Stan Ski

New guy here. Let me tell you a little about myself. Have been involved it the automotive trade in one way or another all my life. Even had my own shop. I am 63 years old and retried. Here is the problem. My daughters car is a 96 Honda civic (1.6) had a no start problem. Checked it all out and found it had a very weak spark. Replaced the coil. Got the car started. Cool, You think the problem is fixed . Not to be. If the car is idling for about ten minutes it will stumble and set a code. ( P1381). Did not do this before. Then it will smooth out and run fine. If it is in gear it will stall. Do a restart and it is fine. She took it out yesterday and drove it and it stalled once and then ran great. I know this code is for the CPS sensor inside the distributor. I was able to get hold of the schematics for this vehicle from All Data. I went step by step and did all the tests they say to do with an ohm meter. Everything checked out good. I even pulled the ECM out a tried some heat and a little rapping on it. Tried playing with the wires. In fact I tried any thing I cold think of. Could not get the engine to do anything strange once it got past that first stumble.
This is what I really like. If I do all this testing and I find no faults they tell me to replace the ECM with a known good one. I don’t work at a Honda dealer. So I can’t go to the crib and say give me a computer and try it.. I checked a parts place near me and the price for and ECM was (are you ready for this) $430.00 and they would rebuild mine. I can find used parts but used is used and you do not know if they are any good. So my questions are. What do you guys think? Is any one of these part more trouble prone (Dist /ECM). The car is a little rough and not worth putting a ton of money into but it normally runs great. Any help? Hope this all make sense
Stan Ski

mwaedow

I have a computer for a D16y7 motor, the number is P2E. It's known to be good, but I don't need it anymore after my VTEC swap. If that's what you need, send me a private message and let me know if you're interested. I'll be a lot cheaper than the parts store. From what I've seen, though. An ecu won't go partially bad. If it will still run the car, then it's likely ok. Make sure there are no shorts on the cylinder position sensor circuit. That specific code says it's an intermittent interruption, so it could be a loose wire, or one that was cut, and just twisted and taped back together, maybe not making constant contact.

Stan Ski

mwaedow, I will keep you in mind as far as the computer. I really do not think that is the problem either. Like i said after it goes stumbles once it will run fine. With the All Data info i checked all the wires for open or shorts. With the engine running i pulled , twisted all the wiring i could get my hands on. This is one of those cars that reminds me why i got out of the trade
Stan Ski

mwaedow

did you check the sensor itself for resistance? I'm consulting my Haynes manual, and it says to check for resistance across terminals 4 and 8 on the CYP sensor, and if you were to check for continuity, there should be none. You're looking for resistance of 350-700 ohms. You might end up replacing the distributor if that sensor is shorted to ground.

mwaedow

I also have a dizzy for that motor, if that's the case.

Stan Ski

Yep, Checked resistance on all 3 sensors. All were around 400 ohms on each one. So that tells me there are no open circuits there. Checked for shorts to ground. Reconnected the dist wires and did the same thing at the ECM connector. No opens or shorts there either.
Stan Ski

mwaedow

That's strange, Stan Ski. I'm no expert, so I don't know what else could be causing it to throw that code. I know the coolant temp sensor can cause some funny things to happen. Maybe when it idles for a while and warms up, the CTS is giving an inaccurate reading, and causing a stumble. That's all I can think of.

19Accord97

You would probably get some more help if it was in the Civic section of the forum.

Stan Ski

So can someone move this post over there?
Stan Ski

Stan Ski

I just moved the post over to the Civic section. Do not know how to delete it from this section
Stan Ski