JulyNightmare

I have a 2002 Honda Civic w/ 125k miles, which has had the following problems over the past few months:

Problem 1 (3/30) Working perfectly, get off at exit to fill gas. After filling gas, wouldn't accelerate. Turned car off for a few minutes, turned it back on and it worked a little better. Drove to a mechanic. Mechanic looked at it (eyeballed) and said I probably got bad gas, to run fuel cleaner. Left mechanic and it worked fine. Ran fuel cleaner as advised and ran fine until next problem.

Problem 2 (4/30) Working perfectly, sitting in drive-thru. After putting in park, switch back to drive and it accelerates super slow, regardless of how much I rev it. Drove to a mechanic going 5 mph max. Mechanic looks at it and tells me I need the new timing belt, tension, water pump, etc package (this wasn't a surprise, I knew it was past time for this service). They do the full standard timing belt, water pump, etc change and it works perfectly until next problem.

Problem 3 (7/2) Working perfectly, drive about 40 miles, and at one point, go to rev it and it struggles to accelerate again (but not as bad as problem #2) I continue trying to make it to destination and problem gets worse, seems to have a lot of problems accelerating in lower gears (getting gas, but not going), but upper gears seemed a little better. Parked it. Decided to try to make it back and acceleration problems persisted through the next 15 minutes of drive, but greatly subsided by the end of the 40 mile return drive.


Anyways guys, I'm currently stuck out of town for the next few days, with this problem, during the 4th of July weekend. No shop will be open until Tuesday. Trying to figure out my best play I'm not mechanically inept, but I don't know a whole lot about cars.... Was it bad mechanic work? Is it something else? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

MelJ

Does the car have the Check Engine Light illuminated? If so, go to an Advance, Auto Zone, or some other store that lends out the scanner for free and pull the codes to get a general idea of what's going on. Hopefully it isn't a transmission issue.

Kennykid2002

iTrader: (1)

Could probably also be your gears slipping badly

Does it accelerate fine after you rev it pretty high and finally the gear "catches" ?

MindBomber

I suspect the ecu has codes stored indicating the problem, like Mel said, get those read and come back.

I also don't think the timing belt had anything to do with the issues your experiencing.

JulyNightmare

The check engine light is not on. The SRS is on, but the mechanic told me that there is no problem with it and to ignore it, when I drove it off from the place... and that they couldn't get it to go off.

Sorry, I forgot to mention is that they changed the Cam/Crank sensors. The cam/crank sensor is what the code read, when I took it to the mechanic, so it was the primary problem... and they did the timing belt, etc. because it was time and because they were going to be in, doing the sensors.

My friend says that he thinks it may be the cam sensor still... he says they may have used aftermarket parts, which are known to fail quickly?

lazlong

Get the codes read and see if it's still throwing that code. Post back with the specific codes, if any.

JulyNightmare

Is it even throwing a code, if the check engine light is not on?

Looks like I may be in trouble

MelJ

There could still be codes stored, but the criteria hasn't been met for it to actually pop up on the dash. Or it's a possibility that the ckp and cmp sensors are sending false readings.

MindBomber

Yes, the ecu can store codes without activating the cel.

You need to clear the srs code and find a new mechanic, the advice he gave you is dangerous, if the light is on your air bags will not deploy.

tkrotchko

iTrader: (1)

Your car may have needed a timing belt, but it had nothing to do with your problem #2. I wouldn't go to this mechanic any more.

When the car goes this slow, if you put it in neutral (Park) and rev the engine, what happens? Does it act normal?

rjones7755

The tranny on my old 01' failed around the same time and what your describing sounds alot like what happened to me