Venturello

Hi all - first post in forum. Been enjoying as a lurker for some time, now that I have a problem... registered and posting for the first time. Sorry for the english, it's my third language.

Last Saturday my 1996 5 door Civic 1.5 D15Z3 Vtec-E died. Lovely car, 120000 miles and running sweet. Did the usual novice checkup... fuel pump ok, etc, but no spark. ECU fuse fine... to the shop!

The upper Lambda / oxygen sensor is going bad and it the ECU decides to not allow me to turn off car. I don't have the 400 euros the Honda dealer wants me to pay for one, so I ordered one at 1/4th the price from a UK shop a friend recommended me - will take about a week to get here in Spain.

The car is running well but the mechanic at the Honda dealer told me that at any moment the ECU can stop me from starting it again and leave me stranded.

I know how to get to the diagnostics connector behind the glove box... is there any way to 'reset' the ECU so that it allows me to drive until the part arrives and I can the sensor changed?

I remember you could bridge some of the cables to show the fault code on the instrument panel - is there a way to erase the fault list to allow me to drive, if this happens again?

Thanks for any help,

Juan Miguel Venturello

F22B Prelude

Never heard of this before

you can jump it yourself and figure out the codes....

reset is pull the battery/radio fuse or disconnect the negative cable for a couple mins.

Venturello

Weird. Check engine light is on due to oxygen sensor going bad (been so for a couple of weeks), I did have someone check the ECU fault for me.

Now that car died, mechanic at dealership told me that, that the ECU does not allow starting the car because of the oxygen sensor's condition, that all they did was reset the ECU and car started fine. That if ECU decided to do this to me again, I would have to take car back in so that ECU was 'resetted'. I asked him if detaching the battery or fuse was enough (with the tiny bit of car mechanics common sense I have, thought about this), he told me not.

Bull shit or true?

Of course I am not saying he is an authority... for all I know he could be trying to rip me off.

Thanks for the (quick!) reply.

F22B Prelude

He might be trying to rip you off...I've never heard of a car not starting because of the 02 sensor...it might be different in the UK and you could prove me wrong lol

Does the car crank or it just won't start at all?

Venturello

Barcelona, not UK. Part is coming from UK Should be the same ECU? Mapping might be different due to emission regulations, etc (I know on bikes this happens).

It cranks. Fuel pump appears to be ok, but no spark. All fuses ok.

Will try disconnecting battery next time if happens (if it does before part arrives).

Any damage that can happen because of driving for a week with a problematic oxygen sensor? Will it ruin my cat?

F22B Prelude

Nope

Its gotta be something in the ignition, cap/rotor, plugs, coil

Venturello

So it might be a stupid mechanic. Let me explain better:

1. check engine light has been on for a few weeks. I checked what it was, it said oxygen sensor.
2. saturday car died, symptoms as I explained.
3. took it to dealership.
4. mechanic told me he checked the ECU, error code for oxygen sensor, and that he restarted the ECU and the car started.
5. he told me the car did not start because of the oxygen sensor, and wanted to charge me the 400€ I mentioned for it.

So likely it was something else, and it started because of luck, or something very simple (a wire somewhere, etc), he corrected it and told me 'if you don't pay me 400€ it's gonna leave you stranded again'?

Mechanics in Spain... not only mechanics, the whole latin attitude (and not doing a generalization) are very 'astute' - many of rip offs, so you gotta be careful.

What do you think? The lambda sensor thing is not going to make ECU stop car from starting? Thus, its something else, right?

fathergoat

It's a 96 so it's OBDII. The OBDII cars I've delt the ecu with needed to be reset with a code reader. Your car may be the same way.

I have no idea if a faulty O2 sensor would cause the car to not start. I suppose it's possible as some sort of fail safe. But I've never heard of it.

Venturello

fathergoat, is it possibe to reset without a code reader? by removing battery, jumping some cables on the ECU?

F22B Prelude

Check the cap and rotor