I have a 1997 Civic Ex. My engine light has been on for a bit. Recently it will blink while I'm going up a hill with throttle about 75%. I also have a seal bad because I burn oil. I know that is alot of my problems. It is the stock engine so I am trying to get the best out of it until I can afford a swap. Anyway, I was doing the ECU trick with a piece of speaker wire to jump terminals. It gave me codes 73 and 74 a couple of times. It also gave me code 90. Any ideas on what the problem and how to fix it? Also how do I determine what P code it is throwing do I have to have a special device? Thanks in advance for anyone's help. I'm a newbie to this site... and just trying to get my car running right...

Later.......

 

73 and 74 are misfire codes and that is why your CEL blinks at you - because you're misfiring.

90 is an EVAP code.

The P codes can only be read by a scantool.

How many miles on the car? What does the maintenance history look like? Did you do something recently and then these codes came on?