Rep Power: 0

My son owns a 2000 Civic EX. He left my house to go to his apartment and the engine died about a mile away. The engine refused to restart and the battery eventually died from all the cranking. We had the car towed to a shop and they replaced the distributor. A few days later the car died again on his way to his apartment. The car died slightly sooner than the previous time. Maybe 7/8 of a mile. He was able to restart the car so we drove straight to the car parts store and they tested the battery, said the battery was weak and replaced it.

My son was finally able to drive all the way to his apartment, about 35 miles mostly on the highway. I am thinking the issue might not be fully fixed if it is the fuel pump or something electrical. The cap and rotor were replaced in 2017. The spark plugs and spark plug wires were replaced in 2018. The fuel filter was replaced about 6 months ago. Car is only driven around 6000 miles per year.

Has anyone had a similar problem? Thanks in advance for any advice.

 
Rep Power: 221

Try the main relay, if they put in an aftermarket distributor, get an OEM one from a junkyard and put it in

 
Rep Power: 366

check for cracks in the distributor cap before that

 
Rep Power: 0

It has been a week and my Son says the car is running fine. Thanks to everyone who replied.

 
Rep Power: 366

so, no further changes done since your post?

 
Rep Power: 0

Nothing has been touched on the car since I worked on it 2 weekends ago. It did throw a P0131 code after the battery replacement so I bought an upstream O2 sensor and am waiting to get my hands on the car. I am pretty sure the P0131 has nothing to do with the engine randomly dying.

 
Rep Power: 221

Well it could if the malfunctioning sensor caused the engine to go super rich or lean and stall.
I just replaced the primary on my 2000 and when the light came on it was driving poorly and at a stop sometimes the revs would almost drop to zero. The past few months it would idle very low once in awhile but the light wasn't on at that point

 
Rep Power: 0

Aha, I had not thought of that. The shop said the distributor was bad and they replaced it. When it died the second time, the parts store said the battery was bad and they replaced it. I have the O2 sensor now and am just waiting for my Son to visit so I can swap it.

 
Rep Power: 221

Did you figure out if they put an OEM or aftermarket distributor on it?

 
Rep Power: 0

Pretty sure it is not a Honda brand distributor. I can check it the next time I work on the car.

 
Rep Power: 221

Grab an OEM one from a junkyard and keep it in the car as a backup. Grab an be from a wrecked car because you know it was working before it ended up in the yard