xTomei

I have a 2000 civic lx sedan.
The main problem that I can't figure out, I've asked tons of people and nobody can figure it out either.
When my car is running my dashlights, headlights, interior lights, etc. all "Pulse".
When I turn the car off they dont pulse anymore. I'm uploading a video now, hopefully you can see it clear enough. Every now and then while im driving they will stop pulsing and everything is fine, then a couple minutes later it starts again. Sometimes I can even feel the car spudder along with the pulses. The car isnt misfiring as far as I know. Autozone tested the alt and said it was fine, but they said i might need a new battery soon. Any ideas?

Apart from that, I'm getting 2 error codes which I cant figure out how to fix.
They showed up when my car spuddered hard from the pulses.

P1336 - csf sensor interruption.
P0138 - o2 circuit high voltage. Bank 1, sensor 2.

Any advice helps.

Former User

Have a different auto parts store check the alternator. It may be bad.

Is dash 7.5A dash fuse 15 blown?

EJeff8

Just learned about this a few days ago, but it may be what Ron is leading to. Your engine harness may be getting worn around on the IM bracket. The piping around the wire may have come apart and is now getting worn down and shorting. Or the fuse Ron brought up could just be blown. The description I brought up causes that fuse to blow though.

xTomei

I'll check the fuse when my girlfriend gets home with my car.

But where the IM bracket?"

Intake manifold bracket?


Also, any ideas on the pulsing? I dont think a fuse would cause that

lynxs1981

You have something starting to ground out, like previously mentioned.

94EG8

yep, underneath the intake manifold, the wire are simply wrapped with tape from the factory and can/will rub through and short to ground and cause some funky issues, honda's fix involves taping up the individual wires and putting loom over the whole thing.

I've seen it before, harness shorts and blows fuse, dash lights pulse, speedometer is often erratic as well, but its totally dependent on just which wires are touching the bracket.

xTomei

you guys are amazing. There is a few wires in the harness rubbing against the alternator belt. I'll unplug it and tape it up. Might solve my other problems as well seeing as they are power related.

xTomei

Well, I fixed the exposed wires, and my lights still pulse! Any other ideas?

EJeff8

^You look at the harness by the IM bracket too?

ej8ster96

Did you get the alternator checked yet?

F4MzEkSOL

best idea to replace the harness

94EG8

Pretty much all of them suffered from the same issue. Honda issued a TSB for it years ago. So even if you replace the harness you're still going to have to fix it unless you buy a brand new one.

xTomei

I'll go check the intake manifold bracket right now.

Autozone checked the alt and said it passed the test.

And if I need to replace the whole harness I will either deal with the problem or sell the car.
Thats one pain in the dick job.

xTomei

Just checked and I couldn't find anymore exposed wires.

xTomei

Also I would like to add that sometimes my car spudders in time with the pulsing of the lights.

Its very aggravating.

EJeff8

^Yes, the engine pulsing is also a symptom of the problem I'm telling you about. You have to have exposed wires somewhere. Did you ever change the fuse?

94EG8

Heres a link to the actual TSB itself. --> http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/tsb/civic/x99-029e.pdf

I have no idea why the diagram shows 2 plugs plugged into each other, theres 2 dead end plugs, but they don't plug into each other, one is blue, one grey. You usually have to look pretty close at the wires to see where they rubbed through. I fixed one these before for someone, dash lights definately pulsed.

xTomei

Ok, I'll check again tomorrow. The wires i fixed were very exposed and touching eachother. 3 wires coming from under the intake manifold going down past the belts and going into the head where one of the pulleys connects.

And No I didn't change the fuse, It is still good.

xTomei

That pdf says that the problem is for 96-99 and not in my model.

I have a 2000 civic LX. I'm not sure is theres a difference though.

EJeff8

They say the problem is corrected on 00's but the corrected problem is just putting plastic tubing around the wire so...

94EG8

Yep, engine might have been replaced at some point, '99 harness may have been used, maybe the guy/girl building engine harnesses was hung over that day the tubing got missed and went through QA without being noticed.

xTomei

Still cant find any exposed wires. And the problem is getting worse.
My lights flash, my horn sounds like a siren, the car spudders, pretty much everything involving some sort of electricity pulsates.

This is getting weird and annoying.

xTomei

bump

xTomei

bump