I've had this problem for the past year now:

When I start my car up in the morning (oddly enough, this usually doesn't happen at night), I let it run for a bit. K, so when I start driving it, it lags when I accelerate: like it's not catching all the way.

When it catches, it sort of jumps. I feel it...so I try to let off the gas when I know it's starting to lag. (BTW...this is an auto.)

I have a friend who's a mechanic @ Honda (he's either done all of my work or taught me things), and he's done 3 diagnoses on the solenoid- and it's been replaced 3 times. It STILL does it.

What could it be?

A friend of mine suggested that it could be the ECU (mine has been modified). What do you guys think? I need more than the POV from the person who does the work on my car!

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

What car are we talking about here? What engine? What solenoid are we referring to? How was the ECU modified?

 

you said its a 98 civic right? what trim is it? and is it the stock engine?

 

It's a 98 Civic EX; still has the stock SOHC B16A.

The ECU came from a 96 Civic; modded w/ aggressive fuel curves, air curves, timing pulse.

...and the stock solenoid: he ran a diagnosis on the stock solenoids to see if there was a correct output. Sorry, I'm not a solenoid whiz, but the output he got showed it needed to be replaced with a new one. So it was replaced, yet there was no change. It was replaced a second time, thinking the first was a fluke, and it still didn't help.

:dunno:

 

i havent seen any 98 ex's come with a b16a stock, maybe you bought it used with the swap already done?

and is he replacing the solenoid with one for the b seiries or factory d series motor?

 

TYPE O

stock motor

 

The B16A is DOHC, your stock engine is a SOHC D16Y8.

If your engine is stock, why are you running "agressive" fuel and timing maps? That's most likely your problem. Some generic "agressive" ECM isn't going to run all that well on a relatively stock engine that it wasn't tuned for. Put your stock ECM back in.

I'm assuming you mean the VTEC solenoid. Since your problem is most likely related to your ECM, I would leave the VTEC solenoid alone and deal with the ECM.

Beyond that, I would check all the normal maintenance items, especially ignition timing, spark plugs, distributer cap and rotor, plug wires.

 

I spoke to the Honda mechanic who does my car mods...

he told me that the ECU, although modified, isn't to blame: rather, the 98 Civic trannys are known to be faulty.

Anyone else with a 98 have problems like mine?

I'm trying to weigh the pros & cons of going in to do a swap...

 

Sounds like a tranny problem to me. I've experienced the same problem many times.

 

if you're talking about lagging during shifting, then yeah i've had that problem for about 3000 miles on my 01 civ... it's actually at the dealership as we speak getting its tranny replaced