My daughter has a 1996 civic and it has a problem that is baffling me and my mechanic friends and I am hoping for some help from anyone that can be of assistance. The car runs great except for it rarely losses power for a brief moment, at the exact same time the gear selector light flashes off. It does it in any gear(automatic). Occasionally the car will die but not usually it usually just losses power for a brief second and the gear selector light comes back on (no flashes) and car returns to normal operation. We have changed the distributor as well as the ignition switch. The switch did nothing even though it did have a detectable short in it. With the new distributor the car seems to do it less often but still does it. How can the gear selector light in the dashboard effect the power of the engine like that?? Transmission was rebuilt a few months ago but shifts perfectly.
Please help me figure this troubling issue out!

 

new as in new from parts store, or new as in "new to me" but still good?

 

Rebuilt buy my guy that has done several for me in the past with no issues transmission...New from oreilyes as far as distributor goes....the troubling thing is the dash light always blinks off when motor stumbles

 

Transmission is messed up, take it back to the shop.

 

the transmission shifts perfectly and has no codes in it. the only code in car is o2 sensor. it didn't have the problem till quite sometime after the transmission was done. the transmission guy has looked at to make sure all is well, he is a good guy that I have dealt with on quite a few transmission for my hot rods

 

If the gear selector light is flashing it's a transmission related item. The car can shift fine but if a servo or sensor is messed up it can cause the issues you are describing. It could be as simple as being low on transmission fluid or advanced, a bad ground from the engine or needing to be gone through again

I'm not saying he didn't rebuild it correctly but it's having a transmission related issue I would take back to him so he could tell you what the problem is

 

Thanks for input, I will talk take it to him again, he wont charge me to look at it again. We did add two ground wires when he looked at it last time. It has no error codes in it? Fluid is full. Gear selector light doesn't flash it goes out for a second causing motor to stumble then lights back up....has done it in D4, D3, and D2.

 

dash gear selector does not cause an engine to go out. You have an electrical issue that needs to be resolved or could get worst. Get a DMM and diagnose the distributor to ensure its within spec. Check the FAQ on specs and a how-to.

 

Also crack open your ECU and make sure none of the caps have started leaking on the board.

It could be they are and it's starting to short out and if left unchecked will destroy the ecu.

 

Tony distributor has been checked and is within specs. Thanks for for your continued replies and ideas.
Tom Cat thanks will check out that possibility.
This is obviously some kind of weird electrical short causing the motor to stumble when the light for the gear selector flashes. I am no professional mechanic but do have quite a bit of experience in the field. Your help is greatly appreciated. Once I do find the issue I will post for all to see.

 

Transmission guy rechecked all the transmission components and sensors and notta....
He did find the main relay did have two burn spots on it, changed it car hasn't done it yet but it is so intermittent that i still have my doubts....
Any other advice from anyone with knowledge of these Civics- Hondas?

 

It is not the transmission? All checked out? Any other ideas?

 

ECU board looked good?

 

I hate to break it to you but even in the FSM troubleshooting section, all the flow charts stop and disregard intermittent problems.

They wait until it progresses to a non-intermittent problem.

I think you will have to probably do the same thing.

Once it is a no start or a no run scenario, then you can troubleshoot the problem. Until then, you have to wait as everything will check out okay, getting you no where.

 

Ok here it is...I hope (knocking on wood.) I have removed and replaced the main relay up under the dash behind the glove box. It did have to small burns in it. At this point, my daughter has drove the car for multiple days and many miles ( way more than she has been able to drive it in the past without it failing.)
I appreciate all the feedback and that is why I am following up with the solution that has seemed to take care of the problem.
I know there were so doubters but the gear selector light in the dash would flash off and the motor would stumble like it lost power, the gear selector light would turn back on and the motor would then take off again.
It was very frustrating, to say the least, trying to chase down this very weird scenario but hopefully my pain will be someone else gain.
Knocking on wood again prior to posting! If the problem comes back I will repost with updates.

 

I don't have an automatic civic but I can tell you with a 100% certainty that there are no relays behind the glove box.

 

Chrysler Kid, I'm sorry to inform you but you are 100% wrong! I changed the main relay myself after he finished rechecking the transmission on my request based on your advice. You may want to look at a few other forums they are what led me to the main relay. If you do a little research I'm sure you will find out you were mistaken. I'm not here to argue with anyone but assure the relay is behind the glove box under the dash and has been known to be problematic with the soldering. I posted here in hopes of getting help but also to share my situation with others that may run into the same thing. I hope you have a great evening and appreciate your recommendations but not your inability to see things may be different then what you think. See your post above if you don't remember, #4, #6, and last and worst was #16.
Hopefully if anyone has the same issue they will take some advice from me that actually has taken care of the situation.....

 

Check section "K" in engine.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...tions-1998336/

 

Above the ecu isn't what I call being behind the glove box, my apologies on that one. Hopefully that's all it was for you


http://rs267.pbsrc.com/albums/ii320/...h=480&fit=clip

 

For any of you that need to change this part you will need to remove the glove box unless you have incredibly small hands. Correction should have said on the side of the glove box under the dash.
No more posts for me on this thread unless problem returns but so far so good!

 

He is right, the main relay for the 96-00 civics are near the ecu side beside the glovebox, you'll have to remove the glovebox to get to it.



Not a doubter, just saying your gear selector flashing doesn't really tell us squat. But good thing it was an easy fix.

 

Just a quick follow up, Still no issues after quite a few miles so:
If your civic has a stall issue where the transmission gear selector flashes on and off randomly, check the relay behind the glove box for small burn spots on the back. It has been disputed that the gear selector light has nothing to do with the stall but I assure you it does. The selector light has not flashed nor has the car had any stalling issues.
Thanks to all on here that passed along information to help me fix the issue!