No Honda

Hi! My friend has a 97 Civic Si and it needs help. First off, let me explain that I am not a Honda driver. I am not an auto-mech noob mind you, but I just have never owned/worked on Honda's so I know very little about them.

The Story:
She was driving home in a huge rain storm the other day, and went through a puddle so big that water flooded the cabin (water in the cup holders). The car was parked in a garage for a day to air dry with fan assistance, and was shopvacced.

The Problem:
Currently the car's check engine light is on. I'd imagine that there might be codes to pull from the ecu, and might turn off the light... and there was a whining sound when the car was driven.
1st Question > What is this all about? Why the light, why the whine?

More problems:
She took it to the $tealership with me and we instructed them to pull ecu codes only. Nearly 8 hours later the dealer calls and says to pick it up, its ready. At this point I wasn't with my friend, so she's explaining to me what she was told. They said they cleared the engine codes, engine light no longer comes on. The whine was a "cap?" on the A/C and my friend OK'd to have that replaced (part was $50). Apparently it doesn't whine anymore. When she drove away, the car run like crap, worse then before and turned right around and asked them "How can it run like that but be told its OK?" Dealership agreed there's still a problem, and I believe now they will try to suck every penny out of my friend's wallet 'cuz she's a woman.
2nd Question >What is the likely problem. I can't believe Honda's can't get wet. This isn't a '74 Dodge... but I am surprised that Honda hides the ecu in the passenger cabin under the carpet (you know, where all the water was )

I have also just learned that this 97,000 KM car has had no preventative maintenance on it other than oil changes.
3rd Question >I need to know what are the typical maintenance items to do on a car with this milage.

Thank You for your help!

chillly

As for your fist question, I have no clue; sorry I can't be of more help.

As for #2, you can find out which code it's throwing by doing the following:
There's a plug for an engine diagnostic up under the dash on the floorboard of the passenger side. It's a plug that's just plugged into a "dummy" plastic plug. Pull this plug, then take a short length of wire or other conductive material (I used a paper clip last time ) and loop between the two ends of the plug. Now turn the car on, and watch the Check Engine Light. After it initially comes on from its self test mode, it will start blinking. This will indicate the trouble code or codes it's throwing. It will blink long for the first digit, then short for the second digit to indicate what trouble code it's throwing. For example, Code 43 would blink like this: _ _ _ _ ... In the case of multiple codes, it will pause for a moment, then blink the new code. Now, reference a Haynes or even a Helms manual, or hell, just ask us, what code that represents. This might not necessarily tell you exactly where the problem is, but it'll give you a pretty good idea of where to start troubleshooting.
As for Q #3, just the usual tune-up things that you would do on any car would be applicable. Spark plugs, distributor cap & rotor, that sort of thing. Also perhaps flush and replace all the fluids-radiator, tranny, bleed the brakes, that sort of thing. You said you're not really new to cars, soo I'm sure you would know how to do these sort of things with the guide of a manual, and Honda's IMHO are really pretty maintenance friendly.(Pretty easy to get to everything with an overhead cam inline four )

Hope this helps, and good luck to you and your friend- getting jacked by service Depts. is what motivated me to begin working on my own car to begin with...

Edit- I just saw this shortcut in another post; it may help you detremine what codes you're throwing

http://hondata.com/techecucodes.html




[Modified by uncivilCivicinprogress, 10:08 AM 11/14/2002]

No Honda

That's helpful thanx I like the blink out your own codes trick, I do it myself on my cars.

One more Q to go with the third on my original post....
At 100,000 KM's are timing belts and valve adj required? I remember older Honda's ie. 1990 Accord needed valve adjustments done every 100 kilcks or so. Are these engines interference or free run?

Evs-One

they are deffinately interferrence engines. Some say about 60 thousand miles, so yeah, about 100 thousand km should be good to do that. That is also very easy to do. And since the Canadia Si model is same as US EX, you're working on one of the simplest engines too!