Rep Power: 0

Hi everyone,

I have a problem with my 96 civic. The CEL light came on and the codes are reading misfire on cyl 2 and 4. The problem started about 2 months ago, on cold morning starts it runs really rough until the car is warmed up. After the cars warmed up everything runs fine but the gas milage has gone down alot. I used to get about 550 km's to a tank and now im only getting about 350-400. Its a single cam engine with a 5 spd tranny and about 230k kms. I pulled #2 and 4 cyl plugs and they look good also. Im going nuts trying to figure things out. The tune up was done about 2 years ago when I bought the car. Thanks for any input.

 
Rep Power: 245

Check your spark plug wire resistance to be sure they are all within specification. Also, at the last tune up was your distributor cap and rotor replaced?

 
Rep Power: 0

Hey thanks for the tip, Im going to change the cap, rotor, plugs, wires. Im not sure if they were changed the last time, but Im changing them this time so hopefully it fixes the problem.

 
Rep Power: 0

Well, I think its fixed now. After starting it from overnight, things seem to be running nice and smooth. Changed out the plugs, wires, cap, rotor, pcv, air filter and fuel filter. Car seems to be running better, but why would I need a tune up a year into it, I thought tune-ups were about every two years?

 
Rep Power: 245

I wouldn't say every two years. The cap/rotor/wires are good for 100,000 miles (I've personally had several OEM wires go for 200,000 miles with zero problems and still meet specifications). The plugs are every 30,000 miles. My guess is the distributor cap was slightly loose letting in moisture or was contaminated before installing (as it has an O ring to keep it sealed). Or, what plugs did you pull out? I always run NGK because of consistency, but Denso would be my only second choice.

 
Rep Power: 812

if you use cheap auto store components, then yeah they prolly wont even last a year. stick with name brands like NGK or oem. i cant even count how many "Xact brand" plug wires and E3 spark plugs were being returned sometimes after a few months because they fail so fast.