Quick.Silver

I took my car to the drag strip and now I have some problems.

I had some wheel hop and at the end of my pass the car shut off. I was able to pop start it but it stalled as soon as I gave it gas again and would not restart.

I found that the ECU fuse in the engine bay fuse panel was blown. I replaced it and the car started, ran for a minute or two and stalled when I attempted to drive again. The idle was rough, possibly limp mode. There is no check engine light.

I checked all visible ground connections, they are fine. I do not know where to look for an ECU ground wire. Where can I find a ground wire for the ECU or ECU harness?

I determined that the fuse blows as soon as the key is turned to the start position. I have not found any other blown fuses. I also heard a crackling noise come from the distributor at one point while attempting to start with a good fuse in the panel.

I have been able to start and drive the car. It is running very rich and there is no power.

My questions are, what are the common signs of a bad distributor? Is there any relation between the distributor and the speedometer? Where are some weak grounding points to check or common wires that may be touching?

The car is a 1999 Civic DX with a B18C5 swap. These problems have happened with three different ecus.

Quick.Silver

After using the search tool and doing some research thru old topics, I've concluded that a wire is touching/grounding out somewhere.

Two new questions. Are the Primary and Secondary O2 sensors wired to the same circuit as the VSS sensor? Could a speaker wire cause this type of short?

EE_Chris

Yes - the primary, secondary and VSS share a common fuse: Alternator SP (7.5A) which is in the under-dash fuse box.

It's not the type of wire that causes shorts - it's the fact that there is a spot along the length of the wire which doesn't have insulation around it and it's being allowed to touch the chassis (which is ground). Or rather, somewhere along the length of the wire, it's being allowed to rub against the chassis and the chassis is cutting through the insulation and causing the short.

Quick.Silver

Thank you for the reply. The Alternator SP fuse is good.

I asked about the speaker wire due to the fact that I did not have rear speakers in the car and I did not tape off the wires. I was curious to know if that would create the right ground and cause these problems I'm having. I put the speakers back into the car today, so there are no bare wires hanging around in the back.

Today I started to inspect the engine bay wiring for a bare wire. No luck so far. Primary and Secondary O2 sensor wires look fine. I disconnected the secondary O2 sensor to rule it completely out of the picture. I was able to start and drive the car a short distance. But, I still do not have a speedometer and it is obviously not running properly, which is why I think it is in limp mode. I swapped ECUs again today, same results. There was some corrosion on the transmission side of the VSS wiring, I cleaned it with electrical contact spray. I will follow the VSS wiring tomorrow morning.

Does anyone have a diagram for the VSS wiring or know common places to look at while follow that wire?
If my main relay was bad, would the car start?
How is the distributor related to the VSS and its wiring?

Thanks again!

h22chilton

check the actual vss tightness, mine has came loose before from sop much wheel hop in one day

Quick.Silver

Do you mean the tightness between the male and female plugs or the bolts to the transmission?

h22chilton

well both would be wise to check if you haven't, but the bolts to tranny is what I meant

Quick.Silver

Yes, I've checked the plug several times. Thanks for the idea about the bolts. Would it be worth removing the assembly from the transmission to inspect for damage?

Thanks!

h22chilton

yeah if ALL fuses are good inside and out

Quick.Silver

All fuses are good.

Today I removed the VSS harness from the transmission, and inspected both ends. I removed the gear end from the transmission and inspected that also. There are no evident signs of a problem. I then started and drove the car with no issue, besides a lack of power and no speedometer reading. The CE light did not come on. I jumped the diagnostic harness to pull up the code sequence, nothing. However, with the key in the one position and the diagnostic harness jumped the speedometer moved slightly every couple of seconds (10-15 seconds), it was a small blip up to about 15-20 mph mark, then back to rest. This is with the harness disconnected from the transmission.

How does a failed VSS or bad VSS wiring effect the overall running condition of the engine? I am not blowing any fuses at this point. Although, I did not determine the original reason for blowing the ECU fuse in the first place.

Where should I shop for a new VSS and/or its wiring?

lcjarrett

bump...this **** is happening to me too

JDMdamian95

I am having the same problem too. I am going to check the vss and see what happeans. Thanks for replying to my post.

https://honda-tech.com/zero...37374

v4lu3s

the power for the vss is also a power source shared by multiple other sensors, such as the o2 sensor heaters, ELD and so on.

Is your check engine light coming on for the 5 seconds or so when you start the car? To me it almost sounds like your check engine light is blown.

And your stereo wiring has nthing to do with how the car runs....

Quick.Silver

What is the ELD?

The check engine light is working properly. I understand that the stereo wiring doesn't effect the running condition of the car, it was a long shot, but I knew the wires were just hanging and exposed.

Quick.Silver

Today I removed the VSS again, soaked both connectors with electical citrus spray and clean them with a small wire brush. Then I used the end of the wire brush to push the VSS harness back together and made sure it clicked. I also removed, cleaned and sprayed my thermostat housing ground, transmission ground and the ground from the front of the end.

The car started properly and the speedometer works again. However, it seems that the speed is off, my low mph seem higher than they should be.

Is this a sign that the VSS is on its way out?
How many ground wires are there in the engine bay?

Thanks