snafu

Let me preface this post by noting that I don't know very much about cars so please use small words

My wifes 98 civic died last weekend and wouldn't start. We took it to the mechanic who verified that it was a bad distributor and replaced it. When I picked the car up to drive it home I noted that the acceleration was very 'mushy' especially at low speed (basically you could put the accelerator to the floor and it wouldn't do much of anything for 3-5 secs). Once it gets up to cruising speed it seems more 'normal' but still lacks that punch when you put your foot down. We've been driving it since midweek and oddly it seems to have semi fixed itself (its still sluggish, esp at lowspeed) but its much better than it was at first....curious no? So my question is, what could be going on here? And secondly, what kinds of things 'should' the mechanic have done after replacing the.distributor? Is there anything that must b tuned or calibrated after replacing a distributor? I want to be armed with some good knowledge before I speak to him again.

Many thanks in advance!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

he shouldve adjusted the ignition timing otherwise it would run as you described, like crap.

snafu

That was my guess,thanks for the confirmation gearbox. Im at a loss to explain how/why it seemed to improve with driving though ... still not 100% but definitely better

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

possibly the ecu trying to compensate by adjusting other things. not the right way to do it and it will never be perfect. it can even cause other problems eventually.