Ok well a buddy of mine landed a prelude from japan recently. The car was shipped it had a v-tec controller. When it left from customs the v-tec controller was ripped out. He told me when he got his car his check engine light was on, but it is now off.

I took his car for a drive today and opened it up. Keep in mind his car was sitting at idle for a couple mins and was driven around for another couple of minutes, so it was nicely warmed up. I opened it up on a strait road there was no v-tec and it wudnt pass 6k. Is his car in limp mode? What can he do to fix it?

 

I'd check the harness to the ECU where the VTEC controller was wired up. Maybe the wires weren't connected back together right when the VAFC was removed or maybe they're not even connected back together at all. I'd definitely start there.

 

Ok thanks for the advice I don't wanna sound like a real noob but where is the ecu located?

 

Pull the carpet back on the passenger side floor starting up under the dash and there is like 6 nuts i think that hold the ecu mounting plate down. take them off and flip the plate over to expose the ECU and wiring harness

Edit: forgot when typing my response that the car is JDM. So i'm betting the ECU is still on the passenger side floor but maybe someone else can verify this.......

 

yea, whether the car is JDM or USDM, the ECU is always on the passenger side.

Is the idle really messed up or is idle ok?? vtec may not be working because the vtec wires were not hooked back up after uninstalling the vtec controller. i dunno why the car wont rev past 6k.

 

The idle is fine and everything seems to be running smooth, that is untill u really get on it then u can notice the big diference between my car and his.

 

the only advice i could give you is check the wires at the ECU.

 

sucks about customs, the 6k rev limit is actually 6.5k but thats trivial, the wires that were wired in for the vtec controller need to be taken out and put back to stock form....it will be fine after that

 

hmm wat can u do to fix it....lets see.....ah.....give him your car

 

check the oil level.... i know it sounds ghey, but without suffecient oil pressure to the spool valve on the VTEC solenoid, VTEC wont engage, and can cause it to limit revs. if the oil level is fine, you may want to remove the VTEC solenoid and clean the screen

HTH