NEED SOME HELP!!

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CrixSi91

CrixSi91

Junior Member
Ok honda heads, I've done some research on this and came up with nothing. First off let me tell you what I have. It's a 91 civic ex sedan, D16A6 turbo. It's running a chipped p28 ecu. Now I got this car over 2 years ago and had a few problems here and there. It's my first boosted car so I had a little learning curve. The problem I'm having now is code no.9 which is no.1cylinder sensor. Ok so no big deal right? I pull a stock distributor off my shelf and now the car won't start. Ok, so I check the dizzy code on the one I pulled off the car and it's a TD52U which is for a 92-93 accord f22a6. Now what I'm not understanding is how this dizzy is working on my car. I know the plug on the dizzy was repined because the plug is a obd0 plug. How is it that my stock dizzy is not working? Has anyone ever came across anything like this? I'd like to use my stock dizzy since I already have one instead of spending $240 on an accord one. Any and all help would be great.
 
Your ecu is obd1... your distributor must match. That's probably why they used the accord obd1 ecu, and re-pinning the harness to match.

the obd0 dist. is not compaitble with the p28.
 
Ok thanks guys. I didn't even think about matching the ecu and distributor. Well just for future reference so everyone knows. The TD52U distributor matches perfectly. All 3 holes line right up. Hopefully I can find one somewhere cheaper then what advanced auto has them for.
 
So bring this back from the dead. Thought a new distributor would have solved the problem. Was going to start a new thread but just copy and paste this here.

Background on the car. It's a 91 civic ex sedan. Has the stock D16a6 engine. Running a cheap ebay turbo setup with a chipped p28. Car has ran great for over 2 years. The other day the check engine light came on and it started running rough. As if it was miss firing. I check the code and it was the no.1 cylinder sensor. So I got another distributor. While I was changing that I decided to change the plugs and wires. I pulled one of the plugs and it was soaked in oil. The grommet around the spark plug tube had leaked. No big deal it's done it before. So I bought a valve cover gasket kit, plugs, wires and distributor. I get everything installed, start it up and it runs great. No cel, no problems. I take it around the block and ran awesome. Got back home and shut it down. My wife came home asking if I fixed the car and I told her to take it for a test drive. She couldn't make it out the driveway it was missing so bad. So I checked the plugs, they was fine and so was the cap and rotor button. I also checked the compression. Starting a cylinder no.1, 170, 180, 180 and 210 on cylinder no.4. It was late last night when I got done working on it. I said screw it, it will either make it to work in the morning or I'll drive it off a cliff. I went out this morning and started it and it ran just as fine as could be. No missing, no rough idle, nothing. Drove it to work with not a problem one. Once I got to work I turned the car off for about a minute. Then started it back up and it was missing bad just like the night before when my wife went to test drive it.


So can any help me figure out why my car runs just fine as can be when first started after sitting over night, then after its warm and to turn it off and start it up. It runs like shot missing really bad? It also ran fine the whole way to work and was up to operating temp. Oh and I did check the timing. Any help at all will be appreciated. Thanks ks in advanced.
 
Ok I think I have another relay laying around the garage. I'll swap it out today after work. You think a relay would cause the engine to run as if it's miss firing and not be throwing any cel codes. Also what about the no.4 cylinder having 30-40 more psi then the rest? Could that be caused by a stuck exhaust valve?
 
I didn't know you could refresh them. That's some good info. I'll try replacing or freshing the one in the to see what happens. Hopefully that's all it is. Hate to have my DD be down in out.
 
So I took the relay out and checked it. It does show sign of the solder cracking, so I re heated the solder and plugged it back in. It made no difference. So I took a good relay that came out of my other sedan and same results. After the car sits for a few hours it starts and runs fine. But after it has warned up, if it's turned off then started back up it runs as of its missing. I had a hard time getting up to speed and took a long time for the rpms to rise. Could it be possible that I got a bad distributor?
 
Unlikely. It would be more sporadic, not always after its warm.

The only other thin i can think of is the o2 sensor, but that should be throwing a code if it was bad.
 
I appreciate all the help. This has drove me crazy. I think I have it narrowed down now and will find out for sure after work. I was under the hood last night double checking all my wire connections to make sure nothing had came loose. Sprayed contact cleaner in all the plugs, pulled the spark plugs and re-gapped them, double checked my timing. When I got to the O2 sensor, I just barely touch the wire and it fell off the end of the O2 sensor. It looks like the wire had been pulled out and was just hanging by a C hair. I'm going to take a guess that that's what's causing my car to run the way it does. But I don't understand why it didn't throw a code. The ecu is a chipped p28 tuned on chrome. It was never dyno, just street tuned. I guess it would be better safe then sorry to have it re-tuned now.
 
The o2 sensor can be disabled in crome. It might not be doing anything at all.... The o2 sensor changes open loop/closed loop when its hot or cold and full throttle or part throttle as well so it points to the direction that perhaps it is enabled.

If you know your tuner, ask to load your bin and see it its disabled.
 
So buying a new O2 sensor will probably just be a waste of money. This thing has me puzzled. Wish I had the parts to just go back to stock.
 
you can pull the chip out of the socket and read with with a chip reader if you can't find your tuner. loading the bin file in to crome will tell you instantly.
 
I'm new to all the chipped ecu's and tuning. I need to -111find me a tuner in my area. I bought the car with the turbo already on it so I'm un sure of the tune that it has. But I have owned it for about 3 years and this is the first time I've had problems like this. I guess it's all part of the live and learn​
 
Ok so the car is running like a champ again. I went ahead and hooked up a new O2 sensor and it stopped all the missing. I guess somewhere in there the o2 wire must have been arcing on something or the ecu just wasn't reading it. I'm not sure but a new o2 sensor seemed to fix the problem. Thank you everyone for your help.
 
Well everything was good untill tonight. Went out to dinner and the car ran great. After letting the car sit for about a hour and a half, it started the spitting and sputter. Like a loss of power and only running on a few cylinders. I'm ready to lite a match and let it burn. Little things like this is what drives me crazy.
 
ugh :(

any chance you have a spare fuel pump to try? lots of guys who have main relay problems also have pump problems it seems. I wouldn't buy a new one just yet if you don't have one lying around. I'm out of ideas and just tossing it out there.
 
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