I’ve searched and searched but couldn’t find anything to help me but here’s a back story. Up until January of last year, my 92 teg 1.8 ran like a champ, no problems. Up untill I was on my way home from work got into my car and it wouldn’t start just keep cranking and cranking (I realize now I made a huge mistake but) I took it to the Firestone right next to my work since I was extremely inexperienced with cars (Most I had ever done is change the oil to this point) They told my my distributor had died and they put a new one in after charging me an arm and a leg. Drove it home fine no problem (as far as I can remember.)
The next day…
Rainy day, drove it to work fine, worked, got off work, turned the key, and nothing. pushed it back to Firestone and got a ride home thinking I had just gotten a bad distributor. The next day they tell me they put 5 more distributors in it and then they told me my computer had died (I’m guessing the famous leak had a part in that). Had my computer sent off to be fixed. They got it back, put it back in and it didn’t work. They then told me they would try to track down a new computer for me. Waited a month doing the one car shuffle with my girlfriend and finally got a computer out of a 93 Integra. Got bent over by a $250 new computer charge and had check engine light, immediately went back in and asked if it was safe to drive (remember at this point in my life i knew damn near nothing about taking care of my cars engine.) They gave me the “We wouldn’t give it back to you if it wasn’t safe.” line and sent me on my way. drove it across the street and watched a movie with the gf, got back out turned it back on, no cel drove it home was happy.
I kept driving it up to September of last year but throughout the year, the car would stall on idle, (still code 4 every other time I would start it) sometimes it would start right back up and sometimes it would take a while to start again. Usually got it restarted within a minute or so, so i decided I would just shift into neutral at stop lights and keep it at about 2k so it wouldn’t stall. Found a mechanic who worked on Hondas and we pulled the code off the car and he tested the voltage off the distributor and told me I needed a new distributor to fix the code. Went to Firestone again and had them replace it. Still had code 4 about every other time I would start the car.
I found out a guy I worked with was an ase cert mechanic and used to work at the same Firestone I took it to. I asked if he could take it there and have them check it out again (knowing if he took it they wouldn’t fuck him over). Now at this point still didn’t know a lot about cars I just wanted to stop stalling. He got them to look at it and they thought it was valve cover gasket, spark plugs and spark plug wires.
I asked him to help me out with it but he never showed up. So I asked to borrow a friend of mines set of tools and changed it myself. Changed it all and it still would stall. Then one day it broke down in traffic and wouldn’t start back up for about 20 minutes. Kinda got scared to drive it and didn’t have any money to mess with it anymore so I had to let it sit all winter outside until recently when I had gotten my tax return.
Over the winter I had gotten a hold of the Haynes manual, found the Team Integra site and this wonderful site and began to learn about my baby. Changed oil, air filter, fuel filter, fixed passenger side leak with one of the great write ups I found on this site, cleaned blower motor. I read about the cam plug seal on TI, went out looked at it saw the oil leak so I just pushed back in and put rtv sealant around (I’ve already sent off for a GE aftermarket cam plug) and that seems to have fixed my stalling problem. (I let it idle for 30 minutes no stall but still code 4 and lack of power when it’s on.) I had let it sit so long I decided to take it for a test drive found out I didn’t have any brakes when pulling out of my driveway, backed it back in bled the brakes broke the bleeder screw off the last one, couldn’t get it out so I just bought new calipers for the car and put them on today, got it re-bled (still spongy brake pedal but slowly got firmer as I drove it around today, still not where it should be.) So now my baby is drivable again to and from work but now I want to get this check engine light to go away forever. Thank you for putting up with my story of how I regret letting my DA get so bad and how I’m trying to get her back into shape.
So anyway, what could the possible causes of code 4 (crankshaft sensor) be? I have a buddy who’s trying to get a hold of a timing light for me to see if that could be a problem but if the timing is fine I have no idea of where to go from there. It’s my first time posting but after weeks of searching I’ve had no luck finding something helpful. Any help is appreciated and please be kind, I know there’s a lot more I have to learn about cars but I’m trying my best to get better and give my baby the attention it needs.
Anybody ever check the wiring from the distributor back to the PCM? You probably have an open or short in there somewhere. Also as far as your brakes, brakes don’t just get air in them like that. Did you find a brake fluid leak somewhere?
One guy checked the distributor’s wiring and said it was alright and then was shocked when I called him back shortly after leaving and told him I still had code 4. As for how to check that would I be able to do it with a volt meter or physically trace the wiring back to find the short? As for the brakes, the car had sat from September of last year to a few days ago and I still had clean brake fluid and it was sitting right at the max line. When we bled the brakes the FL line had a huge pocket of air then followed by bad fluid followed by clean fluid but never saw fluid dripping from anywhere during the entire process. My pedals firmness is slowly coming back but still nowhere near where it should be. When the car is off I can pump the brakes to full firmness with only a few pumps however it seemed to get spongy again as soon as I started moving.
You can test the circuit with a volt meter that measures resistance. If you are going to test it I suggest having a service manual ready. It will show you all the connector pintouts so you know which wires to test. Basically you need to unplug the larger connector on the distributor and measure the resistance first on the distributor side. It should be 350-700ohms. If it’s not, the sensor in the distributor is bad. Then check for short to ground on each pin on the distributor side. If you get continuity to ground then this also means the sensor is bad. Next you reconnect the distributor and disconnect the middle connector to the PCM. Do the same checks there as well, and if any of them fail you know it’s the wiring. If everything checks out then you need to find yourself another computer.
Looks like I’ll be trying to get my hands on a volt meter asap. Worse case senario, if it is the computer where is the best place to find a new one. All the junkyards around here have had the integras gutted already.
Alright got a volt meter, distributor checked out fine. Checked the middle connector on the computer, starting from left to right with the tab on top, first three fine no problem got to the fourth and had to move the volt meter wires all around in order to get continuity. went and got some rubbing alcohol and q-tips and cleaned out the connector paying more attention to the middle then the sides. Eventually got it so it would get continuity with the same motions i was doing to the first 3. 5th fine, 6 & 7 no continuity and the 8th i could only get continuity for a split second. I know I should have cleaned that one but got a call from the girlfriend and had to go deal with that so I forgot. Put it all back together, decided I would recheck continuity on all the sensors on the distributor. They all checked out, call from the gf again dealt with that came back and proceeded to try to start the car. can wouldn’t start just cranked. My dumb ass forgot to plug the distributor back in, plugged it back in started right back up cel pops right on. Checked cel, got code 4 and now got code 9 (TDC) decided to clear computer memory, cleared it now code 4 is gone and now only have code 9. I’m gonna get something to eat then go back out and clean the computer connections more thoroughly but I’m thinking maybe the wiring in the actual clip that plugs into the computer may be dirty or the wires may have just been strained too much by firestone swapping computers in and out so many times. Am I on the right track? I’ll post what happens after I clean the harness and clear the codes later tonight.
Fixed! Went back out and cleaned all the connectors on the computer and the plastic harness and retested to continuity. first 5 worked fine last one only for a split second, so I tried pushing the wire farther into the plastic harness and retested it, got continuity fine. Decided to double check all the other ones, and the 4th and 5th sets weren’t right. after pushing the wires in farther and making sure they were all right, did the final continuity check, checked out fine, plugged it back into the computer, cleared the ecu and started the car. NO CODES!:excite: can’t test drive at the moment but now I’m going to search for how to get those wires settled in correctly because I’m sure just mashing them in from the back is not helping. Thank you for the help 90da9teg, now if I can figure out how to give positive feedback.
You are definately on the right track but I’m not sure you’ve got the continuity checks quite right. You basically need to hook each lead on the meter to each side of the sensor. Make sure the meter is set to resistance (ohms) not just continuity. Start at the distributor or ecu it doesnt matter. For the code 4(crank sensor) check the resistance between b10 and b12. These are the 2 middle pins on the bottom row of the middle connector to the ecu. For the code 9, check between c1 and c2. They are the two pins closest to the left of the c (right) connnector if you are looking from the wire side of the connector. Do those tests at the ecu and let me know what you find. Since you said one code is gone now and a different one came back my guess is there is a bad connection somewhere. If the tests check out try cleaning the connectors then fill them with dielectric grease. Hopefully I didnt confuse you too much. If you need help with finding the pinouts to a google search, I know there are some pictures around the internet that show the numbers of the pins.
EDIT: You fixed it, sweet. If it happens again try some dielectric grease.