Header Upgrade Problem
 

Got any suggestions? I just bought a 97 EX, it had a broken exaust manifold. I checked around and the cheapest thing I could replace it with was a 4-2-1 header of of ebay. I damaged the o2 sensor trying to get it out. I bought a new one, put it in, and now I have a check engine light. There were two locations to install the sensor, in the left pipe next to the head and in the single pipe at the end of the header just befor the cat. I didn't want to splice the wires so I put it in the pipe next to the head.

RE: Header Upgrade Problem
 

Is the other sensor hole just open or plugged?


If you buy a name brand header you wont have this porblem. It will actually be made for your car with R&D and not slapped together.

RE: Header Upgrade Problem
 

I had the other hole plugged, I'm New to Honda's not cars. ;) Reasonable question though. Tonight I went ahead and spliced the sensor and moved it down to the other hole and got the same thing. I was looking at another section on this site and the conversation made a bad comment about the type of header that I bought, "Crap" and "Sell It", were mentioned I think.[&:] I'm new to Honda's and I have three teenagers to feed. Not a lot of extra money to buy cool parts. I really just wanted a reliable car with good gas mileage. That's why I traded my Mitsubishi 3000GT in for the Civic. I thought I could do a little something to the Civic to make it a little more cool and have a back seat that someone could actually ride in, not to mention the possible un-authorized joy ride in the Mitsu. It had to go.

RE: Header Upgrade Problem
 

[sm=welcomesign.gif] to HCF. [sm=groupwave.gif][sm=groupwave.gif][sm=groupwave.gif]

RE: Header Upgrade Problem
 

Gee Thanks!:) I wish I could get just as warm and fuzzy a feeling from the glow of my check engine light, but I'm just getting hot under the collar. [:@] I never thought that changing an exaust manifold with a header would cause this much trouble. The question still remains, what to do?

RE: Header Upgrade Problem
 

Well apparently you have the OBX, which our resident VTEC Nazi isn't too fond of. Don't depair though. The OBX may be better than and definitely isn't any worse than the stock exhaust manifold.

Isn' the the 6th gen (96-00), OBD-2? Was there (2) oxygen sensors before the header swap?

If yes- then you are missing a signal.

If no- then you just have it wired wrong.

RE: Header Upgrade Problem
 

Welcome to HCF, and good luck!

RE: Header Upgrade Problem
 

sniper- yes there are 2 but one is after the cat and not on the header. wb- use the lower hole, plug the other, and reset your ecu. there is a fuse box under the hood next to the battery. pull the buck-up fuse (7.5 amp) and leave it out for 2 minutes. replace it and start it and see if cel is still on. if that doesn't work, take it to an autozone to check your codes. it's free and gives you a better idea of what's going on. good luck

RE: Header Upgrade Problem
 

Thanks for the info. The truth is I'm sure that I didn't wire it wrong. I spliced one wire at a time and the o2 was put in with the stock connector in the top hole before I rewired it and I still had the error code to the OBD-2 causing the check engine light. I thought that because the top location on the header was about two or three inches closer to the head than the original manifold, that might be what was causing the problem. So I moved it to the lower location. OH, in answer to one of the questions, there are two 02's one before the cat and one after. I have reset the ecu, several times, and I was thinking about buying a code reader, but free is good. Who knows, the Bosch sensor that I bought may have been defective, that would be my good fortune. I bought it on line at www.thepartsbin.com. It only cost $63.95 and shipping was included. I got it in 2 days. They had Denso and maybe I should have spent the extra few bucks. Thanks again, and if you think of anything let me know. I'll keep you posted.

RE: Header Upgrade Problem
 

its the second sensor. thats why i hate that header so much (among other reasons) and believe me, i know what it is like to pinch pennies. honestly, in your situation, i would try to find a DC sports or Greddy header used. try ebay and craigslist. you can get them for decent prices on there. that header is just going to keep giving you problems, and the only real way to make it work is to run an O2 simulator, so that you can just remove the O2 sensor from the rear. that sensors whole point in life is to measure th effectiveness of the Cat, so if theres no cat, its gonna set off lights all day long. and if you invest in an O2 sim, you might as well sell that header, and buy one that will make some decent power. good luck man, its a tough thing to get into, but we'll help you as much as we can.