Idle drops and car won't go faster than 20 mph
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Idle drops and car won't go faster than 20 mph
Hi All. I was searching posts and thought I read something similar to my problem, but kept searching and now I lost that post.
So, here's the problem with my 2001 LX automatic:
One day after work last week, I sat in more traffic than I usually would, bumper to bumper and very slow moving. Suddenly, I felt the idle drop, the CEL came on and my car wouldn't go over 20 mph. Never stalled, didn't smoke and didn't "buck" or anything. I drove it like that for about 8 minutes so I could pull off the highway into a parking lot. My husband picked me up and later that night, he got the car and drove home with no problems though the CEL was still on.
Next morning, CEL is off and we took it to some garage where they changed the plugs and mentioned that it "might" need a $300 sensor. Well, we didn't do anything more and the car ran fine until yesterday.
More sitting in traffic after work and the idle drops down again and same thing, won't go over 20 mph. I just kept going and drove home like that and was grateful just to GET HOME since I had my small kids with me.
So, my spouse and I dropped the car off at another place today. The guy basically says it could be sensor related, but the computer needs to be reflashed. The guy also searched online for Civic info and and printed out some data for the EX VIN that mentioned all these other high cost maintenance "possibilities."
Overall, I'm wondering if anyone has had this same exact problem - idle drop and can't go over 20 mph - and, what was the problem, what was the fix and cost?
My husband plans on taking the car to the dealer now for reflashing and the service person said he could replace some sensor for $130 and wouldn't charge us for the reflashing.
Any thoughts on this? Thanks a lot for any help.
So, here's the problem with my 2001 LX automatic:
One day after work last week, I sat in more traffic than I usually would, bumper to bumper and very slow moving. Suddenly, I felt the idle drop, the CEL came on and my car wouldn't go over 20 mph. Never stalled, didn't smoke and didn't "buck" or anything. I drove it like that for about 8 minutes so I could pull off the highway into a parking lot. My husband picked me up and later that night, he got the car and drove home with no problems though the CEL was still on.
Next morning, CEL is off and we took it to some garage where they changed the plugs and mentioned that it "might" need a $300 sensor. Well, we didn't do anything more and the car ran fine until yesterday.
More sitting in traffic after work and the idle drops down again and same thing, won't go over 20 mph. I just kept going and drove home like that and was grateful just to GET HOME since I had my small kids with me.
So, my spouse and I dropped the car off at another place today. The guy basically says it could be sensor related, but the computer needs to be reflashed. The guy also searched online for Civic info and and printed out some data for the EX VIN that mentioned all these other high cost maintenance "possibilities."
Overall, I'm wondering if anyone has had this same exact problem - idle drop and can't go over 20 mph - and, what was the problem, what was the fix and cost?
My husband plans on taking the car to the dealer now for reflashing and the service person said he could replace some sensor for $130 and wouldn't charge us for the reflashing.
Any thoughts on this? Thanks a lot for any help.
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Re: Idle drops and car won't go faster than 20 mph
Joined: Sep 2002
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Re: Idle drops and car won't go faster than 20 mph
sounds like something that happened to me, the trans had trouble shifting and got stuck in gears. the TPS sesnor on the throttle body was bad, and you can fix it by getting the whole thing for $50 on ebay. but make sure you read the code first. it should be 'throttle position sensor hi voltage' or something like that. and make sure the new TB is for an auto and not manual.
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