Hey guys, helping to get some needed help.

Super long story short, I purchased a 2001 Civic LX about two days ago. It has a little over 100k miles and in overall very good shape. All stock. Everything looked great during the test drive, and I drove it running many errands yesterday around town without issue.

Today, I decided to make a trip to Harbor Freight about 20 miles away and got on the freeway doing 75-80mph. Suddenly, about 15 miles in, the CEL came on and within a few seconds, my car went into limp mode. I managed to pull into a parking lot and had AAA tow my car home.

Once I got home, the car started up fine but the CEL remained. I drove across the street to an Oriley's auto to have them read the light. It came back with 3 codes, the first two of which the guy told me were really similar. Codes were:

1. P1361
2: P0118: Engine Coolant Temperature Circuit High Output.


My car wasn't overheating at all so I am thinking that code was just triggered due to P1361.

P1361 comes back to TDC sensor interrmittent interruption.

To my understanding, it is related to the sensor just behind the timing belt cover. I checked the wire going to it and it seems fine. I had the guy at Oriley's turn off the light for now just to see what woud happen and so far for a couple of miles around my neighborhood it has not returned (but it might on the freeway again?).

Anyway, I am pretty disppointed that this is happening literally right after I bought the car, but I am wondering what is most likely the cause and the fix? Does it not necessarily mean the sensor is bad? Or it is? According to my research it doesn't seem too hard to replace for a moderately mechanically inclined person.


Thank you!

 

Buy the Denso sensor. Had the same problem. I recommend the Denso sensor because it’s OEM but I bought a cheap one on ebay by searching using the part number. The cheap sensor works right now so up to you!