Originally Posted by simprince

My car is a Civic 96 EX manual with 120,000 miles

Since about two months ago, my car has suffered from the problem of suddenly losing power while I am driving during the first 15 min from cold start. So basically when I start my car and drive it on the road, during about the first 15 min, there will be a moment where the car suddenly slows down as if no gas has been pushed into the engine. This symptom happens in gear 2, 3, 4, and 5. When I encounter this problem, I shift to a lower gear - because the car slows down - and the car becomes normal again. Such a symptom may happen once or twice during the first 15 min and after that, there's absolutely no problem. But if I use my car every day, this problem will disappear - I usually drive it once a week.

These are the part replacement or services done over the past year:
distributor, spark plug and wires, fuel filter, battery. I also had oil change last month and tried techron fuel system cleaner. CEL is not on.

Originally Posted by Scott96EX

when you drive does it get very little power or no power at all? little confused

Originally Posted by simprince

Thanks so much for your reply. I research online for this problem and it seems to be the cause. How much $ did your mechanic ask for replacing it?

Originally Posted by renton83

I'd like to know what the cause is too since my 98 Civic does it too. I can't see it being the camshaft sensor though since it mainly happens when the engine is cold, the cam sensor would be a issue all the time.

Originally Posted by renton83

On mine it only happens if I'm giving it part throttle, the rpm will just suddenly drop and I have to floor it to overcome this, yours like this at all?