BayLude

Hello Everyone,
I am really worried. Please forgive the long'ish post, it's simply because my philosophy is to do something right the first time rather than drag it out piece by piece, wasting everybody's time in the process. I've invested more time upfront here to get ALL the information out in 1 post so that you guys have a thorough understanding of the situation - there's NOTHING you wouldn't know that I don't know - rather than stringing together a series of rinky-dink half-assed posts answering questions I should've just answered in the first post to begin with... and then days would have gone by just to get the same information out!

I have a 1998 Prelude, Base Model and a few weeks ago it threw a P0325 code on me, randomly. I pulled the code using my OBDII scanner.
My scanner says it's the "Knock Sensor 1 Circuit Bank 1 or Single Sensor"

Upon looking up this code online, it confirmed what my Scanner said it was: the "Knock Sensor."

I guess my first question may simply be a simple one of semantics: Why does that particular code say "Knock Sensor 1 Circuit Bank 1 OR Single Sensor"? What's the relevance of stipulating Circuit Bank 1? And why does it say "OR" Single Sensor? What in the world is a "Single Sensor" and how would I know where to locate it if it really is a vague term like that? (there are many sensors! ) The wording almost sounds like it's saying "it's your Knock Sensor... OOOR it's any one of these other 600 sensors"

My second question is: What the hell does this code actually mean? At first I just thought it meant that my knock sensor is bad, but after reading around ALL over the web, I've started to get confused now. The seed of doubt I think was planted when I read some user state something like "the code telling you Knock Sensor basically is just letting you know that the Knock Sensor did it's job, in detecting something!" I have no idea how valid what this person said is, however, as I'm not experienced enough in this field.

Does the Knock Sensor just tell me if the engine is knocking, or does it actually manage the engine to PREVENT it from knocking? This is actually a huge question for me, I couldn't seem to actually find the answer to this explicitly stated anywhere. I understand HOW the Knock Sensor works (basically, acts like a microphone to listen for a specific range of frequencies/sounds that it's been engineered to pick up on that it 'knows' mean that the engine is knocking - or not knocking, however you prefer).
On another note, how obvious would the 'knocking' be?


My Situation!:
A few weeks ago the above occurred. I was driving along the freeway, was only traveling about ~60 mph (was in exit lane and my seat was reclined to approximately 37.4 degrees if that matters, haha just kiddin'). Anyways, out of nowhere my Check Engine Light (CEL) comes on. Not a single inkling as to what the hell triggered it - NOTHING noticeable actually occurred in the car. No sudden loss of power, no shuttering, no obvious sounds, no gauges suddenly going up or down, nothing. I exited the freeway and made my way home. I considered having a beer, possibly one as cold as the Rockies. I pulled the code with my scanner and only the 1 code was present: the P0325 mentioned previously. As luck would have it, I had a ton of family in town from all around the country (they'd literally just gotten in the night before), so I needed to know if I could drive my car or not (not everyone had a rental car), if need be. So I looked online to see if I could drive my car still with "whatever the hell P0325 is" on. Everywhere I read at the time said that I could, as if it was no problem at all - I'd even read numerous people saying they'd driven with that code on for extended periods of time with no issue. I was still paranoid however, so since then I've driven my car only ~3-4 times (all but 1 trip was just to go up 1 exit on the freeway to the hotels all the family were staying at), basically short trips.

And THEN Murphy's Law came into full effect. Keep in mind I'd literally just graduated from University (what everyone was out for), with student loans awaiting me ($$$), so I could have done without a visit from Murphy.
Anyways, it'd been about 9 days since I'd turned my car on - we'd been taking my girlfriend's car everywhere instead. The family all heads back home, out of town, and we're about to head out of town ourselves (driving).

And then it happened.
I go to turn my car on to move it to one of the covered spots so that we're not taking up an open (public) spot while we're out of town, and my car turns on, and then about 1-2 seconds later randomly dies (turns off), all by itself. The gauges went to zero (ex: RPMs = 0), basically just as if I'd turned my car off, even though I hadn't and the key was still turned over in the ignition. "Well that was weird" I thought. My girlfriend is waiting for me, her car running, to switch spots so we can leave (i.e. we're literally just heading out of town - perfect timing!). I pause a few seconds, confused, and try to turn my car back on ("I need to move this" I think). I place the key back in the ignition, turn it over, the battery engages (so that's fine - not dead), but as I go to turn over the engine, it would not turn over. I held it only briefly (maybe about 1-3 seconds), before I relented and knew that something was wrong (the engine of course usually turns on right away, ~instantly).. those 1-3 seconds were definitely a long time trying to turn the engine over for my car. It was clear that my car would not turn on. "Something is wrong" I thought, really worried. I had no time. We had to leave (had to be at our destination by a certain time). I had to leave my car there in the open spot. The entire time we were out of town I was worried about my car. We just got back in town yesterday. So now, we're here. I have no idea what is the state of my car, what is wrong with it. I'm admittedly scared to try to turn it back on for fear that something I'm not aware of may be wrong, and that by turning it on it may damage it (further?). And so I come to you guys, whose opinions and expertise I view highly, and trust. What do you think is the deal with my car? I plugged in my scanner as soon as I got home yesterday to see if any new codes popped up (I'd realized while we were out of town that since the CEL was already on, I wouldn't be able to know if coincidentally a second error came up on top of it). NO NEW CODES came up (still the only code throwing a Check Engine Light is the P0325 - the "Knock Sensor" supposedly, as mentioned previously).

My Big Questions:
So, what do you think is the deal with my car?
Did the engine just completely fail (die) on me? Am I hosed?
Can a faulty (failed) Knock Sensor cause an engine to shut off? Can it cause a vehicle to not turn on right away (i.e. require longer turnover-period of the engine)?
Is this all just a coincidence? It was incredibly hot (~100+ degrees) the day we were leaving out of town, and my car was in the sun, I've wondered if the heat could have influenced this event (if so, how so)?
What are your thoughts on me trying to turn my car on again (I would try it at night, when it's cooler out, if so)? Do you think turning the car on would damage it further?
What are your thoughts on the driveability of the car?
What are your thoughts on the Knock Sensor? Is it even worth replacing, or was severe damage somehow already done to the vehicle?

Literally up until the last moment I drove my car, you would have had no idea anything was even wrong with it. As I told people, "If you were to take away my dashboard, I wouldn't even have been able to tell that a Check Engine Light was on - at all!" NOTHING was different about the car, it seemed to be driving just fine! It's hard to say if it was lacking power in the very few times I drove it short distances (only 1 exit up the freeway) while the CEL was on because I didn't really need to accelerate too much in the brief period of time that it was on (to go up 1 exit I didn't even need to leave the entry lane, as it became the exit lane). The only (1) time I didn't drive it up just 1 exit, I was just driving my brother around the town (i.e. city driving) for places to live (he wants to move here). This was not the last time I'd driven my car though (the opposite actually; was towards the very beginning of when the family was out).

Please, if the above questions could all be answered, you have no idea how much it would be appreciated. I've been so worried about this. The reason I ask about driveability is because we're moving in 1 month (did I mention Murphy had perfect timing?) and of course I would need to be able to move my car. I will be looking for work where we move to, so I need to know the viability of my car. This is a really hard time. Really.


Thank you sincerely anybody and everybody who helps with this, any and ALL feedback, advice, etc. is truly, much appreciated!

yohan

So in a nutshell, u were driving the car one day got a CEL, read the code, it said knock sensor.. You kept driving the carno issues went to start it and now it won't start or won't stay running?

Yea, you did need to apologize for the long post.. We will help you, but you need to give us engine only facts.

Pull the battery neg terminal off.. Let it sit a few mins, turn the key as if to start so all current drains then connect battery again and try to start it .... This should reset ecu and will allow you to pull fresh CEL codes.

Report back with your findings.