I recently bought a car from a dealership with a salvaged title. It came at pretty good price or so I thought. The check engine light was on but I didn’t think anything of it because it is usually the o2 sensor. Come to find out they did a motor swap from a v-Tec to a non-v-Tec motor. With emissions testing where I’m at in Texas the check engine light will make me fail the test. One of the codes is p1259 which is V-Tec system malfunction. The second is p1337 and it may be due to a different plug, I haven’t checked it yet. My main problem is the v Tec sensor. As i said this 98 civic ex now has a non vtec motor now... so how can i get rid of the code?

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated

-S

 

find out what motor you have and change ur ecu to match that motor.

 

That was a great idea until i was told that tx now pulls the vin off the computer!!! I guess we are not allowed to swap motors either. I have to do this with the vtec computer and a none vtec computer. To make it worse its my wife car and she loves it!!!

Thanks for the quick reply
-S

 

'98 civics don't store the VIN in the ECU.

I'm pretty sure thats completely untrue and absolutely ridiculous. Even in California the strictest emissions state there is there are numerous legal engine swaps performed every year.

If you want to get rid of the code and pass emissions you will need to match the correct ECU to the engine, either use a P2E D16Y7 ECU, or swap in a D16Y8 engine the same as what originally came in the car. Btw is the car an automatic or 5 speed (this kind of matters, due to differences between the automatic and 5 speed D16Y8 IACVs)

 

I would love to say you're right but I just got another vehicle of ours inspected. While there i asked the inspectors about the swapped engine and they told me I could have changed the ecu to a p2e. The ONLY problem was Texas had started tracking the vins from the ECU *Due to stations using another vehicle for the test. I ask how they were tracking the vin off the ECU, the tech said the info had to be on the ECU because the state had contacted the inspection station and questioned them about the ECU test not matching the VIN of the TESTED vehicle.

Thanks eh
-S

 

i have yet seen a ecu with a VIN # on it unless someone wrote it on the cover somewhere..would u mind telling how a VIN is recovered from the ecu?

 

Again you can't get the VIN out of a '98 civic ECU. The only thing I can think of is based on your VIN they can determine what type of ECU you should have. Anyway you slice it you either have to change the engine or ECU to get rid of that vtec code. Theres all kinds of guys doing engine swaps in Texas btw and i've never heard of anyone mentioning this before.

 

I agree. The only way to get the ECU Vin/SN is to open up the interior body panel and grab it directly off of the ECU itself.Go to a diffent shop.I am a big Jeep fan and have reviewed many post of guys doing disiel engin swaps, and with no problem.

 

Whatever it is you're researching, stop bumping dead threads.