Hi there. I think after years of answering questions on h-t I have my first one! Anyway I have had a b16 in my crx for years 5+(still obdo, was a converted si) No issues ever. I had my ecu socketed because I was going to add a Jackson Racing Super Charger. I ran the socketed ecu for months with the stock chip no problems. I just installed the JRSC and put in the base map for 450cc injectors chip. No problems idles great even drives great just not in boost( getting it tuned in a couple weeks , car is not my daily). This is where it gets weird. I drove the car for hours with the chip no problems. I was messing around under the hood by the 02 sensor plug(maybe this has something to do with it since its near the main ground on the thermostat) and took the chip out and put the second chip the tuner gave me in just to see if it drove different. When I went to start the car it started but the main relay started clicking and the rpm's fluctuating. I immediately put the old chip back in and the relay didnt click. Hmmm ok I said maybe a bad chip? Drove the car to the gas station and back and now every once in awhile the Rpm's started to drop quick like the tach went dead when the main relay lets out a random click. Its like the ecu is losing power for a split second when the main relay clicks or something. I looked at the main grounds everyone talks about by the thermostat they are clean, I even wiggled it when the car what running and nothing, I cant get it to make the click at all its just random. Oh by the way the main relay was replaced with a new honda one as preventative maintenance under 1 year ago. Sometimes if the the main relay click is long enough when Im driving and the ecu throws a CEL and goes into limp mode. But when I look over there is no code stored! I even tried putting the other chip that I thought was wrong back in and it drives the same and acts the same. What do you guys think? Do you think its an ecu problem(like a bad solder point in the socket) or something in the wiring somewhere? Thanks

 

Also would it help to bypass the main relay/ ground the ecu and give it power to see if the problem persists? Where exactly do the thermostat grounds go and what pins are power and ground on the ecu, can this even be done? Anything else I should look for??


Modified by Crx Jimmy at 11:43 PM 5/31/2007

 

 

damn no love even after I have helped all you fockers out.

 

Bump for the OP because I have essentially the same problem although mine started after I replaced both O2's and the EACV, and I want it fixed! Help us please!!!!!

 

man, why does your fist question have to be THIS one..

the first thing you should check is whether or not you burnt something on the ecu.. did you put the chip in backwards by accident or anything? the half moon on the chip should be closest to the ecu plugs.

who did the chipping? you an take off the back panel and take a look at the solder job, and if you broke a solder joint or something, that may explain it.. but i would expect that if it was your ecu that was bad, you would be getting a solid CEL all the time.

The reason i suspect your ecu, is that since you put the old chip back in and it does the same thing, the ecu might be the issue..

You also might have unplugged a wire by accident from the ecu plugs.. make sure all your plugs are seated firmly and no single wire managed to get out of its plug. PITA i know.. but it is good to rule it out.

when the main relay is clicking really bad, and its new, it sometimes can mean there is a short somewhere in the power wire to the main relay.. where it is grounding out and then becoming ungrounded.. its a long shot, but you may check that out too.

good luck with this..

 

thanks new socketed ecu is on the way just to rule it out. I plan on installing it with a new chip and a new main relay just to cover my bases. I had the ECU throw a CEL again and go into limp mode but before it cleared itself it was a solid cell for like 30 seconds (which is a bad ecu code) . Im hoping its an ecu problem. But I dont know why it clears itself and drives like noting happened.

 

i had exactly the same problem in my crx last week. the main relay got water in it. i cleaned it out with solvent and then resoldered all the joints just to make sure. problem was still happening. replaced the relay with one from my EF9 and the problem went away. try another relay first.

 

I fixed my problem that I mentioned which was nearly identical to yours by replacing the main relay today. I would say just replace it you can find one for as cheap as $37 online. I needed mine immediately however and I think it was $67 or some thing like that from the dealer.

 

I just got my new socketed ecu and put it in with a known good relay from my daily driver and drove for about an hour with no problems. Im not sure what it was the relay or the ecu. Im going to use the relay I took out in my daily driver to see if it has any problems and confirm it was the relay. I think it was ecu related. But Ill see. thanks guys

 

The main relay controls power to the ECU and fuel pump, so if the relay is faulty then the ECU will lose power and the fuel pump will stop.

It is very strange to have a main relay fail all of a sudden like that though, particularly after you just replaced the ECU.

 

It must have been the ecu, I tried the main relay in my hatch today and it worked fine.

 

Update, after driving awhile the click came back. I went thought every wire on my harness with my tuner. Ends up being the crappy BRE tuning program. There has to be a glitch in the software and it freaks the ecu out sometimes. I swapped the ecu and dizzy and converted to obd1 and everything is fine. Runs better then it ever has. If I would have known obd1 was that much better I would have swapped long ago. Now car is tuned with my supercharger at 8psi. very nice. The obd1 ecu program also has a nifty 2 step rev limiter. Very happy

Also the tried both ecu's in a friends car with the stock b16 chip and no problems. So stay away from BRE. It sucks ***.

 

yeah, BRE hasnt been developed in a Long time, as far as i am aware. Turbo-edit is probably the only thing that works for obd0 applications.

 

Yeah the tuner said he hasn't used BRE in quite some time and the new version I don't think was ever finished and the bugs worked out, turbo edit has no problems but does not support obdo vtec ecu's. Its great for non-vtec stuff though.