I have a 98 EJ Civic, Canadian Si model similar to the US EX, with manual transmission. This is the first car that I have owned with a manual and bought it as a learner. At first I thought this may be an issue with my driving skills, but now I think it may be more than that.

When I give the car gas at low speeds (below 30 mph) I can feel it lunge. It is particularly bad when I am driving in stop and go traffic, i.e. rolling in first or second and then accelerate. Sometime it feels like the car oscillates or rocks back and forth slightly while still moving.

I am starting to wonder if the motor mounts are wearing out. I don’t have any mechanical experience, but could see this being the cause. If there are any other ideas of what this may be please let me know.

Other things that may be (un)related:
- at 3000 rpm the car vibrates slightly
- if I accelerate really hard from standstill the car shudders (I wanted to see if it would smoke the tires, it didn’t, but it did violently shake, has happened a couple of time since as well)

Any help is appreciated!

 

I think your referring to tire bounce. Basically your suspension can't hold your tires on the ground when you pop the clutch due to the torque. Replacing shocks might solve the problem. Upgrading to a better set of shocks and struts will eliminate your problem.

As for the lunging issues below 30 mph in traffic in first and second gear, your engaging the clutch too fast at low speeds + your not bringing up the RPM so that the transition into gear is a smooth one when down shifting. Also abruptly decelerating (i.e. give it a lot of gas and then let off the gas abruptly) in low gears will cause the same thing. Some refer to it as "rabbiting" the clutch. Learn what RPM your engine likes to be while at different speeds through the different gears. If your going to down shift your RPM will go up. If it starts to rabbit disengage the clutch and try again. It takes a little practice.

 

The lunging issue happens when the car is rolling and is in gear. For example, at 1500 rpm, with the clutch engaged, if I give it gas it feels like thefront of the car wants to bounce a few times. I am not giving it a lot of gas either. At first I thought the gas peddle was sticky. It can happen when I let of the gas too, but again, it doesn't take too much to make it happen, say going from 1500 to 1200 rpm in a couple of seconds. Could this still be the rabbiting issue you mentioned? Damn rush hour traffic anyway...

I know the car has been lowered and am not sure about the suspension.I have been thinking of upgrading this for a while. A friend told me about the tire bounce once and that I revved it too high. I guess he was right. I wasn't sure if it was related or not, and thought I would mention it.

 

If you try to burn tire and rev it hard but the car shakes violently, then yes one of your motor mounts is probably broken.