raja.iyer

Hi all

I have a 2001 honda civic ex 2-door Coupe with standard transmission. It has about 123 K miles on it. We brought it ~1.5 years ago.

Recently it has been giving some problems. It goes into what is referred to as "LIMP" mode. Basically, the car loses throttle and comes to a complete stop. Though it is hot here these days the temperature guage reads as always in the middle. If we immediately try to start the car, it doesn't. After about a min or 2, the car does start however, the idling rpm goes to 0. Then in nuetral the maximum engine rpm at full throttle is ~3000 rpm. After 5-6 min it becomes OK and we are able to go at higher rpms and the car drives normally, though after this I dont have the guts to test the car at higher speeds in traffic.

Could there be an issue with Cruise control ?
The first time this happened was 2 weeks ago when we had traveled on road for about 1000 miles (~250 miles each day for 4 days) . The back of the car was loaded with stuff, though I estimate that the car was carrying 60 % of the permitted weight. I was then following a car who was travelling @ 60-70 mph (the speed was oscillating sufficiently). I was using cruise control and using the cruise control option to accelerate and decelerate with the person ahead of me. I suspect this probably was due to overuse of cuise control ??? Any body have any thoughts on this.
The CEL light came up. We located a mechanic shop after the car came back. I remember the CEL code was related to ECM/PCM mal-function (though I dont remember the exact code). Later that day, the car drove perfectly fine and we managed to travel ~200 miles after that. The CEL was cleared by the mechanic and it never came back again that day.

The same thing happened the day after as well. Though as before we were able to dive it for 200 miles or so after it stalled ( though we had taken ample breaks ~ a break every 60 miles) . The CEL came up and got cleared after some time by itself.

The same thing happened again twice last week. The CEL comes up and automatically got cleared. We were able to read the code on only one occcasion and we got P1362- TDC Sensor No Signal.

However, I should also point out that I have used this car to drop my wife off daily and it takes about 15 min each way (speed limit of 40 mph). It drives perfectly fine then. One thing that was different between the times it goes into LIMP mode is that we were driving at higher speeds ( a.k.a. 55-70 mph) then.

My questions are

1) The TDC sensor could be faulty
2) I know that man cruise control systems have been installed after markt by Honda.Is there a possibility of cruise control is a suspect.
3) I have seen that this could mean a faulty catalytic converter. How is cat conv. related to this? Can I do a simple check to see if the cat. conv. is the root cause? And if it is the cause how much would that cost
4) I have seen posts online about having to change the whole distributor. Is this necessary ? How much would this cost ?
4) Any other possible thing that could cause this ??

I really like this car and would want to get it back to normal as soon as possible. So any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks
R

integraa972

Change your cam position sensor. Common problem with these cars.

lazlong

^^ X2

You have no distributor.

The cam sensor is here:


-Pull the valve cover.
-Pull the top timing cover and there it is.

raja.iyer

Thanks integraa972 and lazlong

Thanks a lot for the explanations and the illustration.

I think though that there might be a change of plans here. Today while I was driving something unique happened. The car appeared to stall at lower speeds (was driving at 35 mph). For about 30 seconds or so the car stalled and as opposed to previous times no CEL came up. The car came back up immediately after I restarted the engine. I am now suspecting if the ECM needs to be replaced ?? Does this make sense.

If yes, the How much would it cost to get a new one i.e. including the new part and the labor charges.

Also, can I do it myself. I have seen posts regarding this saying that the a new ECM needs to be reprogrammed for the key to work. Is this true ?

There are a bunch of ECMs available form junk yards for 70-150 USD. Will these be reliable ?

Thanks
R

lazlong

Get a manual and do the diagnosis of the sensor first. You can find a download, cd, or used one on eBay or get new one here: http://www.helminc.com/helm/homepage...vlB&usg=AFQjCN

civicpyro

I know this is an old post but it helped me. I'm just adding more info.

I just rebuilt my D17A2 and on the first start i get this code P1362.
Reading this and a few other post. and having a FSM book. i was able to diagnose that the wiring was ok. i wish there was a way to test the sensor itself but no info on it that i can find.

Apparently, (I'm guessing tho) since the sensor is a magnet, it may have degaussed itself while it was in the parts bin with a ton of other metal. i can feel it working when i test with my magnet/antenna but i couldn't get any reading using the multimeter on any combo of the pins.

secondly i thought that maybe its positional. maybe the sensor is too far away from the cam pulley. i checked and it wasn't. actually there's hardly any wiggle room (+-0.5mm?). so i couldn't have put it in wrong. so i'm going to replace the sensor with a new one (40-70 bucks from online dealers) and see how that goes.

I was going to experiment see if i can make it work again with a strong magnet stuck to it for a few hours (the opposite pole) and see if that would "charge" it up again but gaussmeters are expensive! similar to cheapo ghost meters but nevermind.

update: found a CMP test procedure here. http://goo.gl/ouL5R
its easy enough but i dont think its practical .... might help others tho...

CK

xxxtyp

My civic is doing the same things described here but I'm still unable to drive it...I replaced the cam and crank sensor already and since I was there also did the waterpump tesioner timing belt and my belt cover was ccracked so changed that too. After all this car won't start. It cranks but it won't start. I had the car re timed just in case but it still won't start. When I put the key in the ignition it flashes green 3 times. I'm not sure if it did that before or even if it matters but I do need some help asap starting college and a new job soon and I have no transportation =[