cueist63

98 Civic LX. While driving last week engine just quit on me, tried 3 times to restart and immediately stalled, let it sit for couple minutes and restarted ok and ran fine. Changed the fuel filter and four days later it quit on me again while driving. Am replacing the main relay today and hoping that fixes it. Will keep you all posted.

cueist63

Put in new main relay today and it quit on me again about an hour later. Any one have any ideas about what is causing it to just quit running? It will start back up after I let it sit a few minutes.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

does it die because the idle is dropping too low? or just sudden engine fail.

cueist63

It just suddenly cuts off all together. It's at the shop now and the mechanic
is going to test for bad crank or cam sensor.

Apathy

When that happened to me I needed new spark plugs

ssclayton10

is it a manual?

Apathy

nope. automatic

unconfused

I have this same issue on my Civic.

1998 Honda Civic LX
manual transmission

It used to 'hiccup' while driving. Dash warning lights would flash, but the car would keep operating. In the past few months that 'hiccup' would result in the car stalling. I could leave it off for 1-2 minutes and then it would start again.

It doesn't seem to matter what gear it is in or what speed the car is going.

I've had it at a garage recently but they could not seem to reproduce the problem. They thought that it might be related to Recall ID# 38930:
http://www.internetautoguide.com/aut...073/index.html
However my VIN was not part of this recall. The garage I took it to replaced this part, and I still have the same issue. However, now it is somewhat 'worse'. Now there is no longer any 'hiccup'. I'll be driving and the engine will suddenly quit without warning.

I'll keep you posted. Any suggestions are welcome.

cueist63

My mechanic found that my distributer and cap were defective, he replaced them and put on new ignition wires last Friday, so far so good.

hb pickup

Ignition! Hell I was going with fuel delivery

cueist63

It quit on me again while driving on Tuesday, back to the shop this morning.

cueist63

Sometimes when I first start the car it will run for about half a second and die, might do this once or twice in a row and then it starts fine. Bought a new ignition switch yesterday on ebay so will see how that works out.

sylver

Check the Oxygen sensor. My engine light just turned on 3 days ago and the engine almost quit today while I was driving. AutoZone said it was the a/f sensor. I'm taking it to Midas tomorrow.

hb pickup

Anybody check fuel pressure? The manifold pressure sensor? Idle air control valve?

marek91

check your fuel pump

DeX

Same problem with my ex girlfriend's car over the weekend. She called me when it happened and I thought fuel delivery as well. Then she brought it to a shop the next day and he said it's the distributor.

Check your timing to see if something got adjusted there while fooling with the distributor. Also turn the key to ACC and see if you can hear the fuel pump coming on. If not that it could also be the fuel pump relay.

cueist63

I called the honda dealer yesterday and there is a recall on my ignition switch, goes in today to be replaced. The one I bought on ebay didn't fit.

DeX

Can you explain it in more detail exactly what the problem is?

slow hatch

I had the same prob and it got more frequent till i took my ign switch out and you can seperate the two pieces and find the contact point corrode i sanded them down a little and it worked for a few months then started again. sure enough took it apart and it was worn down to nothin so took one out of another honda at the junk yard and has been fine for the last 8 months.

ssclayton10

well according to the recall that guy posted about the electrial problem i mean if you have too many watts flowing through your ignition switch it sounds like to me its nothing that a simple relay cant fix. but idk.

cueist63

Looks like problem solved. Called Honda dealer and there was a recall on my
ignition switch. Had it replace at dealer for free on Tuesday, been fine since.
Thanks for all the help.

cRaZyTrOy48

i have the same exact problem it only happens to me either wen its too cool outside or wen it has low gas my car is automatic it only turns off wen the rpm's go down to 1 i did a diagnostic and found out i have throttle malfunctions and bad oxygen sensors if that helps..

29stitches

Try replacing a main engine relay.
The part is: BWD Intermotor Relay R4803

I had this problem with my 1998 Civic LX sedan 5spd.

It went on for an entire a year. I would be driving along and my car would randomly shut off. When it first started happening it would start up right away. But then it would take longer and longer to start up each time. Sometimes I'd be stuck on the side of the road for 5-15 minutes before it would start up again.

So I started throwing new parts into it, one at a time until the problem was finally solved; spark plugs, wires, distributor cap & rotor, the entire distributor, starter, battery terminals, battery, and fuel filter. Even after replacing all of these parts I still had the same problem. Finally I replaced this relay 6 months ago and its worked great ever since.

I was ready to sell this car because of this problem... But now with all new electrical system. There's no way I'm selling this Hoddy

Spiffy_B

Check your o2 sensors, upstream and downstream or whichever one your check engine light says it is (thats if it's on). I recently found out two things, if you need new o2 sensors your civic will run like crap. Rough idles at lights and may even cut off just like how the OP said. I also learned not to buy those cheap ebay or rockauto $30 o2 sensors, mine only last a few months and now I'm back to these bad running conditions. Thank goodness that I'll probably be back working for Autozone in a couple days.

jampowers

Thx. for this info. I've had exact problem on my 1998 Civic 5-sp. Will try the relay to resolve problem!