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Hi Civic Fans... My Partner has a 7th Gen 1.7CTDI with 50K miles on the clock. For the last 6 months she has been ringing me about once a month as she has broken down on the way to work. She tells me it loses power when going up hill and mostly when it's a cold engine. For the first time today i was able to replicate the problem, I realised that the car is going into LIMP HOME MODE. If you turn off the ignition and remove the key, then restart the engine it will go trouble free for several weeks without a problem!!!!!!!!!!! We called the AA and the patrol could not find any codes. There has been NO CEL light on at all... Hence no reason to generate a code... When limp home mode is entered the engine will not rev past 2000 rpm with no other indication of a problem.
Engine oil level is at max and all other levels etc are fine, Fuel filter changed last week to eliminate, this is before i knew that the loss of power was due to" limp home mode", No codes or engine lights ...... and yes the bulb works, 'cos at position II when the dashboard lights come up the light is on as in normal operation...
Today i visited another Honda dealer and they said that not all sensor and operational failures generate a code!!!!!!! Oh great, and i thought that these lights and all the electronics in modern cars were supposed to help apart from being expensive for the owner!!!!!!!! They did however tell me that they had had the same circumstances and chose to change the crankshaft sensor, which on the 04 plate civic must have solved the problem cos that was a week ago and the customer hadn't been back..... The next advice was if this doesn't work there is always the engine temp sensors and the crankshaft sensors, but these are more likely to give an engine code...
Ok , so now i have a partner who has been wound up over a six month period with neither me or the garages believing her that there was ever a problem, 'cos we all rely on the little engine light and codes to tell something is wrong!!!! Is there anyone out there who really knows their stuff and can maybe advise on generic methods for checking these sensors before resorting to main dealer mentality and spending loads of money on one sensor after another. Ps the crank sensor is £78 +vat, havent priced the others yet!!
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
Rep Power: 258

I wish I could help you, but I'm just wondering why you would let this go for 6 months without getting it checked out until now.

 
Rep Power: 812

if theres no code and its mysteriously losing power, thats a hard problem to figure out. could be all sorts of things including a clogged catalytic converter.

 
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there are probably codes there, but some obdII code "readers" cannot pull. dealer is the only one who can tell u what it really is

 
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does the CEL come on when u turn on the ignition? could be the light was on and the bulb burned out or more likly he cut the wire so it would shut off.

 
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Cos when there is no dash light coming up , no recorded codes on OBDII that can be found by the AA man and his laptop or the Honda Dealer. My misses just got more and more frustrated and more and more people pointed at the women driver thing!!! It was only yesterday when it happened to me that i was able to work out that it had gone into limp home mode, the rev counter and rev's stuck at 2000 rpm.
It was not me being irresponsible with my partners safety, but the fact that it had only happened to her!

 
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Hi Gearbox, was rather hoping that you would look at this as it looks like you have a bit of a rep on this site for being a man who knows!!!!
Can i just go over a few points... Going up hill, revs stuck at 2000 rpm, Limp home mode realised yesterday. Car will run for weeks with no problems and no OBDII codes.
Yesterday i had a long converstion with the service manager of a large honda dealer in Surrey UK. He told me that all codes could be seen by roadside patrol or dealers the same. The only difference would be in some cases the actual code... which would just be identified buy the software used on the laptop software concerned.. He, as in my original mesg said that under some circumstances some sensors may not declare codes in intermittent circumstances. He said that anything to do with emmissions would declare a code! This would be Lambda sensor problems etc where the fuel mixture is altered by the ECU engine managment system. However, our Civic runs for weeks without a problem and this main dealer has told me he would change
1. Crankshaft sensor (by the starter item 7 on parts list)
2. Engine temp sensors
3. Crankshaft sensor
In this order? crankshaft sensor 1st i was told..... There is at least £ 300 of parts here and as a trained engineer i dont like fitting parts without getting to the root of the problem...

How can i check this out...... very difficult i know ...... but we cant be the only failure? The dealer told me they had one exactly the same last week...
Does anyone have principles of operation for this from Honda? Anyone know a Honda tec would can help?

Gearbox .... thanks for listerning... thought id give you a real challange rather than somethings you've been asked...

 
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Yeah.. agreed but the AA and RAC have equiptment that is equal to the dealers and im told by a dealer that all these 3 have exactly the same ability unlike a cheeper version from ASDA / walmart or Argos??

 
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power was due to" limp home mode", No codes or engine lights ...... and yes the bulb works, 'cos at position II when the dashboard lights come up the light is on as in normal operation...
Then when the engine starts the light goes out as in normal condition and operation......

 
Rep Power: 233

If i were you i would disconnect the battery and then reconnect it after an hour or so so that the ECU will relearn its settings. Maybe then it can detect something wrong and throw a check engine light at you.

 
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Thats not a bad idea... Does the ECU behave like any other PC? When connected to the 12 Volts i suppose it has some low level memory storage?
The old POPO power off power on may have its merit... Will try this... and make sure i find the stereo code first!!

 
Rep Power: 812

the thing is all of those sensors have engine codes for when they malfunction. so i doubt replacing them will do any good. and if the car drives fine some of the time, there is no way its a bad crank sensor (the car would just shut off after you try and start it). the ECT (engine coolant temp) sensor does control alot of critical engine functions. if it has failed and the ecu thinks the engine is always cold, you will have a very rich fuel mix and retarded timing even when the car is warm, which can cause serious problems like power loss. so that might be worth replacing because its so easy to change right above the thermostat housing.

 
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Hi Civic fans!!
There has been a development.... P1236 ..... It means that there is either high or low pressure problem on the output of the high pressure pump (Diesel pump). Googled P1236 and Im not the only one with this problem..
Check this out http://www.ilexa.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18632.0

This is a bit of what i have found......

Civic 1.7 diesel 2003 code P1236 any one?
« on: 17:16 12 06 2008 »

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Hi all
have exhausted my P code web sites, anyone know this P1236--its also been flagging boost/map sensor low volts - this has been replaced, runs bad under max load
cheers

This seems the same as my problem cos it also suffers from loss of power under load ie "going up hill" Still no nearer though cos it sounds like it could be anything from turbo to vacuum valve or sensors?

Found another good lot of people with the same story... checkout http://www.usedcarmart.co.uk/forum/s...ad.php?p=81087

Any ideas yet as ive stuck some deisel redex in it and havent seen a problem for 3 days?

 
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Diesel?

 
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http://www.civinfo.com/forum/previou...p-1-7ctdi.html

Maybe that will help you out. I never heard of a turbo diesel civic engine. I thought they were all gasoline

 
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Yes .... Diesel Heavy oil!! Like the trucks or Rigs? I think you call them... In the UK fuel is very expensive because the UK goverment take the ****** out of us with about 80% tax... £1.05 per Litre x 4.52 gives you an imperial gallon which is just a bit bigger than the Texan one... HaHa This means we pay at the pump between 7 and 8 dollars a gallon.... you get 1/3 more miles to the gallon over a petrol. The 1.7 CDTI Civic is based on the 1.7 Opel astra GM engine from the 90's...
Anyway this is just a note to let you all know the answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After laods of grief we came across a Honda dealer who said he thought he had read somthing about the P1236 code...... Good Guy!!!! Apparently it can be associated with other codes in the range P 2035---2039... £1663.75 + labour of 2.5 hours.... please you can work that into dollars!!!!! BUT HONDA DID IT FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a knnown problem by Honda and they have extended the warrenty from 5 years to 7 years.. It is all to do with the air intake jets in the varriable vien turbo being too small ... only 50 microns.. but when they block up it does matter!!!! nearly £2000 of it matters...

Thank you Honda, just wish all your dealers were as sharpe as this one!!!!!!!

Now i would buy another Honda cos my nightmares have turned into plesent Dreams...You know the ones Honda's are powered buy..... ref european advert... google it!!