When I say I've reached the end of my skills...
I've replaced this sensor before.
Replacing the crank sensor requires the same amount of take-apart as the timing belt.
It's not an inability to replace the parts or knowing how to access them.
It's not because I don't know what they look like. When I said, "dirt simple Hall effect" sensor, that's an indication that I know what we're looking at. It's a freaking magnet. With some power to it to create a field that gets interacted with a tooth on a spinning part. For positional use, it counts the number of teeth going by with one or several of the teeth being larger or smaller to tell the computer a specific position had been passed. Sometimes there's just a single tooth to note a particularly important place.
It's being at my wits end as to why everything checks out from what the service manual tells me, yet there's still the same P1361 and P1362 codes intermittently haunting me.
If I had some assurance that replacing these sensors, again, would cure the problem for years instead of weeks I'd crack the bitch open tomorrow and do the timing belt, oil seals and water pump while I was in there.
Could this be a case of obtainable non-dealer parts suck rocks and only high-priced dealer-only parts work?
ReplyDeleteHad that issue with a Volvo many moons ago.
Lots of Civic forums out there, don't know if you belong, or have looked or asked those gearheads. They might be able to help you (that is, if you already hadn't looked and are still stumped, of course.)
I've looked and I'm still stumped.
DeleteBummer. I do know that South and Central Florida, with their combo high heat and humidity, do tend to put strain on the wiring harness. Any signs of dry-rot elsewhere?
DeleteAnd looking at the interwebs, because that's what I do, being a 'Mr. Wizard' type of jerk, your problem codes seem to be not-totally-uncommon, is the sensor (duh) or of course electric harness shorts or the contact plugs on the harness need cleaning. Which, unfortunately, is only diagnosable by going through all the carp to replace the magic sensor. And only find-outable after replacing, cleaning and putting everything back like you've already done and running it for weeks.
God, I hate working on cars.
Good luck, and I hope the answer is something simple and easy to fix. I know, it isn't and it won't be, but I can hope.
The only time I ever had a problem with a CPS was when the gap betwixt the sensor and the flywheel was too large.
ReplyDeleteNot saying this is your problem, but if the wiring checks out for continuity, then those two errors sure do point that way.
For my car (German, pre-OBD2) I treated the harness to a few drops of De-oxit in the appropriate spots, and set the sensor-to-flywheel gap to 0.8mm (as specified in the manual).
The dimensional variation between new and old sensors was enough to make the gap too large using the original mounting settings.
Just read your earlier post on this issue:
DeleteThe "fails when hot, but recovers when cool" seems to me to support the "it ain't close enough" theory.
There's no means to adjust the spacing. The metal bits are embedded in the plastic body of the sensor and the screw attaching it to the head goes in perpendicular to the sensor's orientation.
DeleteI checked my notes and it's lasted about 70k miles.
I'm not sure if I should do the Dorman sensor again or see what that Genuine Honda part costs.
http://www.diymyhonda.com/civic/tdc-sensor-cmp-sensor-replacement/
DeleteYou can see what the sensor looks like at that link. Dorman is $35ish, Honda is $70is...
In step 10 where it says to move the power steering stuff, I have a huge block of anti-lock brake parts.
Bugger. I was so hopeful that was your problem.
ReplyDeleteThe one I worked on threads into the mounting bracket, and the install process is:
1) tack a 0.8mm washer to the sensor,
2) mount it in the bracket,
3) mount the bracket,
4) wind the sensor down until it touches the flywheel,
5) lock it down,
6) remove the bracket,
7) remove the washer
8) put it all back.