Go Back   EcoModder Forum > EcoModding > Off-Topic Tech
Register Now
 Register Now
 

Reply  Post New Thread
 
Submit Tools LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 05-04-2015, 08:39 AM   #11 (permalink)
Master EcoModder
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 5,927
Thanks: 877
Thanked 2,024 Times in 1,304 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by California98Civic View Post
Amazingly, I appear to have solved the problem from a "surprise" direction. I was wishing for a mechanical vacuum gauge because it seems odd to always rely on the mediation of the UltraGauge or my OBD2 diagnotic reader thing. Then I remembered someone saying cleaning old grounds can help the car run. Then I remembered cleaning the grounds has been on my list of long-procrastinated maintenance for a year or two. Then I took 30 mins to clean engine ground, transmission ground, battery ground, and one other grounding cable. And.... PROBLEMS ARE GONE! Just pulled nearly 70mpg in traffic on a 30 mile test run. Mostly normal fuel trim for a car doing a lo of P&G (slightly on the + side by 2 or 3%). Wow. They had not been cleaned since 1998. Hahaha!

BTW, I also got fuel system cleaner, Mech. What the hell, it can't hurt. I bought a big bottle to use in each tank for a few months. Thanks!
Fantastic. I like to polish the connection areas and dab a little grease on them. Never had to redo one with that procedure. I got 6 bottles of techron at Costco for $20, supposedly the ticket for the wife's direct injected Sorento (Kia relabels the bottles). Saved me pulling the rail on the Sentra which requires pulling the upper manifold.

regards
mech

  Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to user removed For This Useful Post:
California98Civic (05-04-2015)
Alt Today
Popular topics

Other popular topics in this forum...

   
Old 05-04-2015, 01:47 PM   #12 (permalink)
Cyborg ECU
 
California98Civic's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
Posts: 6,299

Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US)
Thanks: 2,373
Thanked 2,172 Times in 1,469 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrysler kid View Post
Use marvel mystery oil as a fuel additive it works great in Hondas
Thanks, both of you. I actually have MMO already and use it sometimes. I ought some specific injector cleaner on Mech's advice too... what the hell. The BlueDevil oil leak stuff worked and I never would have believed it. When the claims are modest, i am willing to try it, so as to prevent or repair something minor. My injectors are old. Perhaps they're a bit gunky. I think I'll treat them with techron and MMO for a good string of tanks, a few months worth. Can't hurt. Might save me a hassle.

Thanks for the advice re: coating the electrical grounds like that, Mech.

Sincerely,
James
__________________
See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.



  Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2015, 03:05 PM   #13 (permalink)
Cyborg ECU
 
California98Civic's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
Posts: 6,299

Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US)
Thanks: 2,373
Thanked 2,172 Times in 1,469 Posts
Interestingly, once again, after maybe 200 miles "fixed" the exact same problem has returned: wildly leaning-out fuel trims, associated with a decrease in power, and decrease in fuel economy. My tank average is dropping fast. This is the third return after the initial repair. Each time the problem goes away for a few hundred miles, or even nearly 1000 miles, and then returns. First time I made it go away with a fuel pressure regulator, then replaced the regulator again when the problem came back, then fixed it by cleaning ground wires when it returned a second time. Now it is back again, for a third time.

Why does it run normally for so long and then return to this fail state again?

Puzzle!
__________________
See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.



  Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2015, 05:00 PM   #14 (permalink)
EcoMod Proof of Concept
 
WD40's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Chilliwack B.C. CANADA
Posts: 245

WD-40's Insight - '00 Honda Insight
Gen-1 Insights
Team Honda
90 day: 56.04 mpg (US)

WD-40's Mirage - '15 Mitsubushi Mirage ES
Mitsubishi
90 day: 46.05 mpg (US)

WD-40's Sonata Hybrid - '17 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited
Thanks: 81
Thanked 85 Times in 45 Posts
Do you reset the ecm?
If you do it might take while for the cars issues to show up.
__________________
2000 Insight MT 106K Citrus A/C
  Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to WD40 For This Useful Post:
California98Civic (05-13-2015)
Old 05-13-2015, 05:28 PM   #15 (permalink)
Cyborg ECU
 
California98Civic's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
Posts: 6,299

Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US)
Thanks: 2,373
Thanked 2,172 Times in 1,469 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by WD40 View Post
Do you reset the ecm?
If you do it might take while for the cars issues to show up.
It's a good question. On the second repair with the pressure regulator, I did not reset the ECU (I left the battery connected) and the problem still went away. Then, another time, all I did was reset the ECU by disconnecting the battery for an hour or two. But that did not get rid of the problem for even a moment. When I cleaned the grounds, the ECU was of course reset.

Weird, huh?
__________________
See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.



  Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2015, 07:20 PM   #16 (permalink)
Lean Burn Cruiser!
 
BabyDiesel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Johnston County, NC
Posts: 931

Big Blazin' - '88 Chevrolet K5 Blazer Silverado
SUV
90 day: 14.97 mpg (US)

Chili - '00 Honda Insight
Gen-1 Insights
Team Honda
House of Tudor
Team Streamliner
90 day: 72.29 mpg (US)
Thanks: 835
Thanked 490 Times in 309 Posts
I'm going to put money on it being the EVAP system. I have a P0446 code that took over 1000 miles to pop back up, and I had horrible idle and acceleration when it did. It was undrivable.

Might be an electrical connection for an EVAP component? That would explain it going out only every so often.

P.S. I am not a mechanic, so take my words with salt I can get my way around most vehicles though!
__________________



Remember, thank a fellow EM'er for a helpful post!!!
I hypermile better in my cowboy boots

Past threads:
ZX2 modding thread
Ecomodder's Top 10: How they do it!
ZX2 Aerodynamics: Shooting for 0.15 Cd
ZX2 coast-down testing for Cd & Crr
  Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to BabyDiesel For This Useful Post:
California98Civic (05-13-2015)
Old 05-13-2015, 11:50 PM   #17 (permalink)
Cyborg ECU
 
California98Civic's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
Posts: 6,299

Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US)
Thanks: 2,373
Thanked 2,172 Times in 1,469 Posts
Thanks. MAP, Injectors, EVAP... there is my testing list. Maybe an intermittently open wire? But I can't see how changing a fuel pressure regulator or grounds cleaning would change the function of any of these components. Maybe there has always been three or so problem sorta layered on one another? Ugh.

But there has never been a CEL and the car does run, though not great.
__________________
See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.



  Reply With Quote
Old 05-15-2015, 09:41 PM   #18 (permalink)
5 pin sensor
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Dallas
Posts: 350

Zippy - '96 Honda Civic Hx
Team Honda
90 day: 40.77 mpg (US)

Boring - '11 Ford Fusion Sel
90 day: 21.88 mpg (US)
Thanks: 38
Thanked 73 Times in 56 Posts
Ok let's start over again

How many miles do you have on:
Distributor cap
Ignition rotor
Spark plugs
Spark plug wires

Have you tried to use carb cleaner around the intake manifold and hoses to check to see if the rpms change when sprayed on a certain part?

Have you cleaned the idle air control valve lately?
Is the coolant still fresh ?

Do you have any oil leaks around the valve cover

When is the last time you changed the air filter and inspected the throttle body for any dirt or build up


There was a Toyota echo 5 speed idling super low that just had tons of gunk built up on the throttle body the other day.
__________________
Current: 1997 civic lx
Past: 1998hx/1996hx/1997lx/1997hx Cali/1997hx
OG lean burn member

My civic thread
  Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to Chrysler kid For This Useful Post:
California98Civic (05-16-2015)
Old 05-16-2015, 01:03 AM   #19 (permalink)
Cyborg ECU
 
California98Civic's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
Posts: 6,299

Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US)
Thanks: 2,373
Thanked 2,172 Times in 1,469 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrysler kid View Post
Ok let's start over again

How many miles do you have on:
Distributor cap
Ignition rotor
Spark plugs
Spark plug wires

Have you tried to use carb cleaner around the intake manifold and hoses to check to see if the rpms change when sprayed on a certain part?

Have you cleaned the idle air control valve lately?
Is the coolant still fresh ?

Do you have any oil leaks around the valve cover

When is the last time you changed the air filter and inspected the throttle body for any dirt or build up


There was a Toyota echo 5 speed idling super low that just had tons of gunk built up on the throttle body the other day.
Here's another crazy deet: for the last two days the car has run quite normally, with longterm fuel trim moving to normal and then slightly rich. It has been raining these last two days.

Looking at your list, the cap, rotor, igniter, and spark plug wires have about 30,000, maybe. Maybe less. The plugs have been fuel fouled and cleaned. I have three sets that rotate in. No oil leaks. Compression is good. Filters are clean. I cleaned the throttle mechanism probably 20,000 miles ago, maybe a bit less. The carb cleaner would be for testing vacuum leaks, yes? I have not done that yet. I also have not cleaned the Idle Air Control Valve... both are good ideas.
__________________
See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.




Last edited by California98Civic; 05-16-2015 at 01:25 AM..
  Reply With Quote
Old 05-16-2015, 09:28 AM   #20 (permalink)
5 pin sensor
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Dallas
Posts: 350

Zippy - '96 Honda Civic Hx
Team Honda
90 day: 40.77 mpg (US)

Boring - '11 Ford Fusion Sel
90 day: 21.88 mpg (US)
Thanks: 38
Thanked 73 Times in 56 Posts
Then the next question is have you checked your exhaust manifold for cracks? The car could be getting funny readings from the primary oxygen sensor if there is a Crack

__________________
Current: 1997 civic lx
Past: 1998hx/1996hx/1997lx/1997hx Cali/1997hx
OG lean burn member

My civic thread
  Reply With Quote
Reply  Post New Thread


Thread Tools




Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.5.2
All content copyright EcoModder.com