I drive a 95 civic ex....

I was on the highway the other day and my car just all of a sudden got a lot louder and shakier. It sounded like one of the spark plugs wasnt firing or something. It shakes like crazy in the lower RPM's. I pulled over and, with the engine on, pulled out the hose things that run from the distributor to the spark plugs (one at a time.) The first 3 i pulled out... and for each one the engine would die slightly. The last one i pulled out didnt affect the engine at all. Does this mean the spark plug isnt firing?

I got all new spark plugs and replaced them. It didn't do anything.
I switched the hoses around to see if it was a bad hose. It didn't do anything.

I took it to ProCare and they said i "may" need a new distributor and then said they charge 700$ for it.... im not sure that was honest, so i didnt have them do it...


Anyone know what the hell is wrong with my car?

Thanks in advance for ur input.
bob

 

It might be the points in the distributor i think it cost around 30 bucks. First go to a parts store autozone ask them what they think, find out how much points are and what it sould cost to put em on (shouldnt be to much less than a hundred for sure but i could be wrong on anything.

 

If i changed the plug wires around to hook up to different plugs, and the same plug was still going bad, wouldnt that signify that the distributor (and plug wires) work fine? or do i not understand the process right...

 

you could replace the cap and rotor... maybe even replace the plug wires. my car had that issue but quit running all together. i had to replace the whole damn dizzy...

 

U didnt run through any water (lots of it) by any chance

 

nah it hadnt rained for days before it started shaking. Could i have a bad valvle or something? Wouldnt a diagnostic from a shop reveal a bad valvle though...?

 

it sounds like u got one plug not firing. A shop should charge u around 40 bucks to find out whats wrong with it. test the spark on the bad cylinder by placing the spark plug wire to a ground (i think) there is another recent thread
that tells u how to do this. Pull the plug out and use sand paper in between the gap and replace

 

So yea, i replaced the distributor.. the cap.. the wires.. the rotor.. and all of the plugs... none of those worked, what should i try next..

this sucks,
Bob

 

Pay 40 bucks to find out exactly whats wrong with it.

 

Had a similiar problem with misfiring... Turned out to be a loose gorund wire...
Check for that, I spent $200+ on everything from cap, rotor, battery, cables, plugs, wires, etc etc and it was a loose ground...

Are you throwing any CEL's? I would advise you to NOT go to autozone or whatever, cause most of the time those dudes don't know one end of a screwdriver from the other... And they are not mechanics, if so they wouldn't be working there...

Look for a loose ground, it caused me 2 months of hair-pulling fun, LOL...
Or just find and befriend a good mechanic or go to the dealership (I know it's $$$)