The new clutch that I bought for my HX (Valeo brand from Advance Auto) is certainly not hypersensitive...it's the exact opposite. It has a very light engagement and is terribly vague.

The whole trouble with aftermarket clutches is that you can't tell what clamping force the pressure plate provides. The aftermarket companies like to stock as few part numbers as possible so basically they'll sell one clutch set that fits many different vehicles (for example: Civic, CRX, Del Sol, etc). The trouble is that the aftermarket clutch set likely has a clamping force that's quite different than what you had on the car previously.

For example, on my Integra GSR, the stock clamping force was somewhere above 1000 lbs. The common aftermarket clutches sold will fit the Integra, CRV, etc. and only had a clamping force around 600 lbs. I had to step up to an Exedy Stage 1 performance clutch to get back to the clamping force my car came with. Even the OEM grade Exedy clutch only had about 600 lbs clamping force.

Moral of the story...don't just expect to be able to buy a clutch kit that physically fits and expect it to feel or perform the same as you OEM unit.

 

Reflecting on our dialog from a year ago. I have to agree with post #12 from sbblumhof. I can drive the car for a month (or maybe multiple months) without any sign of P1163 or P1165. Then out of the blue it'll pop up due to non-consistent driving behavior...either hypermiling with low RPM or passing with high RPM. I used to think that it had something to so with a 2000 RPM hump because I seemed to notice that if I drove for too long fixed at 2000 RPM that the CEL would come on. However, it'll come on in other instances as well. For example, in early August, I took a five day road trip towing my cycle trailer with my '01 CR250R on it. I drove well over 1000 miles mostly with the trailer connected and maybe a hundred miles without the trailer. The entire trip passed by without a single CEL occurrence.

Then other days just running simple errands, the CEL will pop out of the blue. I would like to be able to assign a cause...like I was driving too slow...or I was reving it out...but I just can't create a reasonable correlation. I suppose it is a combination of many factors. As I mentioned in my note from Nov 4, 2008, "When the stars are aligned with a full moon..."

Still no interest in flipping $1000 for a new ECU. The CEL's are annoying but not $1000 annoying. It's my opinion that Honda should have recalled the vehicles and replaced the faulty ECU's. I'd guess that'll never happen so we're stuck with the situation dealt to us.

Regards,
Jeff

'99 Civic GX 55k miles
'98 Civic HX 220k miles
'95 Integra GSR 168k miles
'90 Supra Turbo 120k miles

 

ECU's dont cost $1000 lol

 

As mentioned earlier in the thread, a new HX ECU with updated firmware costs $700 (price confirmed on Manchester Motorsports). Supposedly though the dealer needs to tweak it to match your car which could cost another $200 or so (unconfirmed).

 

are you believing the b.s. somebody is feeding you?
i get ecu's all day for $20- 100$ that work perfectly.
why would you spend $1000 on a ecu.

 

Ecu's are all plug and play. You don't need them tweaked by a dealer for your car, if anything the "tweaking" can be done by a tuner and you'd get more power and possible economy from your car then a dealer could do. If they weren't plug and play nobody would be doing swaps without having to deal with going to the dealer to "fix" their ecu.

 

^I highly doubt that the HX ECU can be adjusted to get noticeably better mileage than it already does. The stock maps are lean burn. Any leaner and you'd be risking engine damage.

Also, like you said, they don't need to be tweaked. The ECU self adjusts itself to work best (within stock parameters of course).

 

94CivicHatchback...find me an updated Civic HX ECU - (37820-P2N-A33) for $20 and I'll give you $60 for it.

TrustDestruction...yes, that would make sense that the ECU is a learning device so no dealer intervention should be needed.

 

heres on on ebay you can get.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/96-97...Q5fAccessories

 

94CivicHatchback...that ECU is completely wrong...not even as good as what I have now. My A31 ECU works fine (most of the time). In 1999, Honda released the updated ECU (37820-P2N-A33) to correct the check engine light issues on the 98~00 HX fed MT's. Please re-read what I wrote...find me an updated Civic HX ECU - (37820-P2N-A33) for $20 and I'll give you $60 for it.