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

**dhuDz** · June 24th, 2007 11:08 PM

thanks vinj, good thing mine was good.... my problem was solved when I went to honda....

what they did was re-adjust the tappet valves(mainly) but as well as clean the throttle valve...

so far so good....

**pete_o_lim** · August 22nd, 2007 03:30 PM

[quote=vinj;755225]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)

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**pete_o_lim** · August 22nd, 2007 03:38 PM

[quote=pete_o_lim;879787]

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)

[/qu

i also experience same problem and i wrote a letter to honda shaw to definetely recall this defective part. i wrote them since dec '06 as of this writing no word from them... imagine cruising at high speed on dark strong rain and suddently engine shuts down with your family on board. honda shaw doesn't seem to care might as well file a suit....

**vinj** · September 2nd, 2007 06:48 PM

[quote=pete_o_lim;879798]

Originally Posted by pete_o_lim

i also experience same problem and i wrote a letter to honda shaw to definetely recall this defective part. i wrote them since dec '06 as of this writing no word from them... imagine cruising at high speed on dark strong rain and suddently engine shuts down with your family on board. honda shaw doesn't seem to care might as well file a suit....

When i bought my car, the previous owner had it serviced with Honda Shaw, (and it was done every 5,000kms until i bought the unit with 50,000kms) and they never changed the part. I would suggest you seek another dealer as it seems also that Honda Shaw has a bad reputation for service as well... Mine was done by Honda in Marikina w/o any questions when i presented to them what the problem was (some peeps used to suggest Honda Kalookan to me before). Yes it is a dangerous problem if it happens to your car, as i earlier related... mine shut off when i was passing a slow truck and jeep on Kennon Road, just right after the Lions Head, at 11 in the evening!

**jopet26** · October 3rd, 2007 10:46 PM

thanks a lot for this thread since we do have a plan to buy a 2nd hand automatic ES. how i wonder what other problem does ES have so we can check on hand... ty

**marv25** · December 31st, 2007 11:06 PM

Is the problem still present on a 2004 Vti M/T? It happened once na while turning at a small intersection and changing gear from 2nd to 1st since there was a hump the RPM dropped for no good reason to about 500RPM, and the battery light was illuminated na, and when the gas pedal was immediately stepped on, the RPM went up and the engine was immediately revved to about 6kRPM, then everything was normal. This only happened once.

**vinj** · December 31st, 2007 11:22 PM

Originally Posted by marv25

Is the problem still present on a 2004 Vti M/T? It happened once na while turning at a small intersection and changing gear from 2nd to 1st since there was a hump the RPM dropped for no good reason to about 500RPM, and the battery light was illuminated na, and when the gas pedal was immediately stepped on, the RPM went up and the engine was immediately revved to about 6kRPM, then everything was normal. This only happened once.

i don't think it's a problem on the latter models already... but it wont hurt to check with your dealer. based on what you encountered though it's probably not the TDC sensor as a problematic TDC sensor would see your engine shutting down even if you try to rev it up... if you have some divebombing idle (as what you may have encountered), try to have your throttle body cleaned. It's common for that to happen on EFI cars as the mileage racks up.

**marv25** · January 2nd, 2008 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by vinj

i don't think it's a problem on the latter models already... but it wont hurt to check with your dealer. based on what you encountered though it's probably not the TDC sensor as a problematic TDC sensor would see your engine shutting down even if you try to rev it up... if you have some divebombing idle (as what you may have encountered), try to have your throttle body cleaned. It's common for that to happen on EFI cars as the mileage racks up.

Is it also normal that when you rev the engine, when you let go of the gas pedal, the RPM goes down to about 650-700 for a second then goes up to its normal idling RPM of 750-800? Its annoying sometimes while shifting in corners, the RPM will go down to about 650 and if you release the clutch just a little too early the engine will die.

**vinj** · January 2nd, 2008 10:27 AM

If the divebombing idle is excessive then have the TB and assorted sensors cleaned/checked... along with a tune-up and adjustment of your valve tappets.

Take note though that Honda engines tend to bog down mopre when you release the clutch too much before adding some throttle (due to the lack of torque in the low-end usually).

**marv25** · January 2nd, 2008 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by vinj

If the divebombing idle is excessive then have the TB and assorted sensors cleaned/checked... along with a tune-up and adjustment of your valve tappets.

Take note though that Honda engines tend to bog down mopre when you release the clutch too much before adding some throttle (due to the lack of torque in the low-end usually).

oh ok. This occurs ever since the car was bought, if i remember it right. The problem disappeared once when it was bought back to Honda at 1000km. But it came back in a few days. Now, it's 21000km na and it's still there. So i guess ill have it checked nalang. Thanks