HELP! Slow acceleration, rough idle.

TokyoSkies

Boost Junkie
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
Hey guys. I'm new to the forum, so please excuse me if I make any errors/do anything n00bish haha.
I have a 97 Civic EX with a 1.6l d16, bone stock aside from the DC Sport 4-2-1 headers I put on, manual trans. Here's my story and problem:
I bought this car a few months back, completely stock. Right before I bought her, the previous owner did a mild tune up (wires, plugs, oil change, tranny fluid flush/change etc.). He showed me receipts from the Honda dealership from it all. The car was fine for a good 3 weeks or so, no problems at all. After said amount of time, I noticed a very small exhaust leak. I'm a bit mechanically inclined, so I traced it to the headers. It was very very minimal, so I decided to let it be until I could afford to replace the headers (next payday, two weeks away).
I ordered a set of DC Sport 4-2-1 headers when I got paid, and waited for em. In the meantime, I went to start my car, and right off the bat it idled like absolute crap, and the exhaust leak was horribly loud. It immediately threw a CEL (P1335 I believe, Misfire in Cylinders 1 and 2. Makes sense, cracked header right at those cylinders.). I drove it to my buddy's place, and on the way, I noticed that it was accelerating really really sluggislhy up until about 3500rpm. Once there, it cleared up, but the car still lacked power a lot (more slow than normal :P). Once at my buddy's, we ran his OBDII port scanner, and came up with the above code. We figured it would have something to do with the ridiculous amount of leak coming from that crack in the header, and decided we'll throw the headers on before we do anything else.

The headers arrived in the mail like 2 days later, and I put them on. Everything checked out good, but I did notice the O2 sensor had a lot of white residue around it. This may have been a sign of a bad O2, and if it is, I'm gonna feel really dumb lol. Anyway, we put everything together, car fired right up, and sounded great (very quiet). We had cleared the previous code, but noted it, and it didn't come on. I drove the car for about 20 minutes to warm the headers up, and all seemed well, so off I went back home.

After a few days of driving, I realized the sluggish acceleration had gotten no better, but that the exhaust leak was obviously no longer present. I did research on Google and other forums in relation to the CEL the car threw, and some of my other symptoms/steps I'd taken, and found out that it might be a dizzy problem/Crankshaft Sensor problem (I guess in these EK's, the Crankshaft Position Sensor is both on the Crankshaft Housing, and in the dizzy.. :wtfsign:). So I went ahead and picked up a new dizzy off of Craigslist (my first mistake..). It looked fine, dude said it was legit. We threw it on, and noticed it didn't fit right at all, so we took it off, and put the old one back on. After installing the old one again, my idiot friend got the firing order wrong. It sounded like a harley and died immediately. I called him a moron, fixed the firing order, and it started up smooth. Immediately, a CEL popped up. We port scanned it, and now it read a P1336, which is Crankshaft Position Sensor, but related to a different one (the one in the dizzy apparently). So my guess is the dizzy, but I've been reading a lot of things in forums and what not that are misleading. I have no oil leaks, no smoke, no over-heating, and the car does not burn oil. Also, like I stated above, the O2 sensor looked a bit suspicious. I'd like to avoid having to pay a mechanic to diagnose the car, so if anyone can help to shed light on this issue, I will be greatly appreciative! Thanks in advance guys. :D
 
Last edited:

jlicrx

New Member
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
We port scanned it, and now it read a P1336, which is Crankshaft Position Sensor, but related to a different one (the one in the dizzy apparently).
actually code P1336 is for the crankshaft speed fluctuation (CKF) sensor and not the crankshaft position sensor - the crankshaft speed fluctuation sensor is located behind the crank pulley on the driver's end of the engine - the crankshaft position sensor in the distributor would give you codes P0335 or P0336


 


TokyoSkies

Boost Junkie
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
actually code P1336 is for the crankshaft speed fluctuation (CKF) sensor and not the crankshaft position sensor - the crankshaft speed fluctuation sensor is located behind the crank pulley on the driver's end of the engine - the crankshaft position sensor in the distributor would give you codes P0335 or P0336


Thanks for the quick response. I need to double check the codes again.. I'm pretty sure I actually got both codes. P0335 the first time, P0336 the second time. That's why I'm so confused. They both pertain to Crank Sensor, and I know the latter is for the CKF like you said. Is it likely that that's the issue? That would be amazing, as I wouldn't have to replace the dizzy, and the CKF sensor isn't terribly hard to get to. I'll double check with my buddy again (he has a really really nice port scanner, and it saved the logs for both of the CELs my car threw), and I'll reply with them tomorrow.
 

matty62

New Member
take the old dizzy apart and the one u just got and swap some inner parts... i had a jdm b20 dizzy went out got a dizzy of cl and was wrong took them apart switched worked fine no problems... and sometimes the car well run with a bad dizzy... mine ran like crap but started up... just barely ran.. after worked fine
 


TokyoSkies

Boost Junkie
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
take the old dizzy apart and the one u just got and swap some inner parts... i had a jdm b20 dizzy went out got a dizzy of cl and was wrong took them apart switched worked fine no problems... and sometimes the car well run with a bad dizzy... mine ran like crap but started up... just barely ran.. after worked fine
Thanks for the suggestion. I think we may have fried the dizzy I bought. Friends noted that after we installed it (it fit strange, even though it was the exact same dizzy. . wouldn't click into place like it should have into the housing), once I turned the key, a blue spark came off it, and it smelled like burnt electronics. We pretty much ditched that one. If need be, I'll buy a new one, I'd just really rather not. The car actually doesn't run awfully. Once it's driving, it runs great, just no power/slow acceleration. Gas mileage is effected as well (probably like 16mpg right now).
 

Cobl18

New Member
Registered VIP
I had the exact same problem as you and mine ended up being a mixture of the crank shaft position sensor and my wires. It wasn't hard to fix but it sure was expensive :p
 

matty62

New Member
what was wrong with ur wires if u dont mind me asking cobl18.. and can u check something for me on this disconnect ur battery for a min or so and connect it and see if it runs fine... now that i think about it my dads 96 chevy z71 was doing that yesterday.. we unplugged the battery hooked it back up ran fine for a while but started messing up again
 

Cobl18

New Member
Registered VIP
well when i was taking out my spark plugs to check them i had these really cheap ass wires and they were on the spark plug really well, i couldn't pull them off with my hands so i grabbed a handy dandy pair of pliers and went to pull it off and it pulled the wire out of the connector on the spark plug. I had my dad help me put it back on and the next day i started having random misfires in cylinder 4, the wire that i was working on. so i ended up buying new wires and i guess by some freak accident my crankshaft position sensor went out at the same time so i ended up buying a new distributor for a wopping 260 bucks with a lifetime warranty from autozone. this fixed my problems but i had really slow acceleration (was running on 3 cylinders basically) and terrible power i mean it was a struggle to keep it above 55 on the highway and i went through a tank of gas every 150 miles haha. but anyways that's what was wrong with my wires.
 

matty62

New Member
oh wow lol alright thanks for the info think ima go change my dads crankshaft position sensor today see if that works
 

TokyoSkies

Boost Junkie
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
lol hes a lucky one i bet his is just a sensor ours is the whole dizzy.
That's exactly what I was afraid of lol. I'm just gonna do wires, plugs, dizzy and Crankshaft Sensor in the Crankshaft housing and get it all outta the way. Going to kill me financially, but it needs to be done. Thanks for the help, guys!
 


Top