sputtering

[Bryan Hoytema]

hey so I just nought a nice civic beater and when ever the fuel is below or at 1/4 tank it always sputters only on decceleration or stopping , is like the fuel is beeing cut off , so when this happens I 'd be stopped at a light and have to give it gas untill the sputtering stops , its almost like when the fuel moves to the front, it lets the pickup line in the tank run dry . any help on this would be awesome !!!
 thanks !

[Jordan Kruger]

could be a fuel pressure reg issue.   

[John Hartman]

regulator is pretty easy to check.  Look at the vacuum line on there, see if its loose or cracked.  If not, put some suction on the line and if it tastes like gas, the regulator is shot.

If not, I would see if the filter on the bottom of the pump is plugged up.

[Jason Harwood]

hey so I just nought a nice civic beater and when ever the fuel is below or at 1/4 tank it always sputters only on decceleration or stopping , is like the fuel is beeing cut off , so when this happens I 'd be stopped at a light and have to give it gas untill the sputtering stops , its almost like when the fuel moves to the front, it lets the pickup line in the tank run dry . any help on this would be awesome !!!
 thanks !

Check honda tech.

Literally any issues with any honda you can imagine has been posted and solved there.

[daniel Dee]

I have a old Honda (97 EL)..
My problems were solved by resetting the ECU (power off and on).
Easy cars to work on.

[John Hartman]

yea for the most part, very simple.

Some things are overly complicated tho, like for example subframe has to come off to pull the tranny(manual, fwd)

[Bryan Hoytema]

yea for the most part, very simple.

Some things are overly complicated tho, like for example subframe has to come off to pull the tranny(manual, fwd)

well compared to DSMs for the most part "very simple"lol 

[Jason Harwood]

yea for the most part, very simple.

Some things are overly complicated tho, like for example subframe has to come off to pull the tranny(manual, fwd)

wait, what?

Ive never had to and i've worked on many a honda.
The only honda' that's hard to get a tranny from is an accord or prelude w/ a h22a

[Brett Haviland]

The generation civic john is refuring to where u hafta drop the whole front subframe to replace the tranny is the 2001+ civics or civic based  acuras.

[Brett Haviland]

Oh and for the OP...   Maybe ur sending unit is telling u the wrong level?  Is it possible that the tank is almost empty when it reads 1/4 tank?

I would moniter the fuel pressure when the sputting occurs to help narrow it down. 

If it was the FPR or electrical causing it you would think it would happen reguardless of how full the tank was.

[Bryan Hoytema]

the reasons why I dont think its the fuel guage is because I park the car on an incline (engine lower then the rear ) and it wont start and thats with about alittle more then half a tank of gas so I thought It might have somthing to do with the fuel pick up line in the tank , either way its about 40-45 dollars usually to fill the tank when on E , and I never go past 35$ so the tank is not comletely empty either.

[John Hartman]

yea but if its on a hill, and the forward biased slosh of the fuel uncovers the pickup, it will starve for fuel.  And if the sending unit is bad, it won't tell you its close to empty.

Tho Hondas don't have lots of issues with sending units.

[Bryan Hoytema]

ok is there anyway to reset a sending unit or will I have to get a whole new one?

[John Hartman]

if its actually bad, you can really only replace it.

you could try to clean the little "fingers" and the area that they touch.  This happens on GM fuel pumps, there is even a TSB on it.  You could also make sure that the arm on the float for the sender is not bent or jammed up.

However, thats just if its bad.

We are all just supposing as we are only going by what you are posting on the internet.

[Bryan Hoytema]

Ok thanks for the info,I know you guys can only do so much with what info i am giving you,  so thanks guys! If these are not the problem Im not going to cry about who gave me this info and how it was wrong lol but I can only do as much as I can do, as well with the appropreate tools ! Thanks  im just trying to cover all the symptoms .