David617

So we just bought a 90 CRX SI with a B16A swap. (we being my Girlfriend and I) The guy we bought it from said it was running good before his child was born, and he sold it to us because he had just purchased a new bigger car.
My girl was driving it home, after we left the sellers house she noticed that the tach was kinda crazy/jumpy. (For lack of better terminology) About halfway through the trip the car shut off and refused to start. It would crank over but not fire. After awhile I ran home, grabbed some tools and we changed the fuel pump out in the parking lot were it died. We got the pump changed, and it fired right up and ran great again. (Tach still all crazy jumping around during acceleration)
So we headed up the mountain towards home (Best part of this trip... usually ) and it died again. We waited a few mins and it fired up. (At which point I kicked myself having wasted all that time changing the fuel pump, if we had just waited it would have most likely started). We continued over the mountain, but we had to keep it in the high RPM range or it would sputter really bad, we got down the back side, and it died it again. We sat on the side of the road for what felt like hours in the freezing cold, waiting for it to start since thats what had happened on the mountain.
I finally told my girl to go get my CRX and our tow rope and we would tow it home the last 20 miles. A few minutes after she left it started up for me and in an attempt to close the gap between the car and our house, I took off like a bat outta hell, it was still running really shitty in the low range RPMs, so I stayed out of the low range. I saw a car ahead of me and thought it was my girl so I wanted to get near to her to let her know that I was headed home with her (We were really stressed out by the whole day, having only travelled 60 miles in 8 HOURS! ) So I floored it and shifted through third, fourth, and into fifth, the tach was bouncing around all crazy and the speedometer was pinned to the dash, and it felt like the car still had more power and wanted to go faster. It turned out to be a truck, not an RSX. I was coming up to a really big hill that I didn't think my CRX could tow this car up. I just kept going as fast as I could, so I could to get to the top. (By this point I was pretty upset and had no regard for speed limits, but it was like 3:30AM so I wasn't really worried about cops) I eventually passed my girl 3 miles from home. We came up to a red light on the highway and I started slowing down in the left turn lane, but the car started sputtering. I looked around making sure no one was around and I ran the red light on to my road. I was really excited that the day was almost over, and at how freaking fast I had just gone! (I really had no clue since the CRX speedo only goes to about 130 and it was pinned for most of the drive) When we pulled into our driveway I melted out of the car onto the pavement, I was shaking with fear or adrenaline, I'm not really sure. BUT I WAS HAPPY TO BE HOME!

The whole trip probably wasn't as epic as it seemed to me, but could play a vital part in the cause for some of the issues listed below. It was just a really sweet story!

Now to get to the issues we have noticed.
Most pressing:
1. The fuel injectors are ticking, like really loudly. At first we thought it was the valves, thats exactly what it sounds like.

2. Most of the time the tach jumps throughout the rpm range when accelerating, and at a constant speed. It jumps past eight right when VTEC hits, moves back to about 7k, then jumps past the 8 mark till around what seems like 8k RPMs, then it seems sorta normal.

3. It sputters really bad, like really bad. Almost no power from 2k 'til about 5k RPMs. This isnt a consistant thing.

4. The exhaust smells terrible, not like my D15B CRX, which is understandable, but I don't see different engines making different smells. At idle the exhaust is a thick white color, sometimes blue. During accelleration it is thick BLACK

5. The idle positioning sensor is going bad, which we plan to change soon. When idling, it revs up and down from 1K to 2.5K. Sometimes it sticks at 2.5K, and sometimes it idles smoothly at .5K.

6. The car also makes alot of noise from the alternator area. It sounds like metal grinding on metal. We think its the pulley shaft inside. The alternator works, its just really noisey. We want to test/replace it, to see if thats were the noise is coming from.

7. The check engine light is on and the ECU is throwing a CODE 1 and 2. The car has a header and the cat has been removed. I havent checked to see if the header has an O2 sensor mount on it somewhere.
How do I make it stop blinking at me if we dont have any oxygen sensors installed? Is it detrimental to the cars health to run without oxygen sensors?

If you've read all the way through this, your probably thinking we got a bad buy, but the car is really clean, the body is straight, no salvage title, the paint is intact and well taken care of. The interior is well taken care of, minus the spare tire cover, the deck thingy and it has the sterotypical sun baked left bolster on the driver seat.

PLEASE help if you can. THIS CAR HATES US! The car only likes to be driven between midnight and 3AM. Otherwise it runs really crappy or worse, wont start at all. Any help would be greatly apprieciated and hopefully this thread can help someone else at the same time, or at least be a reason for a good laugh.

Thanks in advance!

ef92b

nice story! LOL

at least you got home safe and sound.

welcome to owning used cars. **** happens specially to a new owner

time to start digging your helms manual. i'm suspecting an intermittent/faulty speed sensor other than running in limp mode without or faulty O2 sensor(s).

give her some few amount of your time and a true car/owner bonding will surely fix things up.

stillsmokey

Step 1, change your distributor, it's [freak]ed.

davens

ditto.

Check out Distributor King's store on Ebay. I've bought three distributors through them (for different cars). Right price, great service. I *think* they're also in Canada.

Crx Jimmy

yes your dizzy is most likely bad go with a obd1 dizzy and convert it to obd1 since you already need a dizzy, you just need a ecu and jumper and you are set

4n_intelligence

I would say good buy, just needs a little work and you will have a nice car!

Black4thgenEF

Definately install the two O2 sensors that are supposed to be there.

grog

The ticking is most likely the lost motion assemblys or the valves

a jumping tach could be caused by a bad igniter (ICM). check out the spark plugs and wires, cap and rotor, Check the timing.

The jumping idle could be the fast idle thermo valve (FITV) or the idle air control valve (IACV) or a vaccum leak.

codes 1 and 2 oxygen content https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=468260&page=3

White smoke= burning water
Blue smoke= burning oil
Black smoke= running rich (IIRC unburned fuel) damn you got it all

Make sure the grinding noise near the alternator is'nt the alternator pulley rubbing the body, its should be dented in to clear it. You could try pulling the belt off of it and spinning it to see if it make the noise.

It also sounds like you may have a bad main relay (causing you car not to start unless you wait).

David617

Sweet thanx for all the suggestions. Our weekend is coming up. We should have a chance to get dirty with the car. As for owning used cars, like the story said this is the second CRX we own now, so we're not new. we have a 91 DX, bought out of impound for $400, great little car, it hasn't really ever had any major problems. however I am new to B-series.

The fuel infectors are making alot of noise. My girls Dad showwed us a trick thats like a stethiscope (spelling?) with a screw driver. We made sure it wasnt touching the head or anything else. All four injectors make a constant ticking.

thanks again ill be back by tomorrow, I gotta head off to work now = (

Crx Jimmy

if the injectors work let them be, I have never hear them make a lot of noise before though.

welfarepc

you car cutting out and dying sounds like the main realy

i resolved my ignition breakup by putting the electro sheilding back inside my dizzy and replacing the plug wires and dizzy cap.

if you dont have an o2 sensor you ECU wont know to add more fuel or take away fuel. so it will do anything it can to make sure the car will be able to 'limp' to a shop for repairs. this means it dumps a **** load of fuel in and runs really tame timing values.

so do a tune up, clear your cells and tell us whats up!

David617

I checked underneath the car and on the front of the header today. No sign of an O2 sensor. Since it has no cat or test pipe, there isn't a mount for one farther down the line.

Can we swap it to the OBD1 ECU and dizzy and have it not throw Code 1 and 2?

Didnt really have time for much else this weekend. not feeling good latly.

On a higher note it started up during the day today approx. 1:30 pm *YAY*

Another few days till the weekend. Cops give us funny looks if were out in our drive way at 3AM working on it after work.. owell

Gonna take some pics of it soon and post em, maybe I'll take some of MY project car.... or maybe not.

Anyway, off too work We go! = (
Happy tuning and reading!

nfereorhatch

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by David617 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> . 3. It sputters really bad, like really bad. Almost no power from 2k 'til about 5k RPMs. This isnt a consistant thing.
it idles smoothly at .5K.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I had that problem in my b16 swapped hatch once, changed the fuel pump as you did and that didn't help. Turned out to be a bad map sensor.

Patty

Trying installing some O2 sensors first since you have to anyway. I'm not an expert but your ECU reads those sensors to run your car correctly. Most of your symptons could be traced to bad O2 sensors which is the CEL your are throwing.

SIred91

Dont listen to anything untill you have your O2 sensor problem fixed first. Like said above this post.

THEN work on the problem. Without the proper signal to tell the ECU what air fuel to run, everything will be problematic.

David617

***UPDATE***
our cable is up again! I'm back with more news!

1. OUR CABLE IS UP AGAIN! wait i already said that

2. A friend came by and and had a look at the car. turns out the dizzy issue was partially correct. the igniter box inside the dizzy was faulty, he says alot of people just change dizzy's and it fixes the problem (because technically the diz is bad.) but the the issue was a small box that we happened to have a second one laying around So now the car runs great, and curiously enough it isn't throwing any ecu codes; i think im dumb, i think i can't read codes right yet

need less to say were looking into a new exhaust setup WITH some o2 sensor mounts just to avoid complications down the road, still dont have any pics cept crappy phone pics.. not worth the time

so point being if your car is experiencing probblems similar to mine.. it could be the same little box, when you pull diz cap its right in the front almost underneath the diz. has about 3-4 wires connected to it. could save you some money if you have spare dizzy's laying around. i hear the box new costs about 150$ so if you dont have spares could be more worth while to replace whole diz from ebay. anyhow just thought i'd drop an update. and thanks again for the all the help! ^_^

meandino

When I owned my 91 Honda CRX Si I kept an extra coil for the dizzy in the back compartment with a screw driver. Twice has my REX left me stranded when it was an easy fix like that. After I always had one in the car it never did it again.

David617

WOW... a two year dead thread... lol some pics of the little red CRX.. finally!

http://s303.photobucket.com/albums/n...7.jpg&newest=1

http://s303.photobucket.com/albums/n...0.jpg&newest=1

http://s303.photobucket.com/albums/n...5.jpg&newest=1

jayturboef

what a sweet rex.... i wish i could find a rust free shell so bad... i guess u know alot of us have extreme rust problems with ours....

David617

Northern Cali doesn't have the rust problems that most other places do. Our big problem is, WE HAVE TOO MUCH SUN!..
Being as we can't all afford a nice house, WITH A GARAGE, our paint is fading and is begining to look PINK!
The picture from the rear shows this really well. There is a huge difference in the paint between the rear bumper and the right rear quarter panel.
Although we do plan to repaint the car some day, once all the other projects are a little closer to complete.

BrayzieEF9

this part made me LOL,maybe the car is a vampire or werewolf car haha

David617

It was like that in a sense. although now it runs tip-top minus the SUPER short gears in the tranny eating gas on the interstate. otherwise a blast to own and drive.

BrayzieEF9

yeah

TempEF2

Sounds like the exact same problem I am having, I will be driving along for 10-15 mins, Then outta no where my(1992 civic sedan b16a) car turns in to a go-kart, Will not go past 2k-25k.. Since all this I have replaced the, Spark plugs, Spark plug wires,Bought a td44u dizzy (on criagslist!)... didnt work, So I bought a Igniton coil.. Still didnt turn. So I went to the local shop VIP, I bought a Distributor(TD68u) $289, Still wont crank... These b16a are a wooork lol.
I put in my first dizzy with a new module, and it fired up... went one block, died... Back on the street.. Idk man.. Im thinking maybe 02 sensor..

stackedhouse

Could be a o2 problem.. VIP is a ripoff!! What part of Portland are you in?