2003 Honda Civic problem??

Question

Hi. I have an issue with my Civic that only seems to occur when I first start up my car in the morning. When I begin to drive, my car accelerates normally then seems to decelerate, even when my foot is heavy on the gas pedal. If I keep my foot there for a few seconds, my car eventually kicks in and speeds up.

I took my car in to the dealership to get serviced, and they were completely useless in discovering the issue, so I was wondering if any of you could help? Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

Is the car an EX or an LX model?  If its an EX then I think you may be low on oil.  The EX has the VTEC engine that alters the valve timing and lift duration at mid and upper engine speeds.  VTEC works off of oil pressure and when its cold you may not have enough oil pressure to engage VTEC and hence you would have a performance 'bog' on acceleration.

If its the LX, you want to check to see if the throttle plates are hanging up on carbon in the throttle body.  over time carbon will build up inside the throttle body like soot in a chimney.  that carbon gets sticky and can cause the throttle plates that let more air into the engine so that you can accelerate hang up and cause the engine to bog down.  As engine temperatures increase things expand and that would give the clearance to the plates so that they don't hang up when warm.

those are the top two items.  other than that you would need a diagnostic scanner to check the operation of the electronic coolant temperature sensor to see if the sensor is "telling" the computer that the engine is cold.  if the sensor signal is wrong (from a deterorated sensor) then the control unit for the fuel injection system would think the engine is warm and would not inject enough fuel for the engine to generate the power when cold.  cold engines are terribly inefficient and need more fuel to run.  as the engine warms up and the sensor input was more in agreement with actual operating conditions then the problem with the bogging down would go away.

those are a few ideas.

hope that helps