Rep Power: 267

When I'm going up hill and I switch gears, the load put on the engine during the switch causes (what feels like) the engine to run on 3 cylinders instead of 4. After about 2 seconds, the 4th cyclinder catches up and I'm running on 4 again. But I still lack power because I know what a civic is supposed to feel like. When I am running the A/C and I take off in first, during energy transfer to the clutch/trany, the car almost wants to die but never has. Also, the car functions the worst when the engine gets hot, such as when going up hill in the mountains. The car literally loses like half it's power it seems.

I did a tuneup not too long ago but I didn't replace my ignition coil because I just didn't think of it at the time. Previously, I had issues with the car not starting due to ignition (not starter) problems. After I replaced the distributor/rotor, problem went away but the car still wasn't and isn't performing like it should.

 
Rep Power: 813

its hard to figure this out, cause whenever my car cant make it up a gentle hill faster than 35mph, i just say oh its only a 90hp civic thats why. did you also change the plug wires with a good oem brand like ngk? our accord was having similar problems that you describe, and replacing the rotor, cap, wires, and plugs fixed all the issues and it actually feels powerful again. and what are you thinking keeping the ac on lol. turn that off and dont use it unless youre cruising on flat road. you might as well stab a metal rod thru the engine thats how it feels when you use the ac.

 
Rep Power: 267

I rarely use the AC, only when cruzing down the highway in the summer. How do you figure 90hp? Mine has 105 and yours should have more. Any way, my DX auto was much peppier than this one, so I'm certain something aint right. And when it warms up, it gets even worse.

I checked the ignition coil for resistance and it failed one of the two tests. From A to B, it should be .63-.77, but mine was zero. I kept trying it different ways but I could only produce a .000. Is that possible or did I do the test wrong?. The other test was 16.3 which was in spec (12.8-19.2).

 
Rep Power: 813

i put my car on the dyno, got around 90 stock, and 100 with lots of mods. right now with only i/h/e im guessing maybe somewhere around 95 hp. autos always have less power than manuals. a comparable manual civic like mine dynoed around 105-110 hp. this is all wheel hp, not what the engine actually puts out. so if youre saying your auto felt faster than manual, somethings definately wrong. how long have you had the stock coil? maybe its just time for a new one. esp if you say it gets worse as it warms up. some auto parts stores have free ignition coil testing machines. i know advance auto did, but we dont have any of those. may want to check around tho.

 
Rep Power: 267

Like I said, everything but the IC was changed. NGK wires, japanese rotor/cap, NGK plugs (excellent condition), OEM fuel filter, OEM air filter, FP60 on occasion, it's all good.

I just checked online to see what zero resistence means, and it means it's a dead short. So I guess that means the resistor isn't resisting anymore. I remember honda changing my ignition coil on my auto, and it made a big difference at 100k.

 
Rep Power: 267

130k on the current original one.

 
Rep Power: 813

yeah just get a new coil, prolly best to stick with honda and not a cheap generic from auto store.

 
Rep Power: 267

I bought one from honda just to test but that one reads zero resistance from A to B too. It's probably not the coil. In fact, I think it was the distributor cap terminals. I cleaned them with a wire brush attachment on my dremel tool, and the car is working good. I'm glad cause I can't afford 106 bones right now. -_-