FYI for Civic '01 Owners (7th gen/ES): Defective sensor causing engine stalling

**Bernard Ferrer** · November 9th, 2017 12:36 AM

Originally Posted by vinj

Just FYI to the Civic ES (7th gen) owners out there. I recently found out that there is a defect to the Top Dead Center (TDC) sensor of this model with both the 1500 and 1600 engines.

The symptom I experienced is while you're driving, you'll feel a sudden engine cut with the engine (even when you're running at speed or at high rpm) then the check engine light will turn on and your engine will just lose power and eventually shut down. If you start the engine, it will start normally and run again but the problem may recur until you park and give the engine some idle time. In my case it happened when I was driving Kennon Road at the dead of the night (of all places)! I had to start the car several times before i eventually made it up to Baguio. I also did was some engine checks (look for loose vacuum hoses, sensor connections, spark plugs, etc). After i disconnected the battery to let the ECU reset and restarted the car, the problem did not occur again; i had an engine scan done and nothing came amiss... until the problem occured last week once more. When i brought the car to Honda Marikina, I was told of the defective TDC sensor and they changed the part for free (my car is an '01 model) and the problem was solved.

The defective TDC sensor basically mismanages the firing order, thus causing the engine to shut down even if you're revving it or driving at speed... IMO, this is dangerous as it can just cause the engine to shut off anytime; imagine what can happen if it occured in a situation where one is passing other cars on a two lane highway (which i was doing when it happened on my way up to Baguio). I don't know when and how this concern was addressed by Honda as my car had been serviced by the previous owner at the dealer until i bought it last year and the part was never changed (it was only changed when i brought it in and mentioned the problem).

Thus, my advise to ES owners there is to have check with their Honda dealer to see if their car is affected by the defective part. I also did a search on the other local Honda sites (CSG) and there was mention to the problem as well but i did not see any recall bulletins unlike with the fuel tank issue... (CMIIW)

Sir,,, na eexperience ko din to.. walang mekaniko may alam. nagpalit na ako ng cam sensor, lumabas pa din ung sira. sinu name nung HONDA Marikina na mekanio mo Sir? and anung free ung TDC replacement ? free pa din kahit old model?

thanks Sir sana reply ka agad