OK I'm not a car person but I ama GREAT Dad

I purchased my Daughter a 1999 Honda Civic EX

When we purchasedit the previous owner replaced the O2 sensorand it done fine for about 3 months, then the idling became a problem and gas mileage became terrible - I preferred to take it to the dealership, To be repaired but the dealer said that they could not work on it be cause the engine had been changed (we knew this at purchase) The EX engine was replaced with an SI engine - I’m told - They referred me to someone else who we took the car to him replace the sensor (yea 200bucks) and swapped and tried this and that

OK now he says that we have to take the car to the Honda dealership and have them program the computer

He says that they can enter the engine serial number among other information and set the car up for this specific engine

Can anyone explain all of this to me - again I'm not a car person - just a dad
Thanks in advance

 

I am a car person - and this does not make sense to me at all... Looks like those guys are just trying to get as much of your money as they can...

 

The dealership did not charge me anything for their assement - and it turned out the person that they recommended was an old high school friend I haven't seen in 25 years so neither has charger me a penny other than my purchase of the O2 sensor and one other small component - so at this point 200bucksis all I have spent - I just want to get the car fixed properly and quickly would be great - and for not much would be even better -

 

first of all it's bizarre that they won't work on the car, because that's a Honda engine... anyway, can you just confirm what engine is in the car? go here for instructions. Also, if we know what ECU you have, that would help also. If you pull off the outside kick panel under the glove box, the ECU is under there, it will have a barcode and some numbers/letters, can you find those and post them here? if the car is running off the wrong ECU then that might be a problem.

 

It is my understanding it is a VTEC engine but I know nothing else to be more specific.

Basically the care has all of the cool thing and I would say my self very sharp - I have some pictures but can not insert them here

How do I find out exactly what the engine is?

I will look for the ECU you mentioned but the car is not here of course it is at the shop over the weekend

 

I will find out the information from the engine as you indicatied in your previous message "mxs" I miss that and replied to quickly

 

when you look at the ECU there will be a bunch of numbers, in the middle there is a 3-letter/number code, see this picture for reference. it says P91 here, yours might say P2P or P2T (or maybe something else). that's the important part

[IMG]local://upfiles/4155/CC108D9676074E4FBAA2E25D5CA94B69.jpg[/IMG]

the engine should say B16A2

 

^ ya. I agree with Mxs. The engine should be a B16a2. It shouldnt be nothing new to the dealership considering that it is a Honda engine and it came out of a 99-00 Civic Si. The car must have the Si ECU because it flat out wouldnt run with the standard engine your daughters car originally came with.

 

if it has the wrong ECU it may run but it wouldn't run as intended. the car may be dumping in excess fuel which could be causing the O2 sensors to fail prematurely

 

Yeah if it was running on a B16A2 ecu it would be dumping on too much fuel because that engine is DOHC and has more airflow, so probably needs more fuel to maintain the proper fuel to air ratio.