1990 Civic Power Loss and Shudders

I have a 1990 Honda Civic 4 door with 196k. The car has been running great.
The car now seems to have a power loss at low rpm and jerks and shudders
untill about 3000 rpm when it will kick back in and perform. I have
changed the fuel filter, have new plugs, wires, dist/cap/rotor and all my
vac lines appear in good shape. Anybody delt with this please drop a line.

"Zakatak" > wrote in
lkaboutautos.com:

> I have a 1990 Honda Civic 4 door with 196k. The car has been running
> great. The car now seems to have a power loss at low rpm and jerks and
> shudders untill about 3000 rpm when it will kick back in and perform.
> I have changed the fuel filter, have new plugs, wires, dist/cap/rotor
> and all my vac lines appear in good shape. Anybody delt with this
> please drop a line.
>
>


EGR valve sticking open?

Oh, Terry, where are you?!

--
TeGGeR®

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

Zakatak wrote:
> I have a 1990 Honda Civic 4 door with 196k. The car has been running great.
> The car now seems to have a power loss at low rpm and jerks and shudders
> untill about 3000 rpm when it will kick back in and perform. I have
> changed the fuel filter, have new plugs, wires, dist/cap/rotor and all my
> vac lines appear in good shape. Anybody delt with this please drop a line.
>
try the thermostat. it you're still on the original, it'll almost
certainly be out of spec. by now. mine was & changing it removed
symptoms like you describe. also check the operation of the throttle
body's tandem valve.

Zakatak wrote:
> I have a 1990 Honda Civic 4 door with 196k. The car has been running great.
> The car now seems to have a power loss at low rpm and jerks and shudders
> untill about 3000 rpm when it will kick back in and perform. I have
> changed the fuel filter, have new plugs, wires, dist/cap/rotor and all my
> vac lines appear in good shape. Anybody delt with this please drop a line.


-------------------------

What's the details on your timing belt . . It sounds like it's off a
tooth or two. Is it better once the engine warms up, or just the same?

'Curly'

Not sure about the timing belt. That is something that I don't have
knowledge of. The two other posts metioned EGR and Tandem Valves. The
tandem appears to be fine but I can't locate the EGR.

Where is the EGR on this car? Guess I should buy another Haynes manuel.

Zakatak wrote:
> Not sure about the timing belt. That is something that I don't have
> knowledge of. The two other posts metioned EGR and Tandem Valves. The
> tandem appears to be fine but I can't locate the EGR.
>

Where are you located? I think a lot of US models from that vintage do
not have the EGR if they are not California models. Possibly one trim
line does have it regardless of being a Cali model, maybe the STD (hatch
only trim). I'm not sure though. My '91 Si does not have an EGR valve.

Mark

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 19:59:08 -0700, jim beam >
wrote:

>Zakatak wrote:
>> I have a 1990 Honda Civic 4 door with 196k. The car has been running great.
>> The car now seems to have a power loss at low rpm and jerks and shudders
>> untill about 3000 rpm when it will kick back in and perform. I have
>> changed the fuel filter, have new plugs, wires, dist/cap/rotor and all my
>> vac lines appear in good shape. Anybody delt with this please drop a line.
>>
>try the thermostat. it you're still on the original, it'll almost
>certainly be out of spec. by now. mine was & changing it removed
>symptoms like you describe. also check the operation of the throttle
>body's tandem valve.

Also, check to make sure that the timing advance mechanisms in the
distributer are working properly.

Chopface > wrote in
:

> Zakatak wrote:
>> Not sure about the timing belt. That is something that I don't have
>> knowledge of. The two other posts metioned EGR and Tandem Valves. The
>> tandem appears to be fine but I can't locate the EGR.
>>
>
> Where are you located? I think a lot of US models from that vintage do
> not have the EGR if they are not California models.



The automatic had EGR, the manual did not. True for all states and Canada.



--
TeGGeR®

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

(Gordon McGrew) wrote in
:

> On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 19:59:08 -0700, jim beam >
> wrote:
>
>>Zakatak wrote:
>>> I have a 1990 Honda Civic 4 door with 196k. The car has been running
>>> great. The car now seems to have a power loss at low rpm and jerks
>>> and shudders untill about 3000 rpm when it will kick back in and
>>> perform. I have changed the fuel filter, have new plugs, wires,
>>> dist/cap/rotor and all my vac lines appear in good shape. Anybody
>>> delt with this please drop a line.
>>>
>>try the thermostat. it you're still on the original, it'll almost
>>certainly be out of spec. by now. mine was & changing it removed
>>symptoms like you describe. also check the operation of the throttle
>>body's tandem valve.
>
> Also, check to make sure that the timing advance mechanisms in the
> distributer are working properly.
>
>



You mean like vacuum advance and centrifugal weights? Ain't no such thing
in the '90 Civic.

--
TeGGeR®

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/