Hey,

A few days ago, my g/f's civic died with a CEL. I originally thought it was the alternator because it wasn't charging, but I found out that the alternator fuse was blown, which was causing the no charge condition. I read the codes and found three: Code 20 (ELD high voltage), Code 41 (Primary Oxygen Sensor heater), and Code 65 (Secondary Oxygen Sensor heater).

After doing some harness tracing, I found that disconnecting the harness for the primary Oxy sensor would fix the short, and the car would run and charge fine. I couldn't find anything wrong with the wiring on the old oxy sensor, but I figured that if unplugging the sensor fixed the CEL, then something must be wrong with it. I ran out to the store and picked up a new Oxy sensor.

After replacing the oxy sensor, it's still throwing a code 41, although the fuse isn't blowing. The car has a cracked exhaust manifold, could that be contributing? I can't figure out how, but who knows?

Also, off topic, is the cat right in front of the engine? I wouldn't think so, but both sensors are on either side of it, so I'd figure it's right there.

Oh BTW, the car is a 1998 Civic LX with a D16Y7.

 

did you reset the ecu at all?

it takes time for a code to clear (espically on something like the o2 sensor because the computer dosent look for the o2 sensor all the time)

 

I did reset the ECU, but the 41 came back. I'll go ahead a drive it around a little tomorrow, though, and see what happens. It never occurred to me that it might take some time. Thanks!

 

email sent with some information...check it out.

let me know if this the problem.

 

Thanks, Qfactor! That sounds like exactly what is wrong, and would explain why i'm still throwing a code after the new o2 sensor. I'm going to put the car up and try that tomorrow.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Qfactor &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">email sent with some information...check it out.

let me know if this the problem.</TD></TR></TABLE>
why not post it here so everyone will know what could be wrong?

 

Hey,

Didn't get a chance to get the car up yesterday, but I'm not leavin' you guys hanging. I should be able to get it up today after work.

 

If it's got under 80k miles, take it to the dealer for a new exhaust manifold. The cat is built into the manifold, and when it cracks, it is replaced under the federal emmissions warranty.

Secret information

 

There is a Honda Service Bulletin on your problem. A harness underneath the intake manifold is rubbing cause it to short out. That's why your fuse is blowing. This TSB should be available you just ask the dealer for it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by drdisco69 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If it's got under 80k miles, take it to the dealer for a new exhaust manifold. The cat is built into the manifold, and when it cracks, it is replaced under the federal emmissions warranty.

Secret information </TD></TR></TABLE>

Crap... 98K miles. I wonder if they'd even bother... probably not even worth pursuing, judging by the quality of the dealerships around here.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 500hpsi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">There is a Honda Service Bulletin on your problem. A harness underneath the intake manifold is rubbing cause it to short out. That's why your fuse is blowing. This TSB should be available you just ask the dealer for it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yup, got the print-out courtesy of Qfactor. Now I just need to go tear into it and see if that is in fact what is happening. Wish I'd have discovered that before I bought the new O2 sensor, (also, wish I hadn't been a lazy sod and destroyed the old 02 sensor in the process of removing it). Oh well, I'll just try and tell myself that it probably needed a new one anyway.

 

OK, update city. I got the car on stands, got the damned intake manifold bracket off, and got to the offending wiring harness. Confirmation! There is damage to a couple of the wires from rubbing on that bracket. However, here's something that's stumping me: that harness doesn't plug into anything! It just has a grey cap on it.


Here's the harness with the grey plug on the end. Is that some sort of jumper, or is that a harness to nowhere?


A little better detail of where the damage is. I'm going to pull apart the harness, fix the damaged wires, and hopefully be back on the road with no CEL.

Does anyone have something plugged into that harness? Possibly some option package that this car doesn't have? It's the LX model, so I'd assume it has all the electrical options, but who knows?

Thanks,

 

If all the wires going into that connector are Yel/Blk, which they look to be, then the gray cap itself is acting as a bus bar which basically connects all the wires going into the connector with one another - just a big short basically.

 

Cool. That's what I was expecting. I was going to pull the connector off and see if I could see copper in there, but there's precious little room to work back up in there, so I figured it'd be a waste of time and skin.