StayKrafty

Alright, 94 civic hatch with lsvtec. B16a head b18a1 block. I have an led hooked in line with the Vtec for trouble shooting purposes. When you start the car, the light comes on and the car is hard to keep idle unless you give it some gas til the light shuts off then the cars fine. Tuned on Neptune but did this before the tune. It's not every time but it's enough to annoy me at this point. Any suggestions on what to look for? I noticed this happening changing the head gasket. It's really the only thing I can think of that has been done.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Has it done this since you wired in the LED?

StayKrafty

I've had the led wired in since I've owned the car. So roughly a year and a half now. This is just a more recent problem.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Okay. So this started happening in conjunction with what?

StayKrafty

Honestly don't know. It just started happening after a head gasket change. Not immediately after but that's the only thing that's been done before it started happening. I'm stumped.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

So what have you done to diagnose/fix the issue so far?

StayKrafty

Changed oil, cleaned solenoid screen. The basic vtec engagement problem stuff. But, vtec works which is the problem


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B_Swapped93

Be about that Toda killer cam life doe .
on a serious note can you try a different ECU ? or see if something is grounding out when it shouldn't be

StayKrafty

Yeah I can try another ecu, that's no a problem. The grounding out issue though, wouldn't it stay engaged all the time?


Posted from Honda-tech.com App for Android

StayKrafty

Bumping this because I'm still facing the issue.

Now the car has a low mileage gsr and engine still seems to engage vtec at start up, randomly. Car will bog but can remedy by holding the gas until it stops. Still not doing this all the time but enough for me to bump the thread. But, vtec does not engage at all, only at random start ups. The only thing I can think of is that I'm tuned on Neptune and prior to this I believe I was tuned on crome and never had a problem.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Former User

Disconnect the LED and return VTEC wires to stock. Is the problem eliminated?

StayKrafty

Different ecu, same problem. Led has worked numerous times before. I'm leaning towards the Neptune. I'm going to use my buddies ecu today to see the values of the sensors while car is running. See what's going on. But right now seeing if anyone else has any other ideas. I'll try an remove the led for the sake of diagnosis

Former User

How can you rule out the LED and its associated wire(s) currently? I don't think you can.


It's worth a try.

StayKrafty

True, I just know prior to using Neptune it worked flawlessly, led would come on, car would pull awesome. You could hear/feel crossover when the led would illuminate. It Illuminates at random upon startup and bogs. Then the led goes off car runs fine. So from that, I can assume the solenoid is receiving signal from the ecu. It's also inline with the vtec solenoid and the pressure sensor is disabled through the ecu.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

If it's not the wires and you're swearing it's Neptune then might I offer that your "tune" is bullshit.

StayKrafty

Not swearing it's the tune, but that's all I can think of that would be different from when it worked everyday to hardly at all. Car ran a year and a half on crome perfect and with the Neptune it's where I noticing the issue. Not saying neptune is the problem at all. Just the only different variable between working and not. Prior the Lsvtec was on its last legs so I just let it go and assumed it was a mechanical problem. Now with the gsr I'm still experiencing the same issue. I don't necessarily care if vtec works or not it's the ocd in me that wants to figure out what's going on.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Then why is it not still running on CROME?
Is it a GSR or an LS/VTEC? I'm confused.

StayKrafty

Originally Lsvtec now gsr. I just didn't update first post so I didn't confuse anyone. I see that was a bad move. I'm gonna try my original crome ecu today if we can't figure anything out with the live readings

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Then it's either the wires or your "tune".

StayKrafty

Definitely leaning towards the tune, but like I said seeing if anyone had any other insight or something I should look for later on today when I'm diagnosing it further. Appreciate all the feedback thus far.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

The wire thing would be the easiest thing to do at this point I would think.

StayKrafty

Definitely, I'll just run a separate wire from the solenoid to the ecu and see if that makes a difference that way I just bypass the led all together.

StayKrafty

For anyone concerned or for any potential future searches that lead to this thread, the problem was found.

For some reason, the Ecu would engage vtec at startup randomly. New ecu no problems. Ecu was put into another car and that car had no vtec. Not sure why it happened as the Ecu looks fine, will dive down deeper and see what happened. I want to thank everyone who had any input on what to do. In my research came across a lot of things I would have never looked for otherwise.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

But you stated that you tried another ECU and the problem was still there