QuestionMy car was running fine up until a few days ago. Below is a brief detail of events the car went through.
Monday - (running fine) Got an oil change.
Tuesday - (running fine) Then on the way home from work, the weather was bad, snow/sleet/freezing rain everthings going good though. I stop at speedway for some soda, get back in my car and it has trouble starting. Fires up the second time, but was running differently.. Drive it about 1/4 a mile down the road and it just dies. Batterys good, headlights and all that still on so I restart it and it's shaking and bogging out.. Start to go and it dies again. I park it in a near by parking lot and leave it over night.
Wednesday - Go to get the car, starts up but had trouble starting.. Its fuel injected yet it would only start if I held the gas pedal down. Still shaking and bogging out, making a clicking noise in the engine.. I manage to drive it home.. I gas on it and it feels as if it has very little power... The rpms read about 2500 but from what i hear the engine sounds as if its at about 5000 rpms.. I thought there maybe me water in the gas so I put in some gas treatment stuff that's supposed to help in case of water in the gas. Didn't seem to help.
Thursday - Change the air filter and spark plugs.. It's still doing to same things.. I noticed some rust on two of the old spark plugs rings which came out of the two cylinfers on the passenger hand side of the car.. I'm assuming that means there was water in the engine? The clicking noise is still going on and the car still boggs out and what not.. What do you think could be my problem here? What should I do about it? Would it be a lifter, valve, or rocker arm clapping? Also my engine light is on..
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
2001 Honda Civic EX
1.7 liter VTEC engine
5 speed manual transmission
140,000 miles
AnswerHi Jon,
My first suggestion would be to NOT use the car if that is possible to avoid additional damage that may occur through use until you can throughly test the assembly.
I agree that the water on the spark plugs could have been caused by water entering the cylinder which would indicate a head gasket leak. An easy way to test if combustion gases are making it to the cooling system would be to fill the radiator or overflow and tighten the cap. Start the engine and allow to run for about a minute, even if you need to help it to keep it running. Turn it off and immediately feel the upper radiator hose. If it is stiff from pressure, you have combustion gases in the cooling system and that points directly to a head gasket leak, a cracked head or a cracked block.
Typically, the head gasket would be the culprit, but with 140K on that engine, it could very well be any of the three, especially being accompanied by a clicking sound which sometimes indicates a crack in the head. It could be that coolant is ALSO mixing with the crank-case oil which is thinning it to the point it is making the lifters chatter. You can check this right after you check the upper hose by pulling the dipstick. If it looks similar to chocolate milk and is somewhat overfull, you have bigger problems. If coolant is getting into the cylinder(s) as well as the crank-case, it almost always ends up being a crack in either the block or head.
I don't think reading the stored codes will help you any here, but it is always a good idea to arm yourself with that information too.
I don't totally understand what you mean by the cylinders on the passenger's side of the car? If you have a 1.7L vTEC, that is an alloy in-line four cylinder with a single overhead cam, aren't all of the spark plugs on the same side of the head?
Thanks for the question, I hope this information was helpful to you.
Fred
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