Babyblue77

My daughters civic keeps having issue after issue. We did entire head job about 2 months ago, including new timing belt, water pump. Was doing good for a month then was having issue when accelerate past 45-50 jumped and wouldnt shift from 3-4 . It is a automatic transmission. Called parts store and looked online everyone seemed to think transmission control sensor. Didn't help took it to local shop they said since new sensor needed to clear codes for comp to read new part and also he would check if any other codes in there. He did this and said other code was cam sensor. Did fine for 1 day after then car started dying, d flashing on dash, drive about 5 mins and all this would start. The speedometer Gage would start jumping up all the way to 140 and back and forth on it's own then car would shake really bad and die out. replaced cam sensor and did not change anything. Got to parts store check codes and they said now rocker arm code. So took head back off and bolt had broke on rocker assembley. So got that replaced and started up idled fine some noise from engine like rocker noise. When go to drive it runs about a min or so then just limps along like 5-10mph and won't go. Any ideas at all and also this time no CEL is on.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

back track everything that you did during head job and check for untightened stuff, loose connectors, etc

ezone

You said "D" light flashing but no mention of a transmission related fault code. There should have been at least one......or there's a different type of failure going on......

See if the installers forgot to tighten all of the alternator mounting bolts!

Who did the engine work?
Are they also responsible for the rocker arm breakage?
Who fixed that?
What exactly broke?
Where did all the pieces go?
How long was the engine run with this failure?

#1, quit running the engine.
No matter if the CEL is not on, scan it for fault codes.

If the scanner cannot communicate with the computer at all, try another completely different scanner. Report back with your findings.

Babyblue77

Thanks for replies, no it never showed any transmission codes and only flashed a couple times once. Had codes read three diff places. Their was nothing wrong with rocker arms their self the bolt broke off the cover. Everything has been checked over several times. And I'll try to go get scanned again. Just at a loss of what's going on.And it was only drove to test about 5 miles when threw rocker arm code then replaced bolt and drove 1/2 mile up road to test again

ezone

Do these still occur now and do they occur at the exact same time?

Does it run good, revs up to redline and accelerates normally-- until that one minute mark?
Or does it run badly before the one minute point, then gets worse?

You might try this: connect the code reader and drive the car (or just run it if that's all it takes to act up).....get the problem to happen and try to read codes while the problem is happening. See if there are any codes set, or no codes, or if there is no communication with the computer at all.

A better scanner that can let you see live engine operating data from the PCM might allow you to gather more info than just codes...and even take a recording of the events you wish to capture-- if the scanner is capable of this.
I'm thinking if one of the speed sensors went crazy and made the speedometer read Warp Factor 2, then the PCM might try to shut it down due to thinking the car is traveling over the max road speed or engine RPM allowed. (Just a wild guess right now)



Did you double check those alternator mounting bolts yet?
And the grounds, the cable from the battery to body, and body to the transmission, and the cable that attaches to the front of the engine (on the upper radiator hose neck), and the wiring eyelet and bolt next to that on the engine, it may be partly hidden by the big air box that covers most of the transmission.


Trying to picture where and which bolt this might be.

Babyblue77

Yes everything connected well. The speedometer is not doing that anymore after fixing bolt. It idles fine and revs up while in park. When start to go maybe will run about 500 yards and then won't go past 10mph just limping along. We will try see if can get a code reader this was all done at parts store and mechanic to read codes. There are 10 bolts that hold on the rocker assembly one in center snapped flush.

Babyblue77

So it's been since I could post update a but she lives a bit away was able to rent a code reader and came back down. Plugged it in showing no codes at all left it plugged in to drive it to see if it would do it again and throw code. Nothing it is running perfect ran it to operating temp around the block several times and getting into high gears.. nothing makes no sense what happened. Tried driving around few more times around block and this time stalled out again. It shakes and dies locks up. Doing what it did before cam and rocker bolt replacement. The speedometer gauge is bouncing back and forth Still no CEL or codes any other ideas on what to even look at. I kmow someone posted before possible speed sensor and also been told transmission lock solenoid the plate that has the A and B on it bit it's like 300 and don't want to be throwing more parts for nothing

ezone

If the engine actually dies, that's shouldn't be caused by anything on the transmission.

Babyblue77

So any other ideas if no codes? Like I've stated before after a few mins driving speedometer starts jumping back and forth, car starts shaking bad and immediately shuts off.

ezone

No code driveability diags are fun (for me, anyway)


Did you double check those alternator mounting bolts yet?

Is more than just the speedometer needle acting up?--What are the temp gauge and tach doing at the time the speedo acts up?

Next I might want to see live operating data on a real scanner. Check the VSS value in the datastream while the speedo needle goes nuts.
Then if that looks screwy, I'd want to see live operating data for the transmission so I can watch and compare the ISS, CSS, and VSS values when it acts up.

Babyblue77

ezone

How much transmission operating data can this code reader display for you?
How long does one of these failure events last? Just a few seconds, 15 seconds, a minute?

Babyblue77

The main sensor data parameters. As soon as it starts sometimes a few seconds maybe just a bit longer till starts shuttering and dies. It feels like something is just bound up it shakes so bad before it dies. Then start back up either does immediately or maybe drive a few feet before it does it again. One of the first times it did I was with her and told her to let me drive it back I was able to get a few miles to get back to house but mainly using neutral to coast and prob didn't fo past 1st gear if you tried to go any faster it started.

ezone

I was expecting at least one of the speed sensors to register as obviously incorrect while the problem is acting up, and it would be consistent with what you see on the speedometer......but most light duty scanners aren't going to update the data very fast, sometimes a 2-5 second lag time.

Unplug the VSS and drive it to see what happens. May be getting flaky, or have poor connections. UNplugging it should force the computer into a fail-safe mode and it will still act wrong but it should stay consistent instead of random.

For location, check video

Babyblue77

OK we will def try that next weekend when we go back down there. So if we unplug it and it does what you say then should we just replace it first? Do you think it would have anything to do with the transmission lock up solenoid? Or should just try speed sensor first cause it's like 90 bucks but still cheaper than lock up which is 300.

Babyblue77

OK we will def try that next weekend when we go back down there. So if we unplug it and it does what you say then should we just replace it first? Do you think it would have anything to do with the transmission lock up solenoid? Or should just try speed sensor first cause it's like 90 bucks but still cheaper than lock up which is 300.yeah and the scanner not sure we rented it from auto zone was like 200.00 and we kept it plugged in a good 30 mins or so

ezone

A flaky VSS input to the computer (for whatever reason) would explain the speedometer needle going nuts.


Is that the whole problem? IDK but that's my guess right now.
The computer controls the transmission; Garbage in=garbage out.

Babyblue77

Thanks so much for your help I'll get back and post what's happens next when we can get back down to check it out. At least we know a direction to go now since we have replaced most other sensors. Stay tuned for updates Lol