14stang

Ok so as you might be able to tell from my sig, I am not a honda guy (though I do love them! just haven't owned one yet..) and I'm looking for some advice about a buddies car that I am thinking about buying and possibly flipping. This is a bit of a long story so bear with me;

This is a 97' Coupe EX automatic with 172k on it, pretty beat up. He was driving from Denver to Fort Collins, CO with a car full of people when it overheated and blew a hose, they taped it and zip tied it and limped it part of the way here, it overheated again and they tried retightening everything and it wouldn't start. So it has been sitting in a local neighborhood for about a week waiting for someone to buy it. Anyway today I tried checking if it was just the solenoid on the starter was out, turns out they just knocked one of the wires off when they were messing with the hose. Plugged it back in and jump started it. Took a while to start, seemed like it wasn't getting fuel but by pumping the gas a little bit and revving the live car to 5k rpm, it started. We let it sit and charge for about 10 minutes during which time the idle strangely climbed from 1.1k to 1.6k and stayed there, temperature looked normal. CEL was on also btw. So I put it in drive and turned on to the street, gave it some gas and it didn't seem to have a lot of power, felt like the ECU was pulling ignition or something. Seemed similar to when another buddies 10' Accord went into 'limp-mode' after forgetting to plug in the MAF sensor. Also sounded like something was rattling or scraping, possible just something loose in the engine bay though. We made it about half a block until it lost all power and the rpm dropped to 400, it stayed there for about 10 seconds and then died completely. I tried starting it a few times, battery had plenty of juice but it didn't want to start, although it took a WHILE to start it the first time so I'm not entirely sure whether it will start right now or not.
I have to wait until the weekend to get my OBD2-USB cord to check the CEL and engine info on my laptop.

Phew, thanks for reading and I welcome any feedback!!!

Former User

You can pull CEL codes without a code reader by jumping the service connector. See Codes link in my signature.

I hope that you topped off the coolant in both the radiator and reservoir, and that the engine was not severely overheated. Otherwise, it's toast.

Regarding the no-start, check whether the fuel pump primes and for bright white spark at all 4 plugs. Click Spark link in my signature. If you have the former but not latter, the coil may be blown due to cranking car with a plug wire disconnected.

14stang

Interesting, just tried that. Got a code 6 water temp sensor, code 23 knock sensor, and code 70 automatic transmission problem (been a problem for a while). I reset the computer and it started instantly and made it about as far as it did the first time until dying again in the same way. Wouldn't start after that. Jumped it from another car and it started and idled normally and smoothly at 900rpm until I gave it some throttle. Stalled. After that it would start but it would idle at 400rpm, very rough shaking the whole car. Also smelled like fuel.
Am I right to assume this is limp mode?

Former User

All three codes return after the ECU reset?

Auto transmission? To pull the transmission code, jump the service connector and watch the D4 light in the cluster blink the code(s). Click the Codes link in my signature.

14stang

Yes all three codes were still on after the reset.