thats a hard one to say oofie, its been happening for a while and i didnt notice the mileage at the time. let me think about that one

 

Clogged injectors occurs with gas from any station, regardless of make. If you changed the plugs correctly and no loose connections I bet on poor flowing injectors or bad coil(s).

 

Me and oofie have been talking about this for a while. It seems like it's a common problem among the GD's. I mean if it was one car, that would make sense, but all these vehicles? i've counted about 10 people having this same problem with the hiccuping. We really need to get this resolved. So far, we have come to the conclusion that one of the coil packs is going bad, causing this hiccup because one of them isn't firing at full voltage.

 

Yep, what Kev said.

I disconnected one coil pack and started my engine just to have it misfire. It was almost the same behavior the engine was doing when traveling or approaching a stop, so I'm almost positive one cylinder is misfiring intermittently, or so I hope

 

is there a way to test coil packs? maybe with a volt meter or anything? i will test the hell out of it if I can to fix this problem

 

Actually testing the coil involves equipment you're not likely to have; however, most of the testing procedures are checking for loose connections. And a 'stutter' would seem to me to be the result of a loose connection as first chance and a bad coil next. If you don't find the coil connections not completely tight ( not ham-handed tight) then you probably will need to go to a Honda dealer.

Do not fail to check for partially clogged fuel injectors by running a good FI cleaner. These can also cause intermittent stutter, particularly at light load conditions such as easy runs down the interstate.

 

This is very interesting..
I too started noticing the stutter about 3 months ago.... very annoying.
It usually happens in all gears while getting the car under load and RPMs are < 2200.
I do have a manual with ~ 40 000 miles. I take meticulous care of my car.
We need to get to the bottom of this .... I have tried the following.

1) For a fact I know it is not the EGR valve.... I replaced mine...Stutter is still there...
2) I thought it was moisture in the gas , I am on my second "HEET" can (you pour in gas tank and takes out water)... ... Stutter is still there..
3) Ran a couple of injector/fuel cleaners.... Stutter is still there..

I have not tried new plugs or fuel filter and I doubt that it is any of these...

Any other ideas would be greately appreciated...
We need to solve this..

 

Anybody here have a spare coil pack they can lend us? Mine started the stutter only after changing my plugs, so I'm guessing it has something to do with the plugs or the coil packs, just because those were the only things I touched. I called a junkyard/store this morning checking if they have "totaled" Fits that I can get coil packs from, but they said they don't have any right now.

 

Anyone looked at their crank position sensor? I'm not sure where it would be on this car but a failing sensor would give you bad spark. May also be called a hall-effect sensor.

RG

 

You have run down the major culprits EXCEPT the spark plugs.
They can definitely be a cause for intermittent ignition under load at low rpm. Any time spark plugs past 30,000 miles in service they are a prime suspect. And they can be the reason for poor coil performance.

 

that is true, however.... i replaced mine at 32000 miles with the same OEM NGK iridiums that came with the car. guess what? stuttering again. So now that i'm at 61000 miles and the same plugs regapped from recommended 44mm to 40mm, i still have the same stutter. I'm tired of this BULLS*IT! I'm going to go buy another set of spark plugs TOMORROW and try them. This time, im going to go with Bosch iridiums. If they don't make em, i will try the same NGK iridiums. I will not touch champion.

the last resort if i still have the stuttering is to go buy one new coil pack and test each cylinder individually. but that's my last resort b/c the coil pack is $69 + shipping.

 

I tried plugs too along with the in-tank filter. Nadda. I used OEM plugs too. I thought too about the crank sensor. Disconnected it and tried to start it. Starts but dies within about 5 seconds.

Had a jeep wrangler once that when i changed the plugs to higher end plugs it chocked and puked. Mechanic said the plugs were the problem and sticking in cheaper plugs solved it.

koolkev1107, where did you buy the coil pack. I am interested to see if that is the problem.

 

Alex, you can get the coil pack from bernardiparts.com for $61 + shipping. Here's the part number: 30520-PWC-003.

 

Thanks Oofie

 

No problem Alex. Please report back if you decide to try the coil pack. I might also do what Kev said, buy one coil pack and replace one coil pack at a time until I find which one is acting up.

 

will do, i will let you know if it works or not.

 

Where's it located on this car? Last time I checked, Honda was putting them on the distributor shaft somewhere. Do you think it's replaceable or part of the distributor?

 

the coil pack are right over the spark plugs. you have to unbolt them

 

How much is a coil and how are are they to replace? I'd buy a new one and start swapping them out one at a time if they're not too expensive and relatively easy to replace. This is sounding more like one of the coils has reached the end of its useful life and is becoming intermittent.

My guess is under high load (rapid spark), one of the coils can't keep up. As I understand it, one of the drawbacks with inductive spark is performance drops off as more spark is demanded. (Capacitive systems don't have this drawback.) If the coil has begun to deteriorate, it may reach this limit while within normal operating range of the engine.

UPDATE: I just checked Bernardiparts, a new coil is $61 per unit. A little pricey but cheaper than paying a mechanic if you're out of warrantee. (Also cheaper than parts for my 93 Saab!!) A crankshaft sensor is $47 and there's just one of those. A little Bayesian analysis would lead one to go for the crankshaft sensor first unless it's really difficult to get at.

 

I don't know if you have been getting the same symptoms like the other guys, but my "stutters" are usually under low rpms, but with considerably high load (a/c on, radio and in gear). I usually don't get the stutters over 3k rpm, but usually around 1,000 to 2,700 rpms.

As for the coil packs, you just have to take out the connection to it and one bolt. How many miles do you have on yours? Mine only started to "stutter" at 105k but also ONLY after I changed out my plugs at 101k.