1999 Civic dies letting off accelerator/idle

[InvalidUserID]

WHAT: My 1999 Honda Civic EX. No CEL codes, other than this it drives normal cold & hot. Car starts up right away every time, battery is in good shape and only a year old.

INCIDENT #1: Mild winter dry day. Fully warmed up/operating temp, coming to a stop at a red light, engine shut off. Tried to crank, but no start. Pushed to nearby parking lot, continued to crank/no start. A few minutes passed, car then starts up, drives normally. Drove home.

Drove a couple hundred miles, felt fine. Had a fuel pump anyways meant to replace, swapped that. Buddy recommended a idle air control valve, replaced it. Drove a couple hundred more miles, drove fine. Maybe I was paranoid from first incident but focusing on idle, it was usually around 650-700 RPMs when hot.

INCIDENT #2: Mild temps, wet day. Fully warmed up/operating temp, decelerating from about 35-40, noticed oil & battery light on first, went to accelerate nothing, turned onto side street and engine confirmed off since power steering off. Tried to start, crank/no start. Same as before...gave it a few minutes, it started back up, drove home. Checked in the garage and no CEL codes.

Where should I start? No symptoms and just this random stalling. Really nervous now about driving on the highway or somewhere and letting off the accelerator and having it die on me. Or holding up a drive-thru line!

 

[Brian123]

Honda Civic Stalls When Coming To A Stop [Fixed!]

Wondering why your honda civic stalls when coming to a stop? Well, don’t worry. We have all the answers that you need.

greaseandgears.com

Maybe read everything in the Link!

 

[GSCJR]

Distributor? Check for spark when it quits.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Main relay board has a cracked solder connection. I had this on a 98 Accord LX. Drove me crazy.

 

[michaelluscher]

Soldering the main relay is a good idea
Next time it does this, try and isolate if you're losing spark
Any codes?
Could be the coil dropping out hot, cam/crank sensor failing hot

 

[DemoFly]

Symptoms are a ringer for main relay.

 

[InvalidUserID]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've never had a main relay fail before but looking it up online, some of the symptoms do sound similar. It's curious that both instances were at lower speeds and decelerating, maybe it's just starting to fail since I took an almost 200 mile trip last week with no issues.

It's a cheap enough part that I ordered it and will inspect the one on right now when I swap them out.

 

[researcher]

Honda Civic Stalls When Coming To A Stop [Fixed!]

Wondering why your honda civic stalls when coming to a stop? Well, don’t worry. We have all the answers that you need.

greaseandgears.com

Maybe read everything in the Link!

for anyone finding this link in the future.. that link has some errors.. the 96-2000 Civic only has an EGR valve for the HX model, the rest do not have one.

My Civic is similar to yours, the only time I had the car die on me was a bad igniter (brain) of the distributor, rpms went to 0 and I could not re-start it. But you can restart it no matter the conditions outside. Just typing as I'm thinking..

I agree that the main relay, ignition switch or a dying igniter in the distributor could cause these issues. Might just check all of them.

 

[c502cid]

I'm going with something in the distributor too. The distributor is a semi-common failure point on these cars, so much to the point, I carry a spare one in my trunk. The 97 went out a couple of years ago, although the symptoms weren't the same.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've never had a main relay fail before but looking it up online, some of the symptoms do sound similar. It's curious that both instances were at lower speeds and decelerating, maybe it's just starting to fail since I took an almost 200 mile trip last week with no issues.

It's a cheap enough part that I ordered it and will inspect the one on right now when I swap them out.

If the relay has a cracked solder connection, when the unit heats up the crack expands it breaks the connection. When it cools down you are back in business. You can remove the relay and inspect it. The crack was obvious in my case. I had replaced the distributer and ignition switch, based on advice, before finding the actual problem.
Good luck.

 

[InvalidUserID]

I'm not a soldering expert but I think maybe we found the issue? Replaced the main relay and took the old one apart and saw this one that doesn't look like the others.

 

[researcher]

What was the result of replacing the main relay? Did it correct the problems?

And yes that solder joint definitely is cracking, needing to be re-flowed with new solder.

 

[Dave1027]

I'm not a soldering expert but I think maybe we found the issue? Replaced the main relay and took the old one apart and saw this one that doesn't look like the others. View attachment 151426

That forth one from the top looks bad. Those solder joints are easy to renew. I'd renew all of them. Only take a few minutes.

 

[D60]

So looks like OP found the issue but when I faced intermittent problems on a '98 CRV I finally discovered that rapping the distributor with my closed pocket knife would revive it from the (incredibly intermittent) no-start after dying.

I could also then usually make it die again by rapping the distributor again.

I post only because I wish I had known this -- it would have saved me days of driving the vehicle just waiting for the problem to reoccur

 

[andrew_j]

Long ago these issues were (main?) relay bad. Just replace it if cheap (usually are).