I have an '02 Civic EX, and it seems a bit low on power. No sudden changes or anything- I just recall the car seemed to be a little quicker when I first got it (I’m the original owner). The car runs great. Fuel economy hasn’t decreased (if anything, it seems a bit more economical than at first).
The air filter is relatively clean (it has an aftermarket cold air intake system that says to clean the filter every 2 years, which I’ve been doing). It has the original spark plugs (car has 82K, Honda recommends replacing at 110K).
I can’t think of anything else obvious to check. Anyone have any ideas? Or, am I just imagining this, and my car has always been really slow? I’m a little obsessive about my cars, so perhaps I’m noticing something that isn’t really real.
Just because the mfr says to replace the spark plugs at 110k, that does not mean that you shouldn’t replace them sooner. In fact, when you remove those plugs (or perhaps I should say IF you can remove them after being in place for at least 8 years), you are likely to find that the electrode is very much eroded by this time.
I am very much with VDC on this one. Regardless what the manual recommends, 110K is a lot.
Figure this way,
if you’ve averaged 55 mph you’ve already run the engine for 1,490 hours.
If the average engine speed is 3000 rpm, that 2,682,000 revolutions of the crank. Since the plug fires on every OTHER revolution, it’s fired a high voltage arc between its electrodes 1,341,000 times. That one million, three hundred and forty one high-voltage discharges. That’s a whole bunch. There MUST be some erosion by now.
Try some plugs. And if it’s a distributor based system, wires, a cap, and a rotor.