i have a 94 civic coupe ex...

heres the story...

-bought the car from a guy... he told me vtec wasnt working...
-took the car out for a ride and car wouldnt rev pass 5500...
-asked around and people said it was a vtec problem...
-turns out, my CEL didnt have a bulb... took out seatbealt bulb and used that for CEL...
-code flashed 21 (vtec solenoid)
-took off solenoid, had screen inside cleaned (though it wasnt even clogged)... reset ECU
-took car out again and car still doesnt rev pass 5500...
-tried to check CEL light, but now it stays constant, meaning it doesnt flash any codes, it just stays luminated, (which means that theres nothing wrong right?)

<sigh...> getting mad and irritated... dunno what to do now...

 

nobody...????

 

di you check to make sure it was wired correctly or more imp. were you in the right conditions for the car to even engage vtec

 

thats the thing... i cant get into the right conditions, because my car cant even rev up that high...

and yes wiring was all checked....

 

id try a new cap, rotor and spark plugs.

sounds ignition related to me.

 

first things first before you do all that you need to make sure that your vtec solenoid is engaging witch is what i had to do recently with my mini me head swap on a d167-d16y8. I can't remember everything but i'll try my hardest first when the motor reaches a certain rpm OR throttle point the vtec solenid willor should engage and when this happens the wire witch i believe is only one on your car should show a voltage signal. You need to either splice into the wire and use a voltage meter and then attach the positive wire on the voltage meter to the vtec wire the have someone get into the car start it and put it to the floor for just a second and see if you are getting that voltage and if you are not I would lean towards saying it is your vtec solenoid. These do go out and being an older one like yours its a good chance that is what happened. Good luck and I hope this helped

 

^ what he said. hook a light up too it. two wires, one ground and one to the solenoid. It should light up if your get power, if it doesnt. new one for you

 

CONSTANT CEL means bad ECU most the time.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Br1anPham &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">CONSTANT CEL means bad ECU most the time.</TD></TR></TABLE>

worked on a few cars that have had the same problems. Sounds like the guy sold you a car with a fried ECU. That sucks, but shouldn't be too expensive to fix. What ECU are you running? Is it even the right one for the car? More info would be great.

 

sorry to say bro. But it sounds to me like your ECU is bad. try to borrow a friends for a second. worth a try.

 

another way besides what guessohw said, and I am kinda shady on the some details but if you search HT might find it, is using a power source like the battery and hooking it up to it to hear a click coming from the solenoid.
Also check to make sure that it is the right ecu, I am about to do a mini-me and got my ex ecu form ebay so I switch ecu out to make sure that it was good and notice that at 5600 or 5800 when it was suppose to hit vtec it would let me rev pass and sounded like I hit the rev limiter.
About the solid ecu light I also had that once and thought it was my dx ecu, not the one from ebay, that was shot but it wasn't, i believe that one of the wire pins on the ecu was a little loose so i made sure that all were nice and snug and so far no problems.
Good luck

 

ok... looks like i have to keep trying those things mentioned...

doesnt it seem weird to everyone that my car doesnt rev pass a certain rpm...??? is that even vtec related..??

checked my ecu.. its a p28... used my friends working one and stil the same thing... so its NOT an ecu problem...

 

no, its not odd and it is a vtec problem. I think its a bad solenoid becasue if it was bad, it wouldnt let you rev past whenever vtec engages

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 97spooncivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">no, its not odd and it is a vtec problem. I think its a bad solenoid becasue if it was bad, it wouldnt let you rev past whenever vtec engages</TD></TR></TABLE>

Think you're wrong. The Vtec solenoid is not going to not allow the car to rev past engaging point. Think about it, if your car is not warm enough you can carry the car to red line without vtec engaging; or if you are not over the specified mph your car will still rev past engaging point.
Why did you even buy this car if it's working correctly? Sounds like you might have a **** load of work to do if you can't figure it out, and if the ecu is not the problem. Replace the solenoid, hopefully that will fix the prob.

 

another update...
even when my car is in neutral and i rev it, it still wont go pass about 5500... so... dunno what the hell that is about...

i bought the car because i needed something decent to drive to school and back, not a car to be adding parts to it (but since i got it, i might as well learn a few things along the way)

if the solenoid IS bad (even though it still clicks and the filter inside is clean, and every other problem about it etc), my car doesnt throw the CEL code (21 i believe) anymore...

look like the only thing left is to get my hands on a solenoid now... if that doesnt work, then i give up...

 

Borrow your friends solenoid that lent you the ecu and see if it is that. you might have some work ahead of you if it's not that.

 

Have you checked the oil yet?

 

check your oil quality and level. check the vtec oil pressure sensor to make sure it is functioning. check for 22 ohms resistance between the vtec solinoid and ground. apply power to the vtec wire (disconnect from the ecu side) and ensure the solinoid activates. use a meter , NOT A LIGHT, to test if your ecu is outputting voltage to the vtec solinoid when the vehicle is supposed to engage vtec.

 

just to clairfy a few things

the solenoid will not prevent the car from revving past a certain point.

the solid CEL only means bad ECU if you are jumping the service connector.

 

yeah checked the oil and its good...

need to check the rest of the stuff that littleredcivic mentioned...

so... anyone know why the hell the car doesnt rev higher than a certain point..???

and yeah theres a solid CEL on mines which means its bad right? but like i said, i switched out the ECU for a working one and still the same crap..

 

Look at all the wires going from the ECU to the motor because it sounds like the same problem I had and it was wires grounding out on the shell of the car.

 

you have a solid CEL when you have the engine off and check connector jumped? or do you have a solid CEL when the car is running? you are not driving the car around with the check connector jumped right?

 

One more time: this has nothing to do with your VTEC solenoid. Maybe you should tell us exactly what happens (sounds, sights, feelings, emotions, whatever) when you hit 5500. And, for the record, your VTEC should engage at 4400rpm on a D16Z6, give or take a couple hundred RPM (so long as you have oil pressure, water temperature and a functional solenoid), so you probably just don't realize that VTEC is engaging when it actually is.

As far as you buying a car to get reliably from point A to point B: you don't have to ever rev past 3500 in these cars to get anywhere. I seldom hit VTEC in my Si unless I'm dicking around or caught in some bad traffic, so you shouldn't really ever have to.

So, to clarify, what does the car/engine do at 5500rpm? Is it ignition failure, fuel failure, transmission related, what?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Kamin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">id try a new cap, rotor and spark plugs.

sounds ignition related to me. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i agree, when my car didnt hit vtec or bog it was missing the coil was messed up..try^^ that and see if it works..

 

check ALL SENSORS VECHICLE SPEED SENSOR make sure there connectd properly is the car warming up check to see it the theromstat housing is boltd with two bolts and also check the ecu b16 ecus=p30 p73 p28 p72 check to see if u have the rite ecu