carterb

My son has one of my Honda Civics at college. It is an 2007 LX 2-dr coupe with manual transmission. Today he went to start the car after about 5 days of sitting in the parking lot, and he says the car is running real rough, will not accelerate (stumbles), and the check engine lite is blinking. He shut the engine down. Also said he could smell some gas when he first started it. When he drove it prior to this, no issues- car drove fine. The original engine was replaced at 38K miles for a cracked block issue under warranty at the dealer about 9 months ago. The new engine has about 5K miles on it. The battery may be starting to get low.

Any ideas or simple things to check first? Can a partially low battery cause of these issues ? (I had this problem one time with a GM car.)

Here's the rub: the college is 135 miles from home and from the dealership. If I flatbed the car back to the dealer, cost will be fairly expensive, I'm sure. Engine is still under warranty. Also my troubleshooting will be done by phone.

Any help is appreciated.

Carter

BlueEM2

iTrader: (1)

Is there a dealership closer to the college? Warranty should cover it regardless of what dealership you take it to. Running rough can be caused by a ton of stuff. You need to get the check engine code read.

MindBomber

A low battery could be the cause, but it wouldn't be to low after only four days in the parking lot unless its extremely cold. I'd suggest having it towed to the dealership to have the codes read, if its running as rough as you describe then driving may cause damage.

carterb

Car was picked up and flat-bedded to the dealer yesterday evening. (Cost a few bucks for that.) We'll see what is diagnosed on Monday ...

Carter

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

prolly a misfire of some kind. and if the engine light is flashing, it means the problem is serious enough that it shouldnt be driven anymore. my bet is the engine has issues, maybe even a cracked block again. replacing the engine doesnt mean the problem goes away.

DknollRX7

First off, I don't think that a low battery would be the cause of this condition. From what information you've given me, it sounds like you have a misfire. The dead giveaway is the flashing check engine light. On modern cars, the check engine light flashing is an indication of a catalyst damaging condition (misfires which allow unburned gas to reach the catalytic converter). This would also fit the complaint of no power/stumbling and an odor of gas. Once the ECU sees that a cylinder has a dead miss it will eventually cut the fuel injector of that specific cylinder to prevent any further damage to the cat. My best advice would be to get a code reader in order to find out which cylinder is missing. The reader will say, "cylinder misfire #1/2/3/4". At that point you will know which cylinder is missing. The next step is to narrow down the problem. Let me give you an example:

Lets say your code reads cylinder #3 misfire. BTW cylinders should be numbered 1-4 with 1 being closest to the drive belts. The next step would be to move around your spark plugs and coils to locate the source of the problem. In this situation, you should swap spark plus on cylinders #1 and #3 so the questionable spark plug has moved to E1 and a good spark plug is in #3. That takes care of the spark plugs. At the same time you should swap the ignition coils...lets say #3 and #4 for example. Now you will have a known good coil on #3 and the questionable coil has been moved to #4. Now reassemble everything and clear your faults with the code reader. Start the car and it should start running rough again with the check engine light flashing. Now use your code reader to get the information as to which cylinder has a misfire. In the above scenario, if the misfire is at #1, then the spark plug is faulty (doesn't happen too often for 1 plug to bad). If the new misfire is at #4 then your ignition coil is faulty (more likely). If the faulty is still at #3, then there is some mechanical issue and you will have to do a compression test and compare all of your cylinders. #3 should have lower compression when compared to the other cylinders so you will then need to do a cylinder leakdown test which helps narrow down where you're losing compression on a given cylinder.

If you know #3 has lower compression, you'll have to remove the #3 spark plug and get the #3 cylinder to TDC on the compression stroke so all your intake and exhaust valves are closed. Then screw in your cylinder leakdown kit into the spark plug hole and hook up shop air to it. Ideally you want fewer than 10% leakdown for a given cylinder. If your leakdown is greater than 10%, you'll have to use your eyes and ears to find it. For instance if you have a high leakdown listen to the tailpipe for rushing air (exhaust valve leaking), pull out your airbox and listen for rushing air (intake valves leaking), open your radiator cap and check for bubbles (leaking past the head gasket and into your coolant which might also be brownish in color if oil has gotten into it), and open your oil filler cap or dipstick tube and listen for rushing air (leaking past piston rings).

Sorry I know that's a lot of technical information, but I hope it helps a little. Let me know what you find.

carterb

Well, got the verdict from the dealer service dept. Turns out that mice or another rodent (squirrel?) had got into the engine compartment and chewed up 3 spark plug wires! Apparently my son parks in the same spot all the time and doesn't drive the car too often. I was told that this sometimes happens if a car sits for more than a couple days in the same spot .... it had only been sitting for 5 days ...

My son also told me that when they picked up the car, another wrecker was cruising the parking lot to pick up another car (same problem?).

Anyone ever heard of this happening in a public parking lot ?! New one for me ....

Carter

lazlong

^^ Yeah, happens all the time. Animals crawl up there for the warmth from the engine. Try going to start the rig at work and a cat gets sliced and diced by the fan. Not only did we have to replace the fan we had to clean it too. YUCK! lol.

You can tell him to not park by the trees in that lot but, it's so random I don't know if it will do any good.

DknollRX7

Glad to hear it. I was certain that it would be a misfire of some kind. I agree, animals chewing on electrical wiring is a fairly common problem. I work as a BMW technician and I've seem my fair share of animal related issues. There really isn't too much you can do to avoid it and animals do seem to tend to find their way into the engine bays moreso in the winter time to stay warm. My best advice would be to drive the car everyday so that nothing tries to nest there. Glad you got it fixed.

etusch

Hı I have almost same issue with small difference. It is 1.8 petrol engine civic hb 2007 make.
When I started it mornings it starts working roughly and a few later it stops. Last time firstly battery light went on then engine stoped. Sometimes Engine doesn't stop itself. In this condition engine light starts flashing, throttle doesn't effect engine, car doesn't accelerate. Then I shut it down then restart and everything is normal until the next day or maybe next 3-4 day.