03 Civic LX Randomly boggs/dies
I have an 03 civic, auto, that ive been working on for about a week. It was giving me P0303, P0340, and P1298.
I have replaced a failing coil, the cam position sensor, all 4 fuel injectors, the fuel pump, valve cover gasket and plug well gaskets, all 4 spark plugs, and the ELD. I also removed the MAP sensor and cleaned it.
This fixed all of my issues and got rid of all of the CELs. It starts, idles great, and drives great. But, it is randomly losing power during low/part throttle and bogging down. If I blip the throttle a few times, I can get it to come back. Sometimes if Im at a stop and I press the gas peddle, it will just bog and die. Other times, it will take off just fine.
I have not messed with the throttle body or TPS yet. Those are next on my list, clean the TB and reset the TPS.
The thing Im not understanding, is it didn't do this before. It was running on 3 cylinders and randomly the 4th would kick in and drive fine. But it NEVER bogged down or died like this.
I put my code reader on it to see if im pulling codes, and there are none now. I pulled live data, and what is weird, but maybe normal for the Civic is the voltages Im seeing at the OBD2 port vs at the Alternator and battery.
At idle on the code reader, Im seeing about 13.2-13.5V. When I shift it out of park, the voltage immediately drops to 11.1-11.5v. If I give it gas, the voltage goes back up to 13+ Volts. Voltage at the battery, with the car off is 12.8v. Voltage at the lug on the Alternator was around 14.5-14.8.. which is what I expected at the OBD2 port. Voltage on the positive terminal with the engine on is the same.. 14.5-14.8v. Again, what I would expect.
Ive read up on the ELD system on the Hondas from this Gen and it seems like this may be normal? Its odd, because once voltage starts to drop to around 11v is when I seem to start to have the bogging/stalling issue.
Anybody else run into this problem or can point me in the right direction??
Are these 2 things related?? Could it just be a symptom of a failing TPS or MAP sensor?? I cleaned and unplugged the MAP while it was running and there was a huge change in how the engine ran. So Im leaning toward ruling that out.
I have replaced a failing coil, the cam position sensor, all 4 fuel injectors, the fuel pump, valve cover gasket and plug well gaskets, all 4 spark plugs, and the ELD. I also removed the MAP sensor and cleaned it.
This fixed all of my issues and got rid of all of the CELs. It starts, idles great, and drives great. But, it is randomly losing power during low/part throttle and bogging down. If I blip the throttle a few times, I can get it to come back. Sometimes if Im at a stop and I press the gas peddle, it will just bog and die. Other times, it will take off just fine.
I have not messed with the throttle body or TPS yet. Those are next on my list, clean the TB and reset the TPS.
The thing Im not understanding, is it didn't do this before. It was running on 3 cylinders and randomly the 4th would kick in and drive fine. But it NEVER bogged down or died like this.
I put my code reader on it to see if im pulling codes, and there are none now. I pulled live data, and what is weird, but maybe normal for the Civic is the voltages Im seeing at the OBD2 port vs at the Alternator and battery.
At idle on the code reader, Im seeing about 13.2-13.5V. When I shift it out of park, the voltage immediately drops to 11.1-11.5v. If I give it gas, the voltage goes back up to 13+ Volts. Voltage at the battery, with the car off is 12.8v. Voltage at the lug on the Alternator was around 14.5-14.8.. which is what I expected at the OBD2 port. Voltage on the positive terminal with the engine on is the same.. 14.5-14.8v. Again, what I would expect.
Ive read up on the ELD system on the Hondas from this Gen and it seems like this may be normal? Its odd, because once voltage starts to drop to around 11v is when I seem to start to have the bogging/stalling issue.
Anybody else run into this problem or can point me in the right direction??
Are these 2 things related?? Could it just be a symptom of a failing TPS or MAP sensor?? I cleaned and unplugged the MAP while it was running and there was a huge change in how the engine ran. So Im leaning toward ruling that out.
Last edited by 812Civic; Sep 18, 2024 at 10:01 PM.
Re: 03 Civic LX Randomly boggs/dies
There's definitely some voltage issue, because 14.8 is high. You should be seeing like 13.8-14.1 while running. There will be some fluctuations under load and while idling, but not to the degree that you've described.
What brand of cam sensor did you buy? If you didn't buy OEM, I'm willing to bet it and probably the MAP sensor are probably still contributing to your problems.
I do see this being two separate issues, though. If you're running an aftermarket alternator, that may explain the fluctuation. Just to be clear, Honda's don't cooperate with aftermarket electrical components. I understand they're considerably more expensive, but they also work.
What brand of cam sensor did you buy? If you didn't buy OEM, I'm willing to bet it and probably the MAP sensor are probably still contributing to your problems.
I do see this being two separate issues, though. If you're running an aftermarket alternator, that may explain the fluctuation. Just to be clear, Honda's don't cooperate with aftermarket electrical components. I understand they're considerably more expensive, but they also work.
Re: 03 Civic LX Randomly boggs/dies
The alternator has been in the car for years. I'm going to take it have have it load tested with the battery, check grounds, and if I need to, return the cam sensor and replace with an OEM one. It definitely wasn't dying like this before I put this cam sensor in. The old cam sensor died and left it running on 3 cylinders randomly, that's why it wad replaced.
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