Need some advice on my present situation:
My wife was driving the 2001 Civic home when all of the sudden it pretty much went dead on her, stepped on gas, nothing, but still had power. Thought possibly cat conv was clogged, she brought it to the dealer. The called back & said they were reading codes 1361 & 1362, TDC sensor was faulty and made the car go into 'safe mode' which lead them to check for excessive cam shaft end play to which they said they would need to replace the cylinder head for a mere sum of $4890! I did some digging online and found TSB 01-083 (attached) which was pretty much verbatim of what they told me on the phone, I'm going in on Saturday to meet with the service manager. My question is, why didn't they give me the option to start off and replace the TDC sensor and go from there and also per the camshaft endplay of .02, is that really detrimental to the car, I have to think if you were to check endplay on any 8-10yo civic you are going to find endplay and they are just tossing that to us as a reason to replace the head.

PS... Also, not that I have aggreed, my wife has always gone to this dealer for every service, oil change and mileage milestone service check, would think they would toss us a bone and work with us on this...

 

that seems like a lot of $ to replace a head but it is from a stealership. how mechanically inclined are you? I have never done it on this car but it looks like you should be able to replace the head by yourself for less than $1000 easily.

 

as far as the head replacement goes that price is bout right..they probably priced a remanufactured unit from honda...id go with replacing the tdc sensor first..if timing belt has been replaced there is possibilty that it was damaged..i say bout 70% of the time i just replaced the tdc for these codes and never had another issue...just pm me if u have more questions..

 

I'd request goodwill warranry coverage. The attached PDF is pretty clear this issue only affects a single year of Civics, and was corrected in later years. Whether or not you get covered isn't up to the dealer, it goes up the chain to the regional people at Honda of America.

 

First off.. do not pay a dealership 4800 to replace the head. You can get a remanned head off ebay any day for 250 and 150 if you find one on the forums somewhere. If you have the tools, replacing the head really isn't that tough, it's just time consuming. Pick up a haynes manual and dive in. That is, if the problem persists after replacing the TDC sensor.

 

You could buy a used Civic for that much money!

I'd look around for a used motor before I even remotely considered paying a dealership that much money to replace a head. (and that's only if replacing the sensor(s) doesn't fix the problem)

Unreal.

 

you'd be stupid to pay honda $4900 to replace a head.

i've seen entire D17 long blocks w/ low kms sell for $500cad (sometimes less)...labour to install a D17 engine is around $500-$1500 depending on who you go to. either way, honda is ripping you off big time...

 

Yes, I'd rather give the car to charity then to let them replace the head for that crazy amount, and of course it pretty much exceeds the cars value
Going to try to push to see if they cleared the code and if it came back, then to take a chance and just replace the TDC sensor and clear the code and see what happens. Would think they would work from the least to most approach instead offering me the head replacement first off....

 

Yep, going to give that a try as well, may as well give it a shot. Seeing that the TSB is dated 10/2001, the same year the car came out would lead me to believe it was a known problem and I've just been luck it hasn't happened already?, especially with just 60,000 miles on the car.

 

add new cam sensor and clean the connector on the wiring harness add electrical grease on the contacts that should take care of the problem the cam and crank sensors do go on on occasion on these cars

 

Dont give in to the stealership!

 

Yea dont do all of that if your head is bad just get a low mileage motor and installed for around $1000. You would be surprised at how cheap you can find these engines and the dealership is only looking to make $$$$. Just find a decent shop and low mileage engine and have it swapped out.

 

do a compression test is your best way to find out if you have a bad valve !!!!!!!!!! u can get a new motor for 400-500 and pay someone to swap it in if u are not mechanicaly inclined for 300-500 .............

 

you can actualy go to autozone and rent a compression tester and do it in the parking lot !!!!!!!!!!

 

What is the cost to replace a TDC sensor in a 2001 Civic EX? I'm getting code 1361 and it sounds like a complicated fix so I will probably take it to a shop to get repaired. What is the actual cost of the sensor? I've seen a few on the web and not sure what is actually needed.

Thanks!

 

Shops usually charge between 60 - 80 dollars per hour for labor.

It is not difficult to replace. Just remove the valve cover. Remove the rubber grommet from the upper timing belt cover and disconnect the TDC sensor connector. Remove the upper timing belt cover, then remove the sensor and replace it. Reinstall in reverse order.

The sensor is $39.01 (plus shipping) from Majestic Honda. Click Here for the part. It's illustration #13. Part number 37840-RJH-006

You might want to shop around and compare prices, too.

 

In a 2001 Civic I received the same check engine codes only when going up a steep road. The tdc sensor was replaced and that fixed the issue.

 

Aren't the sensors reading signals from the sprockets ( driven sprocket on the camshaft and the pulley, timing belt drive on the camshaft)? Those are both cheap replaceable items if your willing to pull off the timing belt. I'm having the same problem now on my '02 Civic.