I bought a 1996 Honda civic ex about 3 mths ago, ran into some problems, check engine light came on, took it to get checked and they said it was the catalytic converter. Aked a friend who said it was high grade gas i ran, need to change the spark plugs and run cheaper gas. this did the trick for a short time, then the check engine light came on again and i took it to a mechanic who said i need to run high grade gas and change my wires. did this and it was ok for 1-2 days, then the car started putt putting (literally). Took back to mechanic who said it was the wires, i got more expensive wires and the car ran great for 1 wk or so, then started again, i was told it was the wires, i needed to buy NGK wires for a Honda. I did this and now my car is worse than before. We checked the plugs and wires, could it be catalytic converter? everytime the plugs/wires are dealt with the car will run better, then goes right back to the way it was before...
RepairPal Certified shops can diagnose and repair your 1996 Honda Civic. They provide transparent pricing with a minimum 12-month or 12,000-mile warranty on repairs and services.
the cat was always bad from the beginning. no grade of gas will cause a check engine light. the cat has failed and needs to be replaced. its failure is from your missfires. i am afraid to say that you need to take it to someone who can diag it correctly. 3 sets of wires cannot be defective. you may have injector issues or a bad distributor causing the missfire.
Roy
Thanks, I finally took my car into the mechanic and they ran all the test. 2 codes showed up, 1 was the MAP sensor and the other was catalytic efficiency. However, he said that everything that they have tested points directly to the sensor. They are going to replace the sensor and "clean" the gas. Hopefully all this will solve the problem!
I'm not a mechanic, but this restored power to my car:
Go to the Dollar Tree store and buy Performance Booster ($1.00) and Octane Booster ($1.00) and Fuel Injector Cleaner ($1.00) and put it in the gas tank, or try a supplement called Restore ($8.00) at Auto Zone. I use Bosch spark plugs and spark plug wires and I have 235,000 original 1 owner miles!
Thanks, I finally took my car into the mechanic and they ran all the test. 2 codes showed up, 1 was the MAP sensor and the other was catalytic efficiency. However, he said that everything that they have tested points directly to the sensor. They are going to replace the sensor and "clean" the gas. Hopefully all this will solve the problem!