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Hello all,
I just signed up at this site. I have an 04 civiv, VP. somewhere between an lx and DX I believe. I bought it off the showroom floor when it had 6 miles on it. I'm now pushing 150,000. Overall its been a good car. I'm wanting to do a couple things and fix a couple things. Any and all help is appreciated.

First, I have had a problem with it missing for awhile. Sometimes when it idles, sometimes not. It seems to always have the problem when I mash the gas down, but I can ease into it. When I change plugs, it is fixed for about 2 weeks. I've gone hotter and colder on plugs with no difference. It has a short ram intake and a performance muffler, but they have been on there too long to be the cause. Sometimes the engine light will come on, but not always, then when it does, it sometimes flashes. Is there a way to do a self diagnosis?

Also, I've had millie milligan 17's on it since I bought it. It wears out tires left and right. Recently however, I noticed that on the rear driver's side tire it is wearing diagonally. The tire man said that it must have a bad strut, but I fail to see how that would cause it to wear in such a way. Is there a way to set alignment in the rear?

Sorry about the long post, but I felt it needed to be explained as such.

 
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your due for a complete tune up the timeing belt is a very important start all belts,water pump ,timeing belt tensioner, plugs get denso iridium.also a valve adjustment and all the gaskits that go along with it. maybe evan fuel filter,and try some synthetic oil mobil 1,or royle purple,some fuel system cleaner, synthetic fiber oil filter,honda transmission fluid,and a alignment .that should cover it.when you bring it in have them check the check engine light code to see whats going on.

 
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you can try testing the coil packs resistance to see if they are all within the same range, otherwise its possible there might be more serious problems like leaking head gasket. are you loosing any coolant?

 
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The uneven tire wear can be from several things.

First, is your car lowered? If it is you probably didn't purchase a camber kit to straighten out your wheels.

Second, I've had a bad shock / strut before go out on me on my rear right side and yes driving on it for a good 400 miles definetly cause inner wear on my rear tires since it was rubbing the inner fender from sitting so low but only in a weird pattern.

Whichever the case the average american driver changes his oil every 3,000 miles and gets his tires aligned or at least verified every 6 months. if you haven't done the alignment portion since you got it thats definetly the case.

 
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Thanks for the help. I wasn't aware that rear tires could have alignment issues on these cars. I'm pretty regular about changing the oil. I have been running amsoil since the break in was over. I know that the engine problem is not a head gasket. I'm losing no water, or oil and water is oil free and oil is water free. I run fuel system cleaner every couple of months. I guess I'll try some of the above reccommended plugs this weekend. As far as my belts and water pump go, they are all in good working order. My car is not lowered. If I lowered it at all, it would compromise my access to most places around here. I once put some neons under it and they lasted less than a week. I can do almost any work needed on my car that I need to. As far as testing the coil packs, that sounds like a good troubleshooting solution, how would this be done?

 
Rep Power: 812

get a multimeter and set it to measure resistance. the coil pack has three metal contacts and you need to find the right combination of two that gives you an ohm reading. compare the ohm readings between all the coils and they should be very similar. if one is way off, its bad.

 
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cool, thanks. I can test that when I get home. I'll let you guys know what I find out.