Stan Ski

New guy here. Let me tell you a little about myself. Have been involved it the automotive trade in one way or another all my life. Even had my own shop. I am 63 years old and retried. Here is the problem. My daughters car is a 96 Honda civic (1.6) had a no start problem. Checked it all out and found it had a very weak spark. Replaced the coil. Got the car started. Cool, You think the problem is fixed . Not to be. If the car is idling for about ten minutes it will stumble and set a code. ( P1381). Did not do this before. Then it will smooth out and run fine. If it is in gear it will stall. Do a restart and it is fine. She took it out yesterday and drove it and it stalled once and then ran great. I know this code is for the CPS sensor inside the distributor. I was able to get hold of the schematics for this vehicle from All Data. I went step by step and did all the tests they say to do with an ohm meter. Everything checked out good. I even pulled the ECM out a tried some heat and a little rapping on it. Tried playing with the wires. In fact I tried any thing I cold think of. Could not get the engine to do anything strange once it got past that first stumble.
This is what I really like. If I do all this testing and I find no faults they tell me to replace the ECM with a known good one. I don’t work at a Honda dealer. So I can’t go to the crib and say give me a computer and try it.. I checked a parts place near me and the price for and ECM was (are you ready for this) $430.00 and they would rebuild mine. I can find used parts but used is used and you do not know if they are any good. So my questions are. What do you guys think? Is any one of these part more trouble prone (Dist /ECM). The car is a little rough and not worth putting a ton of money into but it normally runs great. Any help? Hope this all make sense
Stan Ski

acake em1

the dizzys go out in these cars all the time... although when mine when out it didnt present the problem yours is having. ecus usually dont go bad, but you can find some pretty cheap ecus, and most will be good. my only question is about the stumble... is the stumble a spark or a fuel issue?

Anon51

Distributors fail more often then ECU's do imo. i'd say get another distributor. or buy the CPS from honda and replace it yourself. you should check the wires inside the distributor for any fraying or heat cracks on the wire insulation.

Bwill9886

I would tend to agree with those above me.

Try another distributor if you can.

If you need another ECU, start searching craigslist, ebay, or whatever for a new ecu. You can usually find them cheap, you just have to make sure they work!

Good luck

Anon51

there are quite a few of the tuning stores that also sell ecu's for around 100-200. check the marketplace. but i stick to saying its most likely the distributor.