I warmed up my '89 Civic LX this morning at idle for about 4 minutes or so. I was in kind of a rush so I pushed it a little bit harder than I probably should have before the car was warm. After about 10 minutes/5 miles or so the car was pretty much up to operating temp according to the gauge. Everything was fine and then I looked down and saw the "check engine" light had come on. The idle had also moved from 750 to 1000 and wouldn't budge from there. I disengaged the clutch, put it in gear and took off. It seemed to hesitate before it revved and then it took off. It seemed a little sluggish and I noticed I had to rev it higher than normal when taking off because of the hesitation.

About 2 miles from my destination I decided to shut the engine off and have a look under the hood. Everything seemed normal, I made sure the spark plug wires were seated fearing that one had come loose. They were all nice and tight. I started up the car and it hesitated. I could hear the starter spinning but the engine wasn't firing. It kept going and going. Finally after the 6th try it sputtered and started and the tach moved up to 1000 RPM again. The CE light was still lit.

I arrived at my destination and decided to have one more look. Everything again looked normal. Just out of curiosity I started up the car and surprisingly it fired immediately like it normally does. The idle was at 750 and the check engine light was no longer lit. I shut it off and started it twice more. The light was off and the idle was again normal.

My questions are what could have happened to cause this and should I be concerned? As stated in a previous post about my 3rd smog attempt failure (HC's too high), all ignition components are new or relatively new. Plugs are 3 weeks old and the cap and rotor are 4 months old. Wires look very good with no cracking. I am using Bosch plugs that were recommended by the local autoparts store. I did notice that the owner's manual and underhood label do not list these plugs. Could this be an issue? Could the fact that i'm failing smog be related?

Any advice or tips would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

usually the single wire O2 sensors uses exh temp gasses to heat filament up on the O2, perhaps it was rich at warmup and the O2 sent a bad signal to the ecu ... unless you check code at # blinks thats the only way to tell what sensor triggered an error.

greg

 

Find out what code it's throwing and post back.

 

I went and drove the car around at lunch. It started normally, warmed up normally, idled normally, ran normally and the check engine light is still off. Perhaps when I was too liberal with the throttle when the engine was cold I fouled the O2 sensor with fuel and it needed that warm up time to burn it off?? That's the only explanation I can think of. Anyone else have any ideas? My total time in the car this morning was 20 minutes or so.

Also i'm not sure where the plug is for the code reader. Is there a universal tool to diagnose the CEL? If so where do I get it and how much do they cost? Is there a way to check the codes without a reader or is it possible to make a tool?

Thanks

 

Even though the check engine light is off now, it still has the code stored in the memory. The code will be saved until a certain number of ignition starts and shut downs. Pull the carpet back from the toe area in the passenger side footwell. You'll see a large flat metal box. In the middle of it will be a small round plastic window. Turn the key to run, (not start), and count the number of flashes. The code will repeat and possibly change if more than one fault code is stored. One very quick flash when you first turn the jey is normal. If there is a code stored, it will be obvious by how long it blinks out the code.

 

I'm not sure if the ECU will spit codes when driving with the engine cold.. I'm questioning the whole "warm up period" anyway.. This guy that lives next to me, he throws his 87 LX around and slams the accerator right after he backs out of the parking space. (no warm up at all). Don't understand it.. I think you're safe, must've been a freak thing..