in a car I car about.

And for those that suspected water in the gas, that wasn't
the poblem. I suspect the octance is just too low, maybe
mixed with a load of kerosene. Looked good, smelled good 100cc
evaporated completly in 4 or 5 hours and left "no" residue.
"No" equals a very slightly oily film on the glass.

One of life's little mysteries.

Terry

 

Hey, you're good.

My 1991 Civic was cutting out and hesitating after warm up a couple of years
ago. A highly recommended very clean and large Honda-specialized independent
shop blamed the problem on my modifiying the dizzy rotor. I had attached it
with a cotter pin after its screw stripped four months before. They replaced
the distributor housing but not the coil or ignitor and were snotty about my
observation that the cotter pin fix would not likely affect the timing,
yada. I trusted them. Cost (labor and parts): $472. A week later the problem
recurs. NOW they correctly diagnose the dizzy coil as the problem. I object.
They charge me only for the dizzy coil. They suggest a new ignitor. I buy it
but tell them I'll install it myself, thank you very much.

I agree that replacing the distributor and its associated parts is a pretty
straightforward job.

The next year or so I heard the Car Talk Guys (Tom 'n Ray) talking about the
symptoms we've described as often going with a fried dizzy coil.