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iTrader: (6)

I just received a used engine harness from Ebay that's supposed to be from a 99-00 Civic Si. I purchased from a seller who has sold a bunch of these, and other than delayed delivery issues, seems to have decent feedback. My concern is that I paid about $100 less than sellers who warn of:

"OTHER SELLERS ON EBAY THAT ARE SELLING MODIFIED EX HARNESSES AS SI MODEL." and "Watch out for other sellers that are selling converted Ex engine harnesses as authentic EM1 SI engine harnesses. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME HARNESS."

I only have 30 days under Ebay's buyer protection and it may be a while before I take the car to my mechanic. I'm trying to find out if I have the real thing or not, but there's a lot of misinformation and disagreements about the difference between EX and Si harness, in addition to Integra harnesses. If it's a modified EX harness, how would I know?

HondaPartsHero

Distributor plug and CKF vary (Si is two wire and EX is 3 wire)

Th

Sprockets

iTrader: (6)

Thank you for your help. Although I don't know what CKF plug looks like, the distributor plug is the OBD2 "big plug" in your picture. However, what's strange is that on my stock 99 Si distributor, there are only 7 pins, not 9! I bought the car brand new, so I'm positive this is the distributor that came with the car.

JRCivic1

The CKF sensor is a two wire plug located on the driver's side end of the engine above the alternator and along the edge of the timing belt cover. The wire colors are blue/red and white/red IIRC. The EX plug is a three pin connector although it only has two wires in it... the middle pin is open and unused. In your distributor pic, one of the two large pin locations should have a black/yellow wire in it to power the coil and ICM. I am not sure how it ever worked without it. If it is missing, you might look in the wire bundle to find it. If not visible, remove the distributor cap and see if it is connected to the coil and ICM... then follow it out.

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iTrader: (6)

Thank you, I'll take a look later on. As for the larger black/yellow wire, I did see a yellow wire on my car yesterday. The only thing I can think of is that they must have modified the distributor plug when converting to Hondata coil on plug. That still leaves only 8 pins, though. I have a 99 Si, and the reason I'm getting a new harness is because some of the wires were tapped into/soldered near the ECU back when they installed a Greddy blue box about 15 years ago. This was before harness adapters were common.

94EG8

The power wire and the one for the tach signal are the two missing wires. I'm assuming the coil and maybe the igniter was removed and the distributor was simply used for the CYP/CKP/TDC sensors.

JRCivic1

There actually isn't a blue tach signal wire in the engine harness on the '99-00 Civics... EX or Si. The tach signal that drives the instrument cluster comes from the ECU and not directly from the distributor. It is however found in the '96-98 applications and that may be what you are referring to. So the only missing wire in that engine harness distributor plug would in fact be the black/yellow 12v+ wire. And for clarification OP, that wire is larger in older applications... it is the same size as the other seven wires in the plug in the '99-00 Civic, it just has a large female spade connector in the plug.

94EG8

You're right about the tach signal wire not being present in the engine harness (same goes for '00 - '01 Integras) and it's not the '99 - '00 Y7/Y8 distributors, but I'm pretty sure it's still on the Si distributor even though it doesn't actually do anything.

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iTrader: (6)

That's interesting, so there should only be 8 wires on a 99-00 Civic Si? I checked the harness and that's what it has. I didn't get a chance to look for the CKF sensor, because the distributor plug clip that slides over the metal bracket on the distributor is broken off. I'm have to send this one back, unfortunately. I hate buying used stuff. I even asked the guy ahead of time if any clips were broken.

JRCivic1

You are spot on with respect to the EM1 distributor... there is a blue tach output wire coming out of the cap and terminating in the plug... it simply doesn't go anywhere from that point. There is no corresponding wire in the engine harness. This same distributor part number is used in the '96-97 Del Sol Si VTEC.

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iTrader: (6)

I have one more question. The guy I bought the harness from bitched about the cost of shipping harnesses back and forth, but offered to send me a replacement distributor clip. How difficult is this to replace/repin? I guess he didn't read the part in my message that said I'd Paypal him extra for his trouble.

1999 Civic Si

Personally I think depinning/repining harness connectors pretty easy, especially the distributor ones. Just need a relatively small flat head screw driver or something similar in size. Just make sure you put the pins back in the correct spots and you should be good to go. I learned how to do it from a couple youtube videos, but if you look at it you typically have a plastic "guard" inside that you remove and then there are tabs that help hold the pins in place, push those and gently pull the wire/pin out.

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iTrader: (6)

That's good to know, thank you! I watched a video last night from HondaPartsHero.