Creg Westenskow

My friend Debbie has a 1995 Civic D15 that starts from cold just fine and runs good
until it starts warming up.. About the time the temp gauge gets off the peg it starts
to run rough and lose power. It gets worse as it warms up. At some point it turns
on the check engine light and seems to smooth out a little, but not enough to make
it drivable. By the time it gets to normal temp it won't even pull itself and
sometimes the engine dies.

I've turned a lot of wrenches over the years, but I'm no Honda guy, and I really
need to help her out. I'm hoping you Honda gurus can point me in the right
direction.

Here is some more background, as I understand it. Someody replaced the head a
few months ago. I'm not sure why. It ran fine but leaked oil like crazy. Apparently
the new head arrived with the camshaft seal MIA. I installed a seal and ran the
rack.

It ran good for a week or so and then a "cloud of steam or smoke" came out from
under the hood. She shut it down and towed home. I found a leaking heater hose,
cut it back a little and reclamped. No evfidence of overheating.

It ran fine for a few days and then she complained about a lack of power. I found
the muffler was plugged tight (cat converter was clear). I replaced the muffler and
it straightened out for awhile.

Then the current symptoms developed. It will go through the cycle of warm up and
fail in just a few minutes while idling in the driveway. It's OBD1, and has never
shown a blink code. While troubleshooting the plugged muffler I checked the valve
lash adjustments and all were on the money, but now it seems a little loud to me.
It's a clattery, mtalic kind of noise like loose valves.

I think that's it. I'm sorry, at this point I can't even tell you if it is a fuel or ignition
problem. Haven't had the heart to run it down yet Please help. I'm starting to
really hate this thing.

TomCat39

There is a two pin (blue plug) under the right (passenger) side carpet kick panel area or just above it under the glovebox area or equal height but on the side wall just forward of the door and door hinge towards the firewall..

You use a paperclip to short the two pin female plug and it will give you the ECU OBD1 trouble codes. Long blink are 10, short blinks are 1's. A long pause is separation between codes. Pull your codes and see what they are.

The ECT sensor is the 2 pin sensor under the distributor in the head of the engine. This will tell the ECU the engine temperature. If it is faulty the ECU thinks the car is always cold and will operate as such by running rich etc.

In the under the hood fuse box there is a 7.5amp "back-up" fuse. You pull this fuse for 20 seconds to reset the ECU which will also clear the OBD codes. This will let you determine which codes are still active once they return.

muellersfan

Unplug the O2 sensor. Does this eliminate the problem?

Creg Westenskow

Thanks for replying, TomCat. I know about the diagnostic plug. It has never shown a code until yesterday when it blinked a 54. I have a British Haynes manual that identifies that as a fault with the Crankshaft speed Sensor (IIRC). This engine does not have one, and after a backup fuse reset the code did not return.

There are three sensors under the dist. I will check them all and report.

Thanks again.

Creg Westenskow

Thanks, Muellersfan. I will find out and report back here.

Thank you.

muellersfan

Post a video. Maybe you misread the code.

TomCat39

Hope this is the case.

FSM doesn't say nice things if it is not:

Creg Westenskow

I would if I could, but it disappeared after pulling the backup fuse. It was five long blinks, pause, four short blinks, pause, repeat. I don't remember seeing anything about that in any of the research I have done except for that British Haynes book. And the sensor definitely does not exist at the location their photo showed, adjacent to the front of the crankshaft.

muellersfan

Drive the car until you see the CEL turn on (steady or temporarily). The post video of stored code. Most likely, you just misread the code(s), which could be key to solving the problem.