Okay my girlfriend has a '96 Accord LX 4cyl non-vtec auto.
Wednesday night she got a check engine light, the car seemed to run okay though. Thursday morning the car smelled like exhaust while driving it, only a little bit though. I brought it to autozone to have the codes checked, there were 2:
P0141 - O2 Sensor Heater Circuit Malfunction (Bank 1 Sensor 2)
P1491 - EGR Valve Lift Insufficient Detected
I cleared the codes but they came on again within seconds after the car was started. Thursday afternoon she was driving and she said the gauges started going crazy and the lights got dim and the car started runny very choppy. Eventuallly the car died on the side of the road, I towed it back to my house. I jump started it and it would run roughly with very low electric power, but as soon as I removed the jumper cables the car would die. I ended up taking the alternator and battery to autozone, they said the alternator was okay, and the battery was fried. I got a new battery and put everything back together. The car starts right up and runs fine, but the codes came back.
Now here's my question... It could be a coincidence that the batter crapped out real bad shortly after the CEL's came on, but I doubt it. What should I do to fix this? I know I could replace the O2 sensor, but that could be a waste of money if it's not really faulty. I have no idea about the EGR situation though.
Any help would be tremendously appreciated Thank You!

 

EGR valve normally doesn't give false code. It is either the EGR valve not fully open to normal operation that the ecu could no match to the 02 sensor reading. Remove the EGR and a se if it is dirty. With the 02 sensor, even if it doesn't work anymore, your car should be running fine with out any hesistation.

 

Try cleaning out the EGR system before you go replacing any parts. Click Here. for the step by step for your model Accord. It says 95 Accord on the top of the page but it's the same setup on the 96. I did this and the insufficient lift DTC never came back.

One extra thing that you can do, that isn't covered, is to remove the EGR valve and give it a good cleaning with carb cleaner. You can push the valve up to allow for the carb cleaner to get right up through the EGR body.

As for your O2 sensor there are three pages worth of electrical troubleshooting in the Honda shop manual that I have. That help diagnose if it is your O2 heater circuit or the ECU. If you don't have a manual of any kind for the vehicle, now might be a good time to invest.


Modified by GhostAccord at 10:03 AM 8/9/2008

 

thank you very much guys, I'll try cleaning out the EGR valve. I appreciate it!

 

PM sent

 

okay, I took off the EGR runner and valve and cleaned them out, they weren't that dirty though. The car does the same thing. It throws codes within seconds of being started up. I measured the resistance between the terminals on the post-cat O2 sensor, it's about 500ohms I got, and 20ohms between connection 3 and 4 on the pre-cat O2 sensor.

I don't care if the car runs perfect right now, I just don't want the electrical power dying again and forcing the car to break down on the side of the road again. I looked in the service manual and they're trying to tell me I need an ECM test harness which I don't have. It's looking like I'm going to need to bring it in.
Is there any way I can be sure that the car will not lose electrical power due to my CEL codes?

 

well guys it happened again. The CEL's were on and the car died with a day-old battery while she was driving. I towed her back to my house again. At this point I don't care if the care how the car runs I just don't want it dying again. Do any of you have any idea as to why the battery keeps dying? Maybe it's completely unrelated to these CEL codes?

 

did you make sure to check all the connections? if the car is running on the alternator and you slow down the rpms it'll die maybe there's a short somewhere, try checking the fuse panel for anything just a suggestion

 

I'm thinking I have a short somewhere between the EGR valve and ECM. I'm ripping up the carpet now to test some wires. I replaced the EGR valve, no difference.