em1goesbwah

Hi forum. Ive been having this problem all winter and after a few unsuccessful attempts to fix it I am going to post again in hopes that somebody can help me out. I own a 1998 civic si (Canada) with a JDM b16 sir2 w/ p30 ecu.

The issue is that when the car gets up to full operating temp and idle is low (700-800) the idle will suddenly drop to like 200 then come back up and the engine will sound weird. The CEL comes on as #4- crankshaft position sensor. I am also getting electrical load detector.

What I've done : timing belt, timing tensioner, valve adjustment, wires, cap rotor and plugs. Haven't had a timing light on it yet but the dizzy very slightly advanced.. wouldn't expect it to cause this? Can anybody help me! Thanks.

em1goesbwah

bump.. really need some help on this! thanks

fleabag

Loose wiring to the connector that goes to distributor? I don't know but definitely could be a distributor issue, incompatible with your setup, crappy one/broken, or something.

I mean it would be a good idea to inspect and clean up all your electrical grounds to your engine, making sure connections on both ends are shiny.

Oh read this thread here: https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/where-crank-position-sensor-2796258/

you should do better searching... Try this in google.com

CKF sensor honda civic site:honda-tech.com

That way you do a google search of honda-tech.com for the search terms.

P-M-B,93EXsedan

Thanks fleabag. Maybe now when I try to search this site ill actually find what I'm looking for instead of interesting bs'ing instead. I need to stop getting distracted

em1goesbwah

I will check out my grounds. I appreciate the google tip! I did this a while back :

I got a result of 342, however there was no continuity on both terminals to body ground. Does this mean that my distributor is bad?

em1goesbwah

Bump.. Is my distributor gone for sure?

fleabag

only one way to find out but it would appear from your testing that indeed your distributor is bad! Since the ohms are just out of range, it explains why the car runs at all with a check engine code vs. not running at all.

em1goesbwah

Makes sense, but it doesn't do it all the time. The cel will only come on when it drops in revs and almost seems like the ecu goes into a different mode. The whole car runs different and it resets when I restart the car.

Former User

Fix code 4 before you do anything else.

As for code 20, check whether fuse 15 is blown.

em1goesbwah

I checked fuse 15 and it looks fine. My symptoms continue to get worse, always throwing ckp code and limiting my revs / power.

fleabag

What do you want us to do now? The solution is pretty obvious, no?

em1goesbwah

I'm just wanting to be sure. Dizzy, right?

fleabag

Yes, I would say with great confidence that it is the distributor considering the fact that you even went as far as to fully diagnose it since the spec's are out of range. Seems pretty definitive to me.

em1goesbwah

So I replaced the distributor.. unfortunately it wasn't the culprit... 380$ later. It was the harness between the dizzy plugs and main harness plug? ( Y shaped). Anyway, when I was playing with the dizzy I flicked the plug when it was running normal and sure enough it started running weird... wiggled some more and it stalled out and died. Took it apart, there was corrosion on the pins that go into the main harness so cleaned those off, reinstalled harness and sure enough it ran like it was supposed to. Played with wires and no change. Moral of story.. check the basics! Thanks anyway.

Former User

...invest in a multimeter.

fleabag

DUDE....