ok so as a noob, i really dont know jack about hondas. mostly what gets me is the chassi stuff. i know my 98 civic LX is an EJ6, but i see all these parts listed everywhere for EK's and EG's and what not. now from what i understand the EG is a hatchback (please correct me if im wrong). i get that the EJ6 is usdm and the ek's are other countries. what im wondering is will parts for the ek's work on my ej6?

second, did honda ever do black interior for the 6th gens. i want to switch my interior over to black, but cant find anything. mostly im looking for door panels, but dont want to spend a fortune to get them.

lastly, for now, i have a bad downstream O2 sensor. i also have an aftermarket exhaust and header. will the CEL light go off when i put in the new O2 sensor or will i have to do something else to get it to go away.

thanks for your help,
John

 

ek's- refer to japan's hatchback 6th generation
eg's- refer to hatchback 5th generations
ej's- refer to usdm/canada coupe 5th/6th generation

search wikipedia.org for more in-depth info

no, honda didn't make an all black interior, but did make a dark gray interior which also looks good (type k). some people do get vinyl dye and plastic spray paint and change their interior color to black instead of the light gray or tan. search on this website and you'll find info on it.

if your o2 sensor is already bad, then you should already have a cel, and if the header and exhaust are carb legal, then everything should be fine after replacing the bad sensor.

 

the common name for all 96-00 civics is EK. its the chassis code for the hatch, but for some reason, it is accepted as a name to include all 6th gens. the same with eg for all 92-95s. but there are a few differences, mostly in head/taillights and body kits. if you are ordering suspension or something, it should fit if it says its for an EK.

as for the black interior, Im actually not sure if they did one for 96-00, and I know it sounds janky, but i used a vinyl and fabric dye on mine (i think its made by Dupli-Color) and it comes in a rattle can. it actually turned out really well, and seems to hold up great. way better than normal spray paint.

lastly, the sensor might be ok, the problem may be the header. is the stock cat still in place? if a new sensor doesnt fix it, you can get an adapter that relocates the sensor out a little. I think omnipower offers one. its basically an anti-foul thing for a sparkplug. it makes it so the sensor doesnt see as many of the fumes, so it doesnt notice the increased flow.

 

thanks for clearing up that whole EK thing, that helps a ton.

go figure about the interior, but since i didnt know i was planning on doing the whole paint/dye thing.

as for the exhaust. the CEL was on before i did the exhaust, and the code it threw was for the downstream O2 sensor. no the stock cat is not on it. i have a stainless 4-2-1 header, race/test pipe and N1 style cat back, so the downstream O2 sensor is a lot further down the exhaust stream than stock. i had to get a cable off of ebay that extended the pigtail so that it reached the stock plug on the engine.

i knew about the the adapter that put the sensor further out of the exhaust tream, but was gonna do that as a last resort and hope for the best. first things first i need the new o2 sensor. also all the auto part stores around here want $80 for the sensor, but summit wants $46 i think it is. what are the chances that the one from summit wont work properly?

 

there's your problem

 

yeah, an obd2 car is next to impossible to run a test pipe without a CEL. trust me, drop the money on a good quality cat, like Random Technologies. they flow as well (and sometimes better) and still clean up your exhaust emissions. a lot of the effectiveness of a cat is in the precious metals in them. stock cats work well for reducing emissions, but they have small holes for the exhaust to pass through. most cheap aftermarket cats do very little to clean the exhaust, mostly because the holes are bigger, and so there is very little contact with the materials in the honeycomb that actually do the reduction. a really good aftermarket cat is expensive because they use much higher amounts of the very expensive Rhodium, Platinum, and Palladium that actually convert the dangerous emissions into inert gases, and those higher concentrations allow them to leave larger passages through the honeycomb and still expose the exhaust stream to enough of the elements that it neutralizes the harmful gases.

 

ok so im gonna ask 2 really noob like questions. 1) where do i find one of the "good ones". and 2) what difference does the downstream 02 sensor make when all of the aftermarket cats and test pipes i've seen have the o2 sensor before the cat. the only cat i've found that fit my exhaust system was an obx and the o2 bung was before the cat.

 

obx sucks. do a search for random tech. they make a great one, but expect to pay over 200 for it. ive seen where a few random people have problems on obd2 cars with CELs, but then the o2 extender almost always fixs it. and yeah, the o2 bung should be after the honeycomb. a lot of them come with one before to hook up the primary sensor, but then that sucks when your header already has a bung there. you might call random technologies and double-check the setup you need. they were really helpful when I needed help passing CA smog referee.

 

The second sensor is used to test if the cat is working. The sensor can be working perfectly, run a test pipe and it will see all that pollution, conclude that the cat (or sensor, the ECU can't tell the difference) is not working, so the CEL comes on. So you need to install a cat before deciding the sensor is bad.

 

go to a local junk yard that allows second hand purchasing of original oem parts off their cars.