ok so my b18 was acting funny yesterday

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civiclxb16

Senior Member
OK i drove my hatch to work like i do everyday. no problems. at the end of the day i needed gas and i knew i did so i started the car i usually wait for my mp3 player to start playing before i drive off, being that it was a nice sunny day i knew i didn't need a full warm up. my mp3 player takes a min or 2 to read the format when i put a new cd in. which i made at work. so i go up the block to a gas station that i go to from time to time. stopped told him fill her up. 17 bucks later i start the car and it didn't seem right. now the motor was still not 100% warm yet so i moved from the pump let it get warm but it was acting funny. almost like a hickup. so i got out the car opened the hood everything seemed fine but i heard a small miss from time to time. so i went back in the car and it was idling like normal. so i started my 25 mile trip home. on the highway my car had no power was so ever. so i said let me at least get close to home and i will check it out. once i got to 21 out of 25 miles i got full power back no more hickups everything was like normal. i got home took out my spark plugs checked the gaps cleaned them off checked my plug wires read 7 ohms. so i know my plugs are fine so are my wires. what the hell could that have been? the only thing different about yesterday is that it rained the whole day then stopped about 1 hour before i left. could it have been the mosture in the air? maybe one of my plugs fouled up on me from not being warm and shutting off the car to get gas? i ordered my new spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor, fuel filter, to give it a full tune up, think that was my problem? 100% lost on that one!
 
Could have put bad gas in it.

Maybe the station's tank wasn't sealed when it rained and they got a little water in the mix..
 
well its running just fine now i am changing my spark plugs and all that good stuff tomorrow i hope. but its doing just fine now. just wish i could put my finger on it
 
ok it did it again today! i was on my way to work and i hit the highway then all of a sudden it did it again. now i am clueless! i pulled over and i watched it idle funny. it was going from like 500 to 900 over and over again. i got off the highway and went home and it stopped idling funny when i got to stop lights. and it stopped that crazy hesitation it was doing. i drove it home fine with no problem and took my rx7 to work instead. now the problem happens under the same conditions. last night it rained but this morning it was 85% humidity. the day this happened it rained and then it stopped raining and it was humid out. now do you really think this is my o2 sensor giving me this problem? if so i don't know what sensor i should buy. because its a 92 civic with a 96 b18b should i get a 92 integra o2 sensor? should i get one for a 92 civic? i am using an obd1 ecu so i should look for one for a 92 civic right?
 
well i just changed the cap and rotor and i put a brand new gasket for the cap, so i am not sure if there would be water in there. but here is the the thing. it happens once the car is warm and when i put load on it. ie when i get on the highway the car is nice and warm, then when i step on the gas to get on the highway i feel the hickup! driving it home it did it a few times but then it stopped but i didn't trust it because when i slammed on the gas it started doing it again but then once i got close to home which was about 7 or 8 miles from when i got back off the highway it was fine again! so i am really really lost on here. i checked my timing belt when i changed my valve cover gasket it was nice and tight. so i know my belt and my tensionor is good. (i changed it when i did the swap back last year in nov) so i know i don't have that many miles on the timing belt and water pump. some people are telling me its my o2 sensor starting to go bad on me. which is starting to make sense because it only happens when the car is warm.
 
It sounds like what my friends rex was doing.

Hes got b18b with pr4 head ecu and dizy. What was happening was it did pritty much the same thing as your describing. but he couldent take it past 3K rpms.

Under hard loads like a hill it would get worse.

What it was is the crank position sensor that in his dizy had went out and the barings in the dizy were destroying itself.

So he dook the td23u dizzy appart and took the main wiring out that he could pull. grabbed a 91 si dizy(td18 or something like that) and swapted the wiring from the td23u to the si dizy.
bolted it to the head, pluged it in and started the car.

Runes fine now not a single problem at all.

So have your dizzy checked out and dont pay the redicleious costs for a reman cause IMO 200$ for a reman dizzy is a fucking rip off.
 
wouldn't i get a cel if its my sensor in the dizzy? see what i am thinking is because it happens once the car is warm. i just find it crazy that i can go out start the car let it sit for a few pop it in gear and run fine. it takes me about 7 to 8 miles to get to the highway. then it starts. i am going to replace the o2 sensor its 62 bucks shipped from summit if that doesn't help then i am going to get a new dizzy. o and the fact that it only does it after a rain storm. yesterday it was nice and sunny out and warm i had the windows down and the roof open and it ran flawlessly. but this morning was cool and humid and the problem happened again, just like the day it orig. started.
 
Not really. My friends car for a code 4 which is crank position sensor. which it alwase had.

Even in one of his other cars he had a couple years back had thrown the same code but it ran fine till its death of a spun crank barring.

I would take you dizy off and take as much of it apart as you can if you see alot of metal shavings stuck to the magnets then the barings are going out and is throwing the timing off.

His current rex with the dizy problem above was sounding the same as you described as to what your car is doing.

My friend never got a cel light cause the sensor was going out but his ecu would read code 4 with the led blink thing.

But it alwase read the code from day one but never a problem. The cel light would come on when the car would act up.

Its throwing the timing off and an o2 sensor wont fix it, Iam 99% sure that its the dizy.
 
ok i understand your point, but i don't understand why it only and i mean ONLY happens when it is humid and rainy out. like now its sunny out when i go home i will start the car and take it out on a trip and it will be just fine. so how does that work with your dizzy answer?
 
Ok the timing is partly based on the crank position sensor in the dizzy. Now imagen this. The dizzy is eating itself up. The barings that the shaft spin on are tearing themselves apart. Metal shavings get collected on the magnets, the shaft sence it spins on barings its not gonna spin correctly and throw everything out of wack.

Somedays it will work right then a week later it will fuckup again.

Have the dizzy checked out, tear it apart, get replacment parts if needed.

There are safty torx screws holding the bottem half of the dizzy togeather, honda did this so you cant just replace the barrings and make you have to get a whole new dizzy.

You got a spare car have the dizzy checked out and dont go to an auto zone type place. Find a parts store that will actually take the time to get down to what you exactly need.
 
ok like i said i fully understand what your saying. my dizzy has about 20-30 k on it. i just changed the cap and rotor and i didn't see anything like that. i am not going to take a brand new dizzy apart just to say well that wasn't it. and it still doesn't answer what water has to do with it. thank you for your replies.
 
ok i got home took my cap and rotor took the plastic off over the coil checked for any metal shavings nothing, put everything back together started the car up and nothing. it was nice and dry out, no rain no real humity. started it up let it warm up until the rad fan turned on. took for a good 20 mile run and nothing, came back home let it cool of for a good 2.5 hours took my wife out to the mall which was about 15 miles away and nothing. so that was 50 miles and NOTHING. i am putting my money on the o2 sensor! i ordered one today should be here by friday. but still welcome to opinions
 
And I never said anything about water being anywhere.

Remember the crank position sensor could be bad. I just said y friend problem and how it affected his car.
 
it ended up being bad gas! i pumped my tank out and put some fresh gas in it and it runs great now. i did that because i changed my spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor, dizzy (barrowed one from a friend), o2 sensor, fuel filter, and checked the fuel pump, and it still did the same thing. i changed out the gas and two days now and its running smooth! not a problem yet! lets see what happens when i go to work tomorrow!
 
if you find you still have the gremlins i'm going to go with ignition module. ps selenoids don't dig high humidity or moisture.
 
well it poured two nights ago and i took it out to go to the mall with the wife drove it a good 40 miles that day and nothing! so i am real think it was the bad gas i have not had a problem yet so we shall see what happens tomorrow when i head off to work
 
Well good luck, Usually shell, come and go, bp and sinclare stations have good gas. But then again thats around here and could be different for where your at.
 
i got the gas from a shell gas station. but its running perfect! no problems no hickups nothing! three days now and nothing. thanks for your help man!
 
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