mistahlorax13

hello; just purchased a this 03 civic; been delivering pizza in it for two months now. when hopping on the freeway cant seem to make it past 60mph that is me flooring my gas pedal; at this point my RPM are pretty high as if my tranny wont shift up, i have to play with the gas pedal and eventually it shifts gear and rpms go to normal and motor is roaring, check engine light is on, havnt obtained the codes tho. ALSO maybe a separate issue, after i release as pedal a rattling sound occurs... sounds like its maybe an exhaust issue, maybe exhaust is messin with my acceleration? lol fml xD still driving this car around servin pizza, runs a little smoother if i keep speeds under 40

Poopies

iTrader: (4)

Can you post a video w/sound of the noise? As for the transmission, have you checked the transmission fluid level? It might be worth a change, if only to rule it out as an issue.

ezone

A restricted exhaust would do all of those..... as in a plugged cat or the cat came apart and plugged up the rest of the exhaust.

What's the code? P0420?

mistahlorax13

Just checked the codes thx for replying! Got a cocktail of codes
P0301
P0420 twice
P0302
P0304
P0300
And cant get the sound in video :/ doesnt really come out in the video

Mad Dog Tannen

That is a lot of misfiring, and a cat code.

I would look for the misfire issue first.

ezone

Misfire can ruin a cat, and a clogged exhaust or melted cat may not only cause more misfires, it can cause the trans to upshift very late (very high RPM) because you have to almost floor the gas pedal to go anywhere.

Because even a brand new cat can be ruined in a matter of minutes if the engine runs bad enough, I'd say you need to make it run right before installing a cat.
You might need to remove the cat or exhaust in order to figure out if it will or won't run right, and fix it.

mistahlorax13

thanks again;i would hate to have installed a new one to just be destroyed ... could the misfire issue simply be a sparkplug issue? i had installed some pre-gapped ones around 4 months ago? could it be autozone gave me the wrong sparkplugs? and yes lol always having to floor the gas pedal

ezone

Anything is possible there, it's up to you to figure out the root cause of the problems.

Mad Dog Tannen

I love my manual transmission.

mistahlorax13

checked sparkplugs everything is fine with those while checking them i noticed my cat has two big cracks on it :0 i attatched the photo and my 89 hatch is manual freakin love it! lol

ezone

Typical.
Probably makes that snapping noise when it's first started and stinks of raw exhaust.
May or may not get quieter as the manifold heats up.

mistahlorax13

Yea that sound sometimes goes away after its become hotter it's always loudest at start up
Looked up some cats online I'm in Cali kinda annoying findin a cheap 50 state one; I seen I have maybe two options ..... I seen some that look similar to mine (cat is part of the manifold) and some that look like it relocates further underneath the vehicle but still a bolt on direct fit. Are there some major pro/con differences between the two?

ezone

If you are in Cali and you have to go through emissions testing, you need OEM or the California CARB approved cat.

You cannot use the 49 state units, and you may not be able to pass if you use an EX cat because your car did not come with that setup from the factory.


And remember, if it runs bad enough it can ruin even a brand new cat in a heartbeat.

Strycker

iTrader: (1)

If you're having a misfire, I think the car would be sputtering. We just had a coil go bad because of a valve cover gasket leaking oil down into the spark plug area. It fouled the spark plug coil and needed replaced along with a new gasket. That fixed our issue.

As for the manifold crack, our '02 LX Civic has one too. I think everyone does. Comes standard with the car.

Pier7866

Probably your car is in a limp mode if you take it to the dealer they can clear it and it will be fine it happen to my 2001 civic also long time ago. Hope this help.

Mad Dog Tannen

Cheapest manifold/cat I found was $450 for my 97 DX on Rock auto. Cali ones are just more expensive because of the extra state testing the parts go through. I must admit it is frustrating spending $450 on a part for a $1700 car, so I feel your pain.

I am trying to repair my cracked manifold (oxy sedaline braising), in the meantime it has a eBay header on, but it is running on limp mode because there is no downstream O2 sensor right now (emulator is in the mail).

Unfortunately, I don't think there are any cheap Cali-cats/manifolds out there. A junk yard might be a good place to look if you are trying to save a buck.

mistahlorax13

My ignition spark tester just came in gonna check my coils to see if they are the reason for these darn misfires... hopefully it's as simple as that so that I can fix this dam cat/manifold without worrying its gonna break again!!!! If it isn't the coils... I don't know Lol ND sadly our junkyards don't sell any of the cats

mistahlorax13

A shop cleared the codes and said everything will be fine, but I wasn't as lucky as you :/

ezone

So have you driven it a while? Does it still have no power?

mistahlorax13

I have and still poor power I haven't changed cat because still misfires :/ I checked plugs and coils and both are fine read online I should do a compression test now

mistahlorax13

Still trying to figure the misfiring out :/ just tested the fuel injectors and they all are running fine and I also did a compression test I attached what each cylinder read
While doing the test I noticed a bead of oil around the washer on one of my sparkplugs.... am I looking at a damaged head gasket?

ezone

You've now got solid proof that there's an engine problem.
No, you can't say it's a head gasket.
Goal now is to figure out the exact problem BEFORE taking it apart.

==============

180 looks ok, the others are not good
You need to figure out why the 3 cylinders have low compression.

Did you have a battery charger on it during the compression test?
I ask this because if the battery was slowly being drained and cranking RPM was getting slower and slower during the tests, the resulting numbers drop as cranking speed drops. Cranking speed needs to stay consistent throughout the compression testing.

So if cranking speed was OK during that test.....

I would pull the valve cover off and check for tight valves.
If any are tight, adjust valve lash (clearance) as necessary
then do another compression test to see if the low ones came up to match the highest one.

If not greatly improved, then.....
Low compression means there's leakage somewhere. Rings, valves, something inside the cylinder(s) is leaking under pressure.

Next step would be a 'cylinder leakdown test', and see where the leakage is escaping to.