I posted this message in rec.autos.makers.honda but have had no luck with a
> decent response. I hate posting a Honda Question in a Mustang forum but you
> all seem to know what you're talking about, a lot more then those guys over
> there. I appreciate any advice you can give me.
>
>
> Hello All,
>
> A friend of mine has a 1992 Civic VX with approximately 130,000 miles and
> has had some problems. To me, it appears that there is some kind of problem
> with the ignition system. The engine hesitates at times and has sudden
> bursts of energy (like it's only running on 3 cylinders at times). I
> changed all the spark plugs, wires, and the distributor cap. Unfortunately,
> they were out of the rotor she needed. The original plugs had their usual
> wear and tear, but no excessive amount of build-up. After installing
> everything, the car ran perfect, it was like a new car again. Then about a
> week later, it started acting up again with the exact same symptoms. I
> checked the wires to make sure I hadn't accidentally left one loose, but
> they all felt fine.
>
> The guy at the part shop where I got everything told me that the 1992 Civic
> VX had a special set of wires, which I got. He also told me that it needed
> platinum plugs, which I *didn't* get because I had already bought Bosch
> plugs at Pep Boys a few minutes earlier. The guy also told me that if the
> car didn't run right to come back in and get the right plugs. From that,
> the next two things I was going to try are to replace all the plugs with
> platinum, and the rotor, which shouldn't have any more then 30,000 miles on > it.
>
> My first question is, what, if anything, will the platinum plugs do? I've
> always been told that the platinum plugs were a waste of money and did
> nothing to improve the performance for your car. Secondly, could anybody
> give me any other advice? I'm not sure why the car would have run so great
> for the first week and then go right back to what it was doing before.
Hmmm not a mechanic but I had a similar problem with a Toyota that was stalling, I replaced the rotor and cap (which were pretty bad) and it went away for a short while, then started stalling again.
Turns out the timing belt was badly in need of replacement, which I think fouled up the new cap and rotor, leading to the mysterious "hey it's fixed, ohhh, damn maybe not" thing. Anyway theoretically a new rotor and cap will have more point surface area (and are clean) when spanking new so the timing problem isn't quite as bad until they wear down and foul a little. I think both of those things are accelerated by the timing issue. But this is all speculation. The surging could be the EEC trying to compensate for the timing too. Anyway all of this is moot if the belt/chain on it has been replaced.