avsfan

Hey guys...I'll try to be short and sweet. I have a 97 Civic EX, 5-speed, with 186k miles. New cap, rotor, and coil in June of last year. I also tested the ICM at that time and it tested fine. I put a new clutch in the car in September.

Beginning in maybe November or December, my car started feeling like the clutch was slipping pretty bad while accelerating from a stop. It only does this from maybe 2500 to 3200 rpms. Beyond that, it runs just fine. A few weeks ago when it did this, the check engine light came on. I checked the code and got P303 (cylinder 3 misfire). I cleared the code, but today it did it again...same code P303. I stopped in at O'Reilly and the guy there said he was a big Honda guy and "knew" it was the distributor. He gave me a new coil to try under warranty, but said if that didn't fix it, I'd need a new distributor.

So here's my question....does this sound like an distributor problem, or a clutch problem? I've thought about revving it up in neutral to see if I could rule out the clutch, but haven't tried that yet. Not that this matters, but just in case...I'm a big nerd and keep track of my gas mileage religiously. Since August of last year I average about 32 mpg. My last tank was almost 36 mpg, so other than this acceleration issue, the car runs great. Thanks in advance for the help.

ChrisS

Maybe, your engine is running too lean. (that would explain the gas mileage improvement)
It could be a dead oxygen sensor.

All spark plugs gapped correctly?
-look at the sticker on the inside of the hood (it might read 1mm +0 -0.1; meaning max gap = 1mm, min gap = 0.9mm; divide by 25.4 to get the decimal inches you need for a wire feeler gauge)
-note: most spark plugs are sold pre-gapped to what the manufacture claims to be factory specified gap. But, that's not always the case.
When you check the gap, also check spark plugs for excessively high temp in cylinders. (most repair manuals have pictures of different spark plug conditions; running too lean would cause that.)

take care,
ChrisS