Honda help.

So I got to playing around with the Civic today and ran into a head scratcher.

When I drove it home last week the idle was slowly hunting around and it stalled on me once. It also sounded like it was pinging on part throttle acceleration.

Today I went and put ten dollars worth of premium in it as it was on E. Immediately the idle smoothed out and it didn't act like it wanted to stall at all. But I still heard some pinging in part throttle acceleration. Also the idle was a little high at 1000rpm. Should be 750.

I followed a procedure found on honda-tech to set the idle speed. Which lowered it a little. I then went about trying to check the timing. I found what I thought was the service connector so the computer wouldn't have control of the timing. Only when I jumped it the check engine light didn't come on like I expected.

I went ahead and checked the timing and saw the marks on the pulley about two inches to the right of the pointer. I loosened the distributor and turned it both ways but it did not affect the timing. I tried to put the distributor back where it was. So jumping the service connector didn't do anything and the computer still has control of the timing.

It's a little two prong plug covered with a yellow cap on the driver's side wheel well. But it doesn't seem to do anything.

What am I doing wrong?

Is one of the wires to the connector broken? If it hasn't been used in a while, you'd never notice that the ground failed from fatigue.

I think that connector is for an external service tach....I used it for a reference source when I built a 3ft diameter tach for the roof of our Lemons car.

Sounds like the timing is too far advanced though. I've never heard a Honda ping.

In reply to Tyler H:

Hmmm. I'll have to dig around some more.

You might want to peer into the ECU.

My '92 recently blew a few of the power caps and left me stranded. Its failure was probably accelerated by the previous owner's habit of feeding it new batteries every time the alternator burned one out (rather than replacing the alternator or fixing any of the grounds) but it would not surprise me one bit if all the EF and EG cars had leaking caps by now.

For the record the item circled in black is what I have identified as the the service connector.

Every EF Civic I have worked on has the service connector in the passenger's footwell.

Whether it's related or not, for the love of God, check and/or replace the fuel pump relay. Those things will test good with a meter, but fail when hot. The car will start when cold, drive fine, but not restart when hot or die when running. Using the interior heater on the footwell can speed this up. The solder joints develope hairline cracks. A resolder can help, if you've got soldering skills.

In reply to nymalo:

I'll look again tomorrow but I've read that the 88-89 cars had them in the engine bay.

See post 10 in this thread http://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-crx-ef-civic-1988-1991-3/how-set-ignition-timing-3016157/

Is it possible to install the distributor incorrectly on them?

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

Your right. I just I have only worked on 90-91 cars.

If that is the correct plug. I guess I need to trace the wires back to the ECU to try and find out why it's not doing the thing it is supposed to do.

Can anyone verify that I should get a check engine light when the service plug is jumpered?

That plug in the engine bay is correct for an 88-89. There is no way to install the distributor incorrectly, it only fits on the cam one way. I cannot confirm or deny if the check engine light should come on when the service connecter is jumped as I've never looked. The CEL doesn't do much on these cars, instead there is a little LED in the ECU itself that you can see through a little window in the ECU cover. When you jumper the service connecter that's where the LED will flash the ECU codes if there are any, otherwise it just flashes 1.

Yes, the main relay is a common failure point, I always bring a spare to the track, and had to use it once.

In reply to Sonic:

Any idea on why the timing is unaffected when turning the distributor with the service connector jumped?