grahamc

Hey everyone,

Hoping I can get some help here. I am basically new to the honda world. I have a 1998 Civic LX and while I've owned it a couple years, havent had issues till now. I will try and keep this brief, but here is some background on the issue. Car started having charging issues. It was then parked to be rectified. Couple weeks go buy, I attempted to start it, wouldnt go. Checked the usual suspects everything seemed good. Long story short in regards to starting, got my hands on a new distributor as it was believed to be causing my starting issues. It now runs (side note: timing was eyeballed).

The charging issue: The issue was, gauges going crazy, and power surging. I was told about a harness rubbing issues in relation to the back of the intake manifold and the ecm connector. Possible codes being po141, po140 and it causing strange charging problems (it had these codes). I was told to check the alt fuse to see if it was blown, it was. I changed the fuse, and checked the harness, there was one wire that had rubbed. I did my best to repair it. At this stage the car didnt start, but the cel was out.

Here is what im dealing with:

Car Starts, cel on, po141 active

Temp gauge is midway up when cold

Idle is hunting



Im getting a little overwhelmed, but im hoping to rectify this issue on my own. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks very much.


p.s.
Prior to the car being parked, the only issue was in relation charging.

grahamc

anyone?

Former User

P0141 indicates a continuing problem in the secondary O2 sensor heater element, which is protected by fuse 15. Have you checked whether fuse 15 has again blown?

The 1-wire sender unit for the cluster temp gauge is located directly below the distributor. If you unplug the sender unit connector by pulling on it, does the temp gauge needle now drop to Cold?

Hunting idle - try bleeding the cooling system:

Bleeding may take 20-30 minutes:

1) Park the car on an inclined driveway with the front end higher than the rear.

2) Push the dash heater lever/**** to MAX heat.

3) Follow the directions in the diagram below

grahamc

thanks very much, will report back when i get this all checked.

grahamc

Ron,

I checked the fuse, it wasnt blown. I followed the instructions on bleeding the cooling system, no change(gauge seemed to be working fine though).

At first I thought the idle was related to engine temp as on initial startup it wouldnt waver. However I cleared the code(battery disconnect). On startup the cel was off but within 10 seconds it is back on and the idle will then start fluctuating. Although fuse 15 wasnt blown, my best guess is I've missed something in the engine harness.