i have a 93 honda civic dx and today i got a code for the knock sensor. i instantly checked the oil which looked a little low but only took 1 quart to fill it up. my car has been running terrible ever since i bought it. it boggs out when i accelerate and i can hardly get going. it does not always run like that though. i feel like if i barely touch the throttle and ease into it that it runs normal with lots of power and no bogging out, not always though. i am starting to wonder if i had a bad knock sensor or bad wiring from the ks to the ecu. and i was wondering if i could get some help on whether a knock sensor would cause the bogging problems possibly telling the ecu to run the car in safe mode. i have no clue where the ks is on this car and i was thinking about trying to replace it. i just took the car for a test drive a few minutes ago and drove it for about 15 minutes and could not get the check engine light to come back on. any help or advice is greatly appreciated and needed. thanks guys

skyler

 

If your valves are way out of adjustment, that noise could be triggering a knock code. Also, if the crankcase is junked up with sludge, oil distribution could be causing dry regions where metal to metal contact is being made. I have even seen bad water pumps trigger knock detection. Are you hearing engine noises?

I'm not sure of the strategies used in your '93, but some ECU's will advance timing to the point of detonation just long enough to detect knock as a means of testing the system.

We're looking at this through your eyes, so just trying to get you looking at a bigger picture.

Mike

 

I know for sure the water pump is good and I listened and could not hear a knock anywhere that's why in kind of lost haha

Skyler

 

A rather crude test might be to grab a timing light and watch the crank pulley as you gently tap the head or intake manifold. These taps should trigger timing retard, which you would see with the timing light. If it is functioning, I would need more info as to why you're tripping codes. If it isn't, it might be that the retard function isn't activated below a certain throttle angle or something. I'm here to learn, so I don't know all the quirks just yet.

Mike

 

Alright I will have to give that a try. I do not have a timing light but might e able to find someone who does haha. Thanks for the advice

 

What ecu and engine is in the car? 93 DX doesn't have a knock sensor in stock form and the ecu isn't looking for one.

 

That's weird. I know I counted 23 on the cel flashes. It's the 1.5L zc motor. And the ecu is the p06-A00

 

P06 doesn't look for KS. By what you last said it sounds like you're reading the code wrong. Double digit codes are a combination of long and short flashes. 23 would be long, long, short, short, short.

 

Alright. Yeah that's what I read 2 long and 3 quick flashes. I tried it twice too. That's weird. Will thanks for letting me know though that the ecu won't look for a ks

 

Maybe you have two separate codes, 20 and 3.

Can you post a video of it?

 

yes i might be able to post a vid of it tomorrow. and yes i didn't think about possibly having two different codes. at first when i jumped the ports i could not get it to flash at all. when i stuck the paperclip in there the cel came on and just stayed on until i pulled the paperclip out.