HELP! Damn Re-occuring Problem

[adaly86]

Hey, Its long but please read.

Some of you read my last tread about my 91 civic 1.3DX cutting out the whole time, well i brought it to a carb specialist in dublin, they took it out and when i went to collect the car 4 hours later they said there was a lot of dirt in there, so they cleaned it out and reset the whole carb. Thats was 2-3 weeks ago and the car has been goin great that is until now, exact same prob as before, its cutting out and it became noticable when warm.
So far the rotor and distributer cap have been replaced, the altenator checked, battery checked, car had a service at 125000 now at 128000, carb was cleaned out and totally checked. The garage had thought it could have been the ignition coil but then it was too expensive to replace to they did the dis cap and rotor. They thought it was the carb going out of sync then aswell. Because i had to go to them numerous times to have it put back in sync and then it idled perfectly. The carb specialists noted that the cars Co2 emissions were 12%, legal limit in Ireland is 1.5%!!
My previous thread is below, it goes into more details then i may have mentioned here. Please help! I may get a new car otherwise

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Hey all, some of you may know I had a problem not so long ago with my civic cutting out but well it was fine for about 4 weeks and now its back, worse. Please read it all, I hope i havnt left anything out.
If you can help in anyway please do.....

I have a '91 Civic 1.3DX Carb, 128,000 miles

The car had originally been going fine for about 8 weeks of everyday 1hr long journeys, in traffic and on motorway, approx 20 miles each way from college. One morning it kept cutting out untill battery was dead
Brought to garage...Altenator fine, cooling fine, they replaced distributer cap and rotor, did full service, changed plugs, it took about 4 visits for them to figure out what was happening. 2 weeks later same thing again except now just not in traffic, was cutting out all the time i tried to change gear.
They brought up the idle to compensate this and it was working fine for about 4 weeks, today it was fine going up but on the way back it started to get sluggish and then kept cutting out when I had to change gear i.e. when clutch was in and no revs.
Got to my dads office and the car was at normal temp but just cutting out, battery is strong and kept cranking it. After about 1hr i came out of the office. The car was now cold and i tryed starting it but no responce with choke or accelerator. left the choke off and tried starting it a few min later, was reluctant be did start. Then about 5 min later, cut out and the battery was dead, tryed it a few seconds later and it started first time but still cutting out without accelerator. Got engine was normal.
Just after bringing it out again to see if it could have been dirty petrol but it is still cutting out, with and without choke. Revved it a good bit which would normally work but no effect this time.
Got home and quite a strong smell of petrol and a burning kind of smell.

The battery leads are fine, enough oil, radiator is full with water, and everything seems ok. What could it be, im thinking the altenator but the garage said it was ok about 4 weeks ago and the battery is also strong enough to keep cranking for about 8 times.

[turtlecrxsi]

A coil and ignitor aren't that expensive. The dizzy itself could be shot. You're emissions is rather high. I remember after my dizzy was replaced the car blew a cloud of black smoke out from being flooded. Your car might be straining itself to stay running... IDK

[adaly86]

The emissions should be normal now after the carb got reset.
The weird thing i forgot to mention is each time something was replaced or altered like the distributer cap and carb, or idle, it goes ok for a few weeks then it keeps cutting out again, could it be a combination of a few things?
Just went out to try it again, seems worse, I stopped to check this sound like when you got a flat tire but nothing, coming from drivers side wheel, drove off again and could hear it so stopped again, when i went to start the car it was like the accelerator was attached to nothing, it was real easy to put to the floor, the car cranked kicked then died then after 3 tries it came back but it was really like it was rising really slowly untill it finally reved up. Its not idling rough any more cutting out straight away now, its still starting straight away, with that one exception above, its keeping it idle that is the prob mainly i think

[EF You]

sounds to me like a damaged/plugged catalytic converter.

usually as the converter clogs up, you lose the ability to accelerate, and even have times when the car will kill. converters usually get damaged by running too rich, and the symptoms usually occur when the engine warms up.

are you sure that you have high CO2 levels and not CO levels? because CO2 is the only emission besides water that should be coming out of a healthy engine. CO and hydrocarbons are the ones you dont want to come out. CO is present when there isnt enough oxygen in your A/F mixture, aka you are running rich. the same goes for hydrocarbons, which are basically unburned fuel vapors.

to see if the converter is clogged, just take off the converter, or remove your O2 sensor from the exhaust. if the engine runs noticeably different, the converter is to blame.

my guess is that your carb setup was funked up so bad that either the bowls were sticking open, or your diaphragms were busted, and that was making it run rich. after running rich for so long, and with you overcorrecting by raising idle and such, it damaged the converter.


then again, im just guessing.

[adaly86]

ok thanks i will have a look into it, the garage said it was CO2, the weird thing is, the car was going fine this morning, didnt cut out once, i could feel a little kick every so often, hope it doesnt do it on the way home, in rush hour lol