Donnafb

2002 Honda Civic, 1.7 liter engine, automatic

About a month ago, Civic started losing power while driving. Daughter was in stop and go traffic and hit the accelerator and the car barely moved. She was able to get out of the road. When she tried to start it again, it would turn over a lot, then it would finally start, only to sputter and turn off again. If the car sits for about 15 minutes, it restarts and drives like nothing is wrong with it. I've had it checked out and the computer code said that it was either the neutral safety switch or the transmission. Neutral safety was replaced, but this still happens intermittently. It has happened while driving on the Interstate (that's fun), sitting at a stoplight and driving 25 mph. I noticed that both times it happened when I was in the car, something would be on on the dash. The first time the box around the "D" (drive) started blinking. Today the ABS warning was there. After the car sat for about 15 minutes, started and ran with no problem. I just can't believe that he transmission is causing this. Anybody else had this happen?

Just remembered that all of these issues started about two weeks after having a new radio installed. Could that be related in any way?

lazlong

-Pull codes, if any, and post the specific codes.
-Pull the radio and look for bad connection(s) or exposed wire(s).
-Check grounds.

Donnafb

Original codes were transmission, catalytic converter and neutral safety switch. Replaced neutral safety switch, mechanic determined that the cata. conv. would not cause these problems. After the last incident, the codes are:

PO304 Cylinder 4 misfire
PO420 Cata. Conv. (orig code)
PO700 TCS (orig code)
P1361 Top Dead Center Sensor
P1362 Top Dead Sensor No Signal
P1456 Twice, Vac. System Leak
P0740 Torque Conv. Clutch
P1705 Trans. Rand system 2 position

Someone else suggested distributor cap issue? So much to choose from.

lazlong

2000 was the last year the Civic had a distributor.

The only thing I can find in common with those codes is that most but, not all, of the wires connect to the ECM/PCM on the same plug. Which leads me to believe the radio installation caused a short in the wire harness.

88CReXin

I had the same problem occur to my Civic a few months ago. I was driving on the highway and the power just starting going down. I limped the car to the next exit and popped the hood and my exhaust manifold was glowing red. Pulled the codes the next day and it was the TDC (Top Dead Center) Sensor. Cost about $60 from my local parts store and fixed it right up. Real easy to replace. Remove the valve cover, remove the timing belt cover, and it is tucked next to the cam gear. If you have an Ex model the ABS will limit the room you have to work with. Should be able to knock it out in about an hour.

Former User

If you reset the ECU, do all of those codes return?

Donnafb

Is the cat converter the code that doesn't go back to that switch? I think that is a real code that my dad, the mechanic, has been ignoring since we got it. We left it with a different mechanic last night. He thinks that possibly when they installed the radio that they didn't disconnect the battery and maybe the computer is fried because so many different codes are coming up. Also, the neutral safety switch isn't lined up properly--so if there is a code for that, that is probably a real problem.

Donnafb

I had another mechanic look at the car. Computer is fine, transmission is fine, neutral safety switch is fine, problem is totally electrical. He determined that the problem goes back to the radio installation. He said it looks like they used some kind of saw during the install and he suspects that they somehow created a short in the wire harness. He replaced one wire that had been nicked so I can drive the car, as long as I don't go below the D on the gearshift. He said that when I was driving before, if the gearshift moved at all, even through vibration, that wire was being shorted out and sending crazy signals to the computer. The car now only shorts out and goes into the crawl mode when you try to go into D2 or D3. The short is between those wires. He believes that I need to have the wire harness replaced. However, this morning, I could not remove the key from the ignition. The saga continues. Time to take it to the dealership as my local mechanics don't want to do this job.