Car "hiccups" while driving; loss of acceleration but not power
 

ok...so a few weeks back, my car just seemed to "hiccup"...loss of acceleration, but no loss of power. Thought it was a case of bad gas (;)), and on the way home it drove fine, as it did for the next 3 weeks. Drove to Vegas for xmas, on the way home, it started again with a vengeance...whole ride home it would drive, "hiccup" once or twice, and then continue...runs great other than this. 15 miles away from home, CEL light came on...PO420 came up, brought it to the exhaust shop, guy says it's dirty but not clogged, is not causing the problem; suggested fuel pump along with a few other people that I talked to. I replaced the fuel pump (limited budget makes me DIY), and changed out the spark plugs just in case...it drove fine for 2 days, and now it is doing it again...completely random, no pattern...it's done it while hot, while cold, with heater running, w/o heater running, 10 mph or 80 mph...any suggestions?

Take a look at the distributor cap and distributor rotor for signs of wear.

I would probably do a drain and refill on the transmission using Honda ATF, if you haven't changed the ATF lately. You drain about 3 quarts, then refill. Use the dipstick to make sure you don't overfill on the third quart. Honda transmission fluid level is checked with the car warmed up and with the engine not running.

Thank you; will try both when I get home and let you know.

ok, did the fluid, no change...replaced cap, rotor and wires, no change. Finally had to break down and bring the car to a real mechanic for a diagnostic :(....turns out it actually was the cat; little pieces were broken off inside and depending on whether I hit a bump, or any movement, some of the pieces were clogging and "choking" the motor...hence the randomness of it happening...but holy cow :eek: he wanted $700 to replace it!!!! Back to the DIY'er :)

Thank you for your reply!

Before you try to DIY, check with some independent muffler shops on installed cat prices, they are usually a lot cheaper. Don't go to the chain muffler shops, as most will quote higher prices.

Did they actually take out your cat converter and look inside it? How did they know that it's the cat and the stuff inside it has disintegrated??? I think the guy might have just saw the code P0420, which is a cat converter error, and made up BS about it to try to sell you service.

I would buy a bottle of Cataclean ($25) from amazon.com and use it for a while to see if the CEL and the issue go away... It seems to work in my case, so it's worth a try.

Also try some fuel system cleaner which you can buy at Target or Walmart. Maybe your engine isn't getting fuel injected regularly.