H22 CD5

sup guys. i've spent the past 3 days trying to figure out wth is going on. everytime i turn the key to crank the car, the #44 underhood fuse, fi e/m 15A, blows everytime. it will blow with the ecu plugged/unplugged and with the main relay plugged. however, it will not blow the fuse when i unplug the main relay.
what im wondering is if the engine harness is unplugged from the ecu and the fuse still blows, then does that cancel-out any possibility of the short being associated with the engine harness? there's still the driver-side plug still connected though.

i pulled the engine harness off the motor earlier and i've given it a thorough go-over and i can't see any breaks, pinches or exposed wiring. i've wired in a resistor box, but i made sure to solder and heat-shrink all connections that i've made.

i thought it was the fuel pump, changed it out to a new walbro255, and the fuse still blows! so far, i've pulled out the rear seats to check the fuel pump wires, followed it to the fuse box and checked for continuity to the main relay. still nothing...

i'm so close to ripping out the dash and going over the entire cabin harness!

if anyone can do me the favor of scanning the Helms ETM for the fuel-wiring?
EE_chris, help me out here!
thanks in advance for any and all help!

EE_Chris

That fuse feeds battery voltage to the injectors...and you just wired in a resistor box, so that's a possible suspect. The fuel pump is on its own fuse, so I doubt that's it. That drivers side plug (C101), if unplugged, would probably also 'solve' the shorting because it's the main feed to the other connectors that feed the ECU, injectors and IACV battery voltage. But if it doesn't, then that narrows down where to start looking.

EK FLY

look for any loose wire doing ground , same thing happen to me like sensor wires or anything like that I bet u my left nut (small one ) that thats ur problem

H22 CD5

thanks a million for the schematics, ee_chris! i'll start tracing everything down accordingly tomorrow morning. i just acquired another b16a2 engine harness and i'll see if the problem really lies within the resistor box wiring or not.

what i don't get is how this happened out of the blue. i drove the car to the shop and into the bay perfectly fine. pulled the motor and reused the harness on the b20vtec and wired in the resistor box. i've wired r-boxes many times before and i just dont see how that could have caused the short. im thinking that during the swap process, one of the ground wires must have stretched out and created an open. i'll post back tomorrow as to what i find out.

once again, thanks for the schematics!

H22 CD5

i just figured that i would reply to my own thread with what i ffound out.
i've searched the archives and it seems like blowing fuse #44, the FI-E/M, under the hood is a common problem after wiring-in a resistor box.i hope this helps other people from going apeshit trying to troubleshoot the short.

upon recieving the schematics from EE_Chris, i found out why i was blowing fuses. The dead-end plug with the yellow/black wiresand solid black wires found underneath the intake manifold on 96-00 civics are completely different than the dead-end plugs found in obd-1 civics and integras located in the driverside shock tower, which i was familiar with.

before wiring in the resistor box, i checked continuity from the injector plugs to the dead-end plugs. found the 4 wires needed and proceeded to wire everything in. the remaining wires, i soldered together and ran it to the red-wire coming from the resistor box. this is where it went wrong. after picking out the 4, yellow/blk wires from the dead-end plug, you'll have two remaining yellow/blk wires and about 6 solid black wires. those 6 solid black wires are grounds! and by bundling them up with the remaining 2 yellow wires to connect to the red wire on the resistor box, that created the short. which in turn, blew my fuses!

so, in short, DO NOT bundle the remaining wires leftover from the dead-end plug and run it straight to the resistor box. The ONLY wires you connect together are the remaining TWO yellow/black wires and run it to the red wire on the resistor box!

in obd1 vehicles, however, you DO bundle the remaining wires leftover from the dead-end plugs. i wish i had some pictures to post.
i hope this helps

shyboi4u

could this still be John?

shyboi4u

haha, yes it is John. I found You.