Rep Power: 0

1998 Honda Civic, auto trans. The first thing that happened was I was driving and I suddenly lost power. The check engine light came on. Engine was on but I was decelerating even with the gas pedal down. I gave it more gas and heard the engine rev, but i still kept slowing down. It only lasted literally a couple seconds and then it kicked back in to normal, and I drove another 50 miles without any other problems. Within a day or two I got a crank no start, I believe the check engine light stayed on while it was cranking. Did about 5 or 6 cranks with no start. I stopped, waited a few minutes, tried again and it started right up. At this point maybe a few days went by with no problems. Then I got another crank no start several times. Again, after waiting a few minutes I tried again and it started. Got the crank no start problem maybe 3 or 4 times spread out with a few days between each. A few days ago I'm driving about 10 minutes in and I suddenly lose power like the first time. Engine stays on but I am stuck decelerating, gas has no effect, engine revs when I give it gas but I have no power, almost like I switched the car into neutral. Check engine light is on entire time. It lasts about 6 seconds (seems like forever when you are on freeway and slowing down to around 40). Then it just kicks back to normal. Then on the return trip home, I'm at a stop sign for about 60 seconds and my car stalls. I try to start and get the crank no start for several attempts. Someone helps me push the car to the side of the road. Incidentally, I stall right next to an automotive shop. So I decide ok time to have a mechanic check it out. The mechanic nicely offers to pull my car into the lot with his truck, I tell him usually when my car won't start, a few minutes later it clears up, let me check if it will start. Sure enough 5 minutes after it stalled at the stop sign it starts up no problem. So the mechanic hooks it up to his computer and tells me the car computer doesn't report anything unusual at all. And he drives it around and checks it out for a day and he just can't figure out what the problem is because the car doesn't mess up in front of him. He says he is stumped. I'm stumped too. Not like I know anything about fixing cars.

I'm hoping someone here will have a clue as to what it could be. Keep in mind I'm not going to try and fix it myself (unless it's something really easy like tightening a screw). But if anyone can give me a good clue as to what to check, maybe I'll take it to a shop that specializes in hondas and tell them what hopefully someone here can tell me.

Thanks for taking the time.

 
Rep Power: 518

Your biggest problem will be that it needs to act up in order to begin figuring out what went wrong, act up long enough to figure out a positive diagnosis, and hope that whomever is checking it is sharp.

It's a whole lot easier to figure out something that is very broken than it is to figure out something that is working perfectly.


(wild stab) Loss of fuel: Main relay? Poor ground connections on the thermostat housing?