Hey HT, I have a 1997 Honda Del Sol Vtec (B16A2) and earlier today I was driving home from work as I usually do. I came up to a red light turning left and waited. When the light turned green I turned while in first gear and when finally straightening back out decided to gun it and redline just to have fun. Normally no issues and there shouldn't be any, yet this time today when I got to that 8k rpm and was getting ready to shift into second gear the CEL came on for a brief second and the car jerked. It was not "normal" by any means. My best guess is a rod knock that triggered the CEL or perhaps the tachometer is slightly off and the ecu allowed me to get past 8k without knowing it. I'm unsure at this point but, a second opinion would be nice. Going to change the oil and check it out tomorrow. Before anyone says anything about a shift light, this vehicle is completely stock with 137k and I've had no such issues with it in the past year I've owned it. This is strictly an oh ****, is this what I think it is????
Thanks for any and all replies.

 

Most stock obd2 cars trigger a blinking CEL due to Multiple misfire. There's where the jerking can come.

And NO the CEL not stay ON for this particular.

Check your ignition system i.e. Wires, plugs, rotor and cap.

Rod knock have nothing to do with CEL.

 

Why speculate? Just pull the CEL code.

 

the ecu wont let you past the preset fuel cutoff, no matter what the gauge says. honda tachs arent incredibly accurate at high revs

 

Have you driven the car up to the rev limit before? I'm asking because some chipped ECUs are programmed to blink on the CEL near the rev limit.

Since a B16A2 is in a 97 chassis, I'm assuming there is some sort of ECU tuning or chipping or swapping going on. Unless you have the rare B16A3 USDM OBD2A ECU?

Obd2 ECUs store any CEL...even momentary faults. So this kinda tells me you have a OBD1 ECU. Which means there's a good chance its chipped.

The rev limit should be around 8200 for a stock map. Which means that if it has a CEL shift light, the CEL will blink a few hundred RPM before 8200.

 

Sorry, I should have defined what I meant. The CEL lit up momentarily for that quick 2 seconds maybe??? No CEL was present after that so pulling the codes would be impossible when there are none.

 

^Not true for an OBD2 ECU. The code should be stored there unless you reset the ECU.

 

The engine inside is a stock B16A2 with the original USDM P30 ECU. I have checked the ECU for any tampering and there is no chip that I saw. I have driven the car to redline multiple times, but this has never happened.

 

Ok. I just went out and checked. No codes came up. Possible there is an underlying issue?

 

Replaced complete Dizzy unit with OEM back in September. While I did the Dizzy I also replaced the wires with OEM NGK Spark plug wires. I just did the plugs the beginning of December. As you state though, this is possible, and I will pull the plugs and check the wires, rotor, and cap again.

 

I agree with this, but I have seen firsthand where the ECU did malfunction and allow the vehicle to do so. Honda tachs aren't all that accurate but when I checked the reading from the timing and the reading on the tach, they matched up 100%. This leads me to believe the tach is not off.

 

Maybe there was some glitch that caused the CEL momentarily. I would get it to the rev limiter again.

Didn't Del Sol VTECs come with B16A3's?

 

Just got home from work and I did just that. No CEL at all. Seriously weird why it did that just that one time. I'm doing a basic tune-up tomorrow (plugs, oil/filter, dizzy cap and rotor, and air filter) as a precautionary and it wouldn't hurt anyways. 94-95 Del Sol VTEC's came with the OBD1 B16A3. 96-97 Del Sol VTEC's got the OBD2 B16A2 that is in the 99-00 Civic Si.

I'm going with what Carlos mentioned earlier about my ignition system causing it to misfire. I did run seafoam through a couple weeks ago and from what I hear, they tend to foul out the plugs and this could be the result. Will soon find out!

 

Just reporting back in. Got the vehicle back up to redline a couple more times over the past few nights and it ended up occurring twice as I was shifting from first to second. Finally got everything as Honda did not have everything in stock at the time so I now plan to do the tune-up tomorrow (plugs, wires, oil/filter, dizzy cap/rotor, air filter, and fuel filter).

 

None of that seems llikey to set off a CEL. I doubt this is a legitimate CEL. OBD2 will store even temporary CELs. This seems like a wiring glitch to the bulb/cluster itself. Or maybe something wrong with the ECU.

 

Yeah I'm not sure. I did the full tune-up and I've rev'd it the limit at least ten more times and so far nothing. Although now when I hit a bump hard enough, the veh just dies and restarts itself so I don't even know what's going on. The previous owner bought the car from a junkyard and the vehicle passed smog here in California with stupid low emissions. I know that when I bought it the owner did not have the correct key so I figured the junkyard pulled the ignition and put a different one in and got a key for it. Ended up going to Honda and had to vin matched to get a key for the doors, trunk, etc and I was right. Just the ignition was tampered with. Also found I had no wiring for my cigarette lighter??? Wanted to use a usb for it. Definitely fishy. Have to do some more digging.