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

**vinj** · February 16th, 2007 01:32 PM

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)

**niky** · February 16th, 2007 01:47 PM

Might be one of those "secret" defects like the Lynx ignition coil... which was redesigned due to the defect (new ones seem perfect...), but no local recall was issued.

**speedyfix** · February 20th, 2007 12:40 AM

yeah, also sometimes the cam angle sensor is at fault. just fixed a problem like that last week on an ES. no way to read the code without an obdII reader though.

**an0nim0us** · February 20th, 2007 08:24 AM

Happened to our Civic once! could be the same problem.

Happened to our Lynx too, more than once - Cam sensor naman.

I hate this kind of problem, very inconvenient.

**Zdre_Wulf** · February 20th, 2007 09:49 AM

yes boss.. sakit yan nang honda... it took my offismate 3 moths to diagnose the system himself kasi di madidagnose nang honda... intermittent kasi... tapos research kami ayun... TDC nga.... dala nya oto sa honda... pinapalitan...ok na......