alpinegroove

99 Civic LX.

Over the weekend, the temperature gauge was nearing the red zone.

Coolant was low in the radiator and the oil dipstick was nearly dry. My fault...

Today, CEL is on with P1362 code, TDC sensor no signal.

1. Is it safe to drive the car this way?

2. Can it cause further damage?

3. Anything I could check before taking the car to the shop?

4. Could this code be related to the low oil level and heating issue from a few days ago.

I did add coolant and oil as soon as I discovered it.

Thank you.

ezone

Probably unrelated. Maybe influenced, but not directly related.
TDC sensor is inside the distributor.
You can ohm check the sensors, but replacement (if necessary) will involve a replacement distributor.

Warning: Aftermarket distributors are crap.


Check out this thread, the OP runs into a distributor code at about post #3, some troubleshooting follows: https://www.civicforums.com/forums/2...old-crack.html

alpinegroove

Thanks. I'll take a look.

What about driving the car in the meantime?

ezone

Correct the lack of oil and coolant problem first.
Figure out where and why those fluids disappeared.

See if any damage occurred from the overheat event (blown head gasket, warped head, etc.). Damage may not be immediately apparent.

alpinegroove

I corrected the low fluid levels immediately upon discovering it.

How do I know if it actually overheated? The dial did not reach the red zone, but it was getting close.

How do I know if I have blown head gasket or warped head?

The car seems to be driving fine so far. I have deleted the code and am waiting to see if it comes back on.

I just don't want to cause additional damage by continuing to drive the car. Is that an issue?

ezone

That's close enough for a scare. Damage can occur before the gauge maxes out. (Think of the red area as the "waaaay too late" zone.)


Pay attention to coolant levels in the radiator and reservoir, and pay attention to the tamp gauge. If the levels stay stable then you're probably ok. (If the radiator goes low while the reservoir gets overfilled, that's a problem.)

Search here for blown head gasket, read about how a 7th gen acts when it has a blown head gasket. Yours may be similar. Find the sticky about overheating, there's a lot of info in that thread.

ok

As long as you keep oil in it and it doesn't overheat again, it should live until something else breaks... Unless the distributor takes a poop or something.

I can't predict the future LOL
HTH

alpinegroove

Interesting. Before this happened I noticed that coolant levels were dropping in both the radiator and reservoir. I couldn't detect a leak anywhere.

I had a number of heating incidents, and every time noticed that coolant was low in both radiator and reservoir.

The radiator was replaced (by me) last year, and I just assumed that there were some air bubbles in it, although I tried to bleed them out.

ezone

Well yeah, any time the radiator is allowed to get low it's more likely to overheat the engine.


Several lesser overheats can be just as bad as one big overheat.

If there is no external coolant leak found, then it almost has to be internal leakage.

Since coolant is disappearing, I'd pressure test the cooling system to try to encourage the leak to show itself, then Look harder for external leakage and evidence of leakage, maybe bring in some flashlights, a real car hoist, and a fresh set of eyes...

If that yields no results, maybe figure out some head gasket testing.

alpinegroove

Thanks. I'll look into it.