96 Civic Stalls Under Acceleration

96 Civic DX, 225,000 miles, auto, D16Y7 engine.

Trying to help a friend with his (actually his wife's) Civic. Since this is the wife's car I really can't get any info on maintenance. When I ask his wife about when was this or that done/changed, I just get the stare of "you expect me to know that?"

Car starts fine and idles fine. Cruises at speed and decelerates fine. Problem occurs only on acceleration. When accelerating the engine always hesitates to some degree, and on most occasions it stalls. The car will restart without difficulty, but it goes right back to the hesitation/stalling under acceleration. Does this hot or cold. For those of you that ever owned a carburated car it feels just like a broken accelerator pump. Even with all of the stalling, there are no codes set in the ECU.

With no codes stored it makes me think it is something more conventional like plugs, wires, cap, rotor, timing, ect. The only test we ran so far was a misting of the plug wires to check for insulation breaks. No arcing, sputtering or stalling with that test. I know I need to check the plugs and check the cap for burns/cracks, but before I go much further I would like to know if anyone has experienced such a problem with their Civic.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Reply to
Cousin It
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replace plugs - use only ngk or denso replace plug leads - expensive coiled core or oem only replace distributor cap and rotor - oem run injector cleaner through the tank.

visual inspection does not work for any ignition issue unless /real/ lucky.

Reply to
jim beam

Run the engine at night in a dark area. Sometimes you see arcing.

I agree with the proposed plan.

Earle

Reply to
Earle Horton

In addition to the other suggestions, I'd replace the fuel filter.

Reply to
JeB

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Injector cleaner will help a plugged fuel filter, but you probably need to replace it _AND_ use injector cleaner more often.

There may be something deeper though . . . .

'Curly'

Reply to
motsco_

JeB said the following on 5/19/2007 10:31 AM:

I had this same problem with an 83 Nissan Pickup. Turned out to be a clogged fuel filter.

Reply to
Don in San Antonio

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