96 Coupe 1.6i SR

From UK, 2 posts

Anyone have any experience with something like this before:



Car was running fine. Took it out for a short run on some twisty roads driving pretty hard. Heard a vibration, pulled in to check it out but couldn't see anything. Took off again but found that under acceleration there was a loud hissing noise and the power was way down. Spent some time examining as it sounded like a gasket or manifold leaking air and starving the engine of air/fuel.



Couldn't locate problem. Local garage man had a look and tried topping up the engine oil (it was approaching minimum). This got rid of the hissing sound (much to my amazement) and the power came back at low rpms. Unfortunately the power seems to be low at high rpm still. It feels like the vtec isn't switching over.



Any suggestions?



Thanks

1 post

I have a 98 Civic EX, which started doing the exact same thing yesterday. On the highway, any time I got on the gas there was a loud hissing sound. I usually cruise at about 90 mph and could not get it to hold 80, even in 4th gear. About 2/3 of the way into the 60 mile drive, the problem went away.

From UK, 2 posts

turned out that the baffles in the back box broke up and blocked the exhaust. the high back pressure caused the leak closer to the engine, which was the hissing sound, and the high back pressure also causes low power. new back box fixed it!
still don't know what oil had to do with it, just luck probably!