Civic VTEC gutless engine

HBSB2CARPROS

MEMBER
2003 HONDA CIVIC
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
92,000 MILES

Honda civic: gutless acceleration, key light, check engine light and seat belt light displayed.

I have a 2003 Honda Civic EX Vtec 1.7 engine. 4 Door sedan, automatic transmission.

Engine was replaced with Foreign Auto Engines from Japan.

Engine was installed with original Japanese wire harness. Japanese engine harness needs to be replaced with American harness becuase they don't work on American civic engines.

Our mechanic finally swapped out Japanese engine wiring harness w/ harness from engine removed. And, swapped the VTec solenoid and the missing pressure sensor l(ocated beneath it) not found on Japanese engine. Engine ran find for about 2 months. Then started symptoms mentioned above.

Honda dealership's $12,000 computer can't read the ecm. They tried new ecm, but it didn't improve the symptoms. Old ecm re-installed.

Our mechanic can read the ecm either.

What can we do?

Thanks

hb

9 Replies

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,815 POSTS

I see you have posted 3 questions on the same problem. This is not encouraged as it floods the system. Our site had just undergone a major overhaul and quite a lot of things are still not working correctly.

I did answer one of your questions previously which did not have too much details as compared to this so we will continue from here and ignore the other question, except for the part regarding manually retriving tor trouble codes.

What year model harness did you use for the new engine?
What is the engine model code?
What year engine did you use?
Was the PCM for for the same engine or different?
If the complete engine harness was used, I do not see any reason why the JDM harness did not work. Something is wrong with the wireharness or you have a bad grounding circuit somewhere.

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Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 AT 4:48 AM

HBSB2CARPROS

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I told the engine distributer what my car was (2003 civic ex, vtec engine, 1.7 engine) automatic 4 door sedan. I don't know what engine model code is or year of engine he sold me. Perhaps I can call them and they might know? They say these engines have `45,000 miles on them, are tested before they sell them. The PCm is what was in the car since it was new, car purchased in California. Honda actually replaced the ecm w/a brand new one and still was unable to find the problem on this second go around w them. Initially, the mechanic that installed the engine didn't swap over the original harness and until after the engine was in the car. If the harness is the culprit, why did it run well for 2 months? The wiring from the test plug beneath the dash, does it go directly to the engine harness or the ecm? In isolating the problem, is it this wiring, or the engine harness or some thing else?

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Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 AT 6:45 AM

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
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Let me have the engine identification, ie the code and engine number.

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Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 AT 12:25 PM

HBSB2CARPROS

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This is the only numbers I'm familiar with:
vin number is 2HGES 26833 H610 405

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Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 AT 6:41 PM

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
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I want the engine code, not the VIN.
D17A6?

Have you tied the manual code retrieval procedure?

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Monday, January 3rd, 2011 AT 1:54 PM

HBSB2CARPROS

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Confirmation from third mechanic shop stated problem is in the network bus."Inability to read the ecm with scanner. So, engine is running in minimum mode, " gutless, check engine, key and seat belt lights stay lite. Temp and tac gauges inoperative as well. Due to the uncertain number of hours required to diagnose, and expense, what can I do to try and find the problem in the network? Where is this "network?" Thanks.

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Thursday, January 6th, 2011 AT 12:49 AM

KHLOW2008