duh09

Hey guys, having some issues with my car, going to try and be as detailed as possible so bear with me.

I recently swapped a D15B in my 98 Civic LX. Car's original motor lost a chunk out of the crank after the crank pulley came loose and we swapped it with this D15B we had. The car is an automatic, pretty much stock besides a header and this motor. CKF is bypassed according to the guide online.

So after swapping motors and putting the car back together, and firing it up for the first time, topping off all the fluids I had lost, I noticed that the "D" on the gear indicator was flashing. The car's battery was toast so I put in a brand new one, because I was having other issues due to it, "D" stayed flashing. I was hoping that this was due to the tranmission being a little bit low on fluid and would go off once the car was actually in motion so I drove it to work to pull the codes and reset them. The car was an absolute dog off the line, 0-25 was painstakingly slow but after that, it seemed to be fine. Almost like the car wasn't shifting all the way down into first. Shift points seemed a little strange but overall after the car was moving, it did OK.

The codes I pulled were: P0700, P1758, and P0501.
Two of those are transmission related, the third was for the VSS sensor and one of the reported fixes from our system had to do with the plug having water in it so I checked it and sure enough, it did have some water in it. Pulled it out, drained it, and added some dielectric grease to it, along with all the other plugs on the transmission for good measure. When doing this, I noticed that one plug was actually somewhat broken, but it appeared to just be cosmetic, the plug should still be making somewhat decent contact, but it will be replaced soon just to rule it out. I'm not 100% what this plug goes to. It it located above the AT shift solenoid, plug points toward the passenger side of the car. Anyways, after putting dielectric grease in the plugs, the car would not start. Main relay is clicking very fast with the key in the "ON" position. Sometimes you can cycle the key on and off and eventually catch it where it doesn't click. Sometimes you can move the key to start it and it will either start clicking again immediately, or the car will start and run for about 10 seconds before the main relay starts clicking again and the car dies. I pulled all the plugs back apart and sprayed them down with electric terminal cleaner, thinking that maybe there was too much grease in them, something was grounding out because of it, but after spraying them all and letting them dry, the car was still having the same symptoms. CEL and the "D" light flash at the same speed as the clicking. All the wiring seems to be intact besides that one plug on the transmission.


Thanks for the help

tony_2018

Check battery voltage. Check transmission fluid, I'm not sure why you even drove it when you admitted that the fluids were low in the transmission, you must think you're god.

duh09

Relay issue turned out to be a ground issue, think I knocked it loose pulling the VSS connector out. Car starts and runs now.

Transmission fluid is fine and full. Wasn't explicitly stated but when I said I topped off all the fluids, that meant tranny fluid too. When I first started the car, and the "D" was flashing, I was hoping that it was due to the transmission fluid being low. After the car got to temp, I shut it off and filled it up like you're supposed to, but the flashing "D" remained. Checked the fluid after driving a couple of miles just to be sure and it was full then and remains that way. Car was never driven with low fluid.

Junkyard trip tomorrow for a couple replacement solenoids. Fingers crossed the slightly damaged connector is the issue.