I found this hanging by my oil filter on my 1997 Civic EX. It had a plug with some wires plugged into the back side of it. I cannot figure out where it came from. Can anyone tell me what this is?

 

I think that is half of your knock sensor. It's not supposed to be in pieces like that.

 

Where do I find the rest of it?

 

Screwed into the engine block, more toward cylinder 1 than the oil filter is. The sensor directly above the oil filter is the switch that turns on the oil light on the dash when the oil pressure is too low.

 

replace the sensor and get it at the junkyard, they're pricey. or you can just ground that with a wire and let it sit if you don't care for the knock sensor to work or not and keep the cel for it off.

and iirc it was on the corner of the intake manifold by cylinder one, but it could be on the block.

 

Okay, I finally got a knock sensor off Ebay and now I'm trying to find it on my car. I just read a post that said the non-vtec engines do not have knock sensors. Mine is non-vtec and it had a broken Knock sensor hanging back by the oil filter. Does that mean my car used to be a vtec? Or do the non-vtecs have knock sensors after all?

 

A 97 EX has the D16Y8 engine with VTEC. And if you engine has a knock sensor, then it also has VTEC.

 

How can I be sure? This car does have a salvage title, so maybe they exchanged the engine at some point. Is their an easy way to tell if it is a vtec? My S2000 clearly says VTEC on the valve cover, so that is obvious.

 

You could have a non-VTEC engine with VTEC harness. I thought they would all say VTEC on the valve cover. Look for your VTEC solenoid on the back of the head, above the intake at the transmission end. If you have non-VTEC engine but VTEC harness there will be two plugs for it that don't go anywhere.

 

I don't see any unused plugs.

Here's a picture of my engine if that might help. I can see that the block is stamped with D16Y8.