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First time poster here, have used this forum over the years to help solve several issues.

The background-

2001 Civic EX, 230,000 miles. Head gasket was out, so I pulled it apart, took to machine shop, they machined the head and gave it a valve job.

Life got in the way, and I just now got to put it back together, so it has sat for 6 months torn apart.

Put it all together today, and fired it up. After turning over and coaxing with the gas pedal for quite a bit, it fired, and idled rough, died, started it again, idled rough, then smoothed out. I let it idle for 10 or 15 minutes while I checked for leaks, adding coolant, etc, everthing appeared right.

Tried to drive it, and had a CEL and not enough power to make it out of my drive (pretty substantial hill).

Put the code reader on, and was getting 1362. Looked, and sure enough, I hadn't hooked up the cam sensor. Hooked it back up.

Now it runs the same, and still getting 1362, or if I clear it, might come back as 1361. But they both point to the cam sensor, correct?

I've read about every post regaurding cam sensors on the internet, everbody says to check the connection and replace the sensor. Nobody comes back and says what ended up fixing the problem.

Several posts referenced excessive play in camshaft.

One post referenced the cam sensor is just a magnet that can loose its magnetism. Thoughts on that being a possibility? I had the cam sensor loose rattling around in the door pocket of my truck for the last 6 months.

OEM only? Or would one from O'Reilly or AutoZone be ok?

Thanks for the help in advance-when/if I get it solved I"ll be sure and post a follow up.

 
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6 months apart?
I'd wonder if the wire terminals inside the connector (or the pins on the sensor) have corrosion in them.


2001 was the year (within certain VIN ranges) susceptible to end play problems, the TSB talks about taking the rockers off so you can measure camshaft end play. I've been at a small dealer shop since 2003, I personally have never replaced one of those heads.

 
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Thanks ezone.

Got home tonight after work, opened the hood and stared for a few minutes.

Started it up. Perfect idle, ran smooth. Drove the 3/4 mile down our rough driveway in 1st/2nd gear very gingerly. All seemed well.

Pulled out on the highway, eased up to 60 mph over a couple miles, all seemed well.

Turned around to head back to house, pulling up a hill the CEL popped on and simultaneously lost most power. Gingerly drove the rest of the way home. Code showed as P1259.

Let it sit for a few hours, got back from town, started back up smooth, drove the same trip as earlier, everything appears back to normal, running smooth, no CEL/codes.

Will drive on a longer trip tomorrow. Hoping its just working the bugs out of its system from being disconnected from battery and not having anything flowing through the sensors/solenoids, etc for the last 6 months.

 
Rep Power: 518

New problem! Fix that.

 
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Fixed!!! (I think)

Had another startup with no codes, idling fine, grabbed the wife and kids and headed into town (5 miles), then headed to other end of town (5 more miles). Was getting the VTEC code, and then bam, got the cam sensor code again, limp mode, 10 miles from home. Embarassing going 10mph up a hill in a 55mph zone. Got home. Out an hour later, started up fine, no codes.

Cam sensor came in the mail today, (Amazon prime, $52. Local dealer wanted $93). Installed it. Ordered the vtec orings/filter/gasket set to tear into that as well, but it arrives tomorrow. While I had the valve cover off and was getting ready to put it together, I noticed a 12mm??? diameter bolt about a 3/4" long just laying in the back corner of the head. What do you know, there is a hole at the end of the valve train that it threads into......Machine shop had taken it out, didn't put it in, and I hadn't noticed it not installed. I'm guessing (without digging into it), that that caps some kind of oil passage that was triggering the vtec code.

Anyways, assembled it all back, just drove about 40 miles, from slow easy going to fairly hard driving, no codes, ran smooth as a top.

So for resolution, had the codes P1361 and P1362 which indicated cam sensor, and that was in fact the problem.

And code P1259 turned out to be the head wasn't put back together completely, missing the large bolt at the end of the valve train. Again, haven't dug into seeing what that bolt is, but thats just what it looks like it would do, and don't have the code now, and car runs like it should.

 
Rep Power: 518

Yes that plugs a hole in the VTEC oil pressure passages, and will cause VTEC related codes, but I've not seen that cause cam sensor related codes.

Hope the cam sensor codes are resolved with the new sensor.