# Choking Honda Civic

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/choking-honda-civic/18944>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Created:** [September 1, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/choking-honda-civic/18944 "2008-09-01T02:07:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vfrgeo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/59ef9b/32.png) [@vfrgeo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/vfrgeo)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/choking-honda-civic/18944/1 "2008-09-01T02:07:46Z")

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I have a 1991 Honda Civic (195k miles, 4spd manual) which generally runs fine with one exception. There are many hills around the area I live (Oakland, CA). After making it to the bottom of one, the car hesitates, sputters and generally drives poorly, especially starting off from a traffic light or stop sign. The poor running generally lasts about a minute or so before clearing up. If, in an attempt to make things better, I give the car a lot of gas, I get a big cloud of gray smoke out of the tail pipe. Any ideas what could be causing this? I figured this was fuel related and recently changed the fuel filter, but that did not help.

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**Author:** ![hellokit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6a8cbe/32.png) [@hellokit](https://community.cartalk.com/u/hellokit)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2008, 3:36am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/choking-honda-civic/18944/2 "2008-09-01T03:36:49Z")

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Many possibilities for a rich running engine. You need to start with the diagnostic chart and work down. Some possibilities: dirty air filter, too high fuel pressure, leaking/dripping fuel injectors, engine control system NOT going into closed loop operation, fouled spark plugs, or poor spark plug wires, and on down the diagnostic list.