ITRCA

My setup is:
Stock internals on my ITR
JRSC w/ 7 PSI
AEM cold air intake
Apex-i world sport 2 catback
Gutted cat
Hondata S200 w/ OBD1 P28


My car gave me some trouble for the first time yesterday since it was tuned back in June. After starting the motor, the idle was all over the place, jumping up and down and smoking pretty bad. Throttle position did not affect the idle at all - it had a mind of its own (No CEL). I turned it off and restarted, it did this again. The third time it decided to run nice and smooth !

After resetting the ECU and making sure that everything was indeed plugged in good, I took it for a drive. Needless to say, about 10 miles later I found myself stuck at an intersection. The check engine light clicked on for about a second, then went off. That is when the same horrible idle problem came back and then the motor died. I tried several times but the motor would not start back up. I made sure that the wires going from the ECU to the Hondata were connected and secure, and they were. Well, after fiddling with it for a minute or two at this intersection, it decided to crank normally and i made the 1/2 mile drive back to the house.

When I got back to the house I determined that when the car is idling, if the Hondata were to come unplugged, the motor would still run / idle normally. It does not even throw a check engine light. My fear is that if this Hondata S200 box is bad or has a loose connection inside somewhere of the ecu, am I running on a stock P28 map ? This makes me feel very uneasy !

Eeek! that sucks.

My suggestion...

Pull the CEL code and see what it triggered.

My guestimate...

Might not even be the ECU/Hondata. Vacuum line or something that simple came off or split.

knowledge wrote:My suggestion...

Pull the CEL code and see what it triggered.

My guestimate...

Might not even be the ECU/Hondata. Vacuum line or something that simple came off or split.

I did. There are no codes there to pull. All vacuum lines are good.

Keep your eyes peeled for a good deal on an S300 and I suppose I will upgrade

Is it still acting up? If so then it will throw another CEL and then pull hat code.

ITR 1102 wrote:

knowledge wrote:My suggestion...

Pull the CEL code and see what it triggered.

My guestimate...

Might not even be the ECU/Hondata. Vacuum line or something that simple came off or split.

I did. There are no codes there to pull. All vacuum lines are good.

Keep your eyes peeled for a good deal on an S300 and I suppose I will upgrade

I got my setup for 535. Do you already have a socketed ECU or would you be needing one? If needed contact Kenji.

Dave B wrote:
I got my setup for 535. Do you already have a socketed ECU or would you be needing one? If needed contact Kenji.

Wow - that's much cheaper than when I looked 6 months ago. 535 sounds interesting.

BudMan wrote:

Dave B wrote:
I got my setup for 535. Do you already have a socketed ECU or would you be needing one? If needed contact Kenji.

Wow - that's much cheaper than when I looked 6 months ago. 535 sounds interesting.

Give me a call/email/PM and I'll fill in the details for ya!

knowledge wrote:Is it still acting up? If so then it will throw another CEL and then pull hat code.

There is no code.

even when it acts up, no code is present.
That is why I cant find the source (hondata or the ecu itself)

Hondata was quick to blame it on the conversion harness / and even the distributor. (I posted on the Hondata forums)

Here is what happened when I took the car to get tuned:

when the motor was tuned, the tuner could not connect to the hondata with his laptop. he had to tune the long way (burning a chip, doing a dyno run, editing and burning another chip)

The tuner blamed the Hondata blue box. A few times when he went to turn the motor on, the red light was flashing and not solid on the Hondata. The tuner also told me that the Hondata was one of the first s200's made since it is the light blue colored box, and said most likely it is old and has something wrong with it.


Dave, I sent you a PM about the Hondata price as well.

With that said about tuning and the lights, I'd be willing to put my money on the Hondata.

Have you tried disconnecting the Hondata box and just running the ECU? How does the car act that way? (obviously you don't want to do this much, but figure you might as well try.) Process of elimination.

Dave B wrote:With that said about tuning and the lights, I'd be willing to put my money on the Hondata.

Have you tried disconnecting the Hondata box and just running the ECU? How does the car act that way? (obviously you don't want to do this much, but figure you might as well try.) Process of elimination.

With the Hondata unplugged, it idles perfect. I did not want to give it any gas to see what happened because it is boosted and I am afraid of what could possibly happen.

ITR 1102 wrote:

Dave B wrote:With that said about tuning and the lights, I'd be willing to put my money on the Hondata.

Have you tried disconnecting the Hondata box and just running the ECU? How does the car act that way? (obviously you don't want to do this much, but figure you might as well try.) Process of elimination.

With the Hondata unplugged, it idles perfect. I did not want to give it any gas to see what happened because it is boosted and I am afraid of what could possibly happen.

Well in that case I would agree. I'm no boost guru by any means but I know a lot of tuning can be done via Hondata in regards to boost. But I would have to say then it's your S200 unit.

OK with all that said... I now agree that it's most likely the S200 unit. With the stock ECU in and everything running fine, only other thing it can be is the S200 unit. I would bitch and complain to Hondata about this till they replace it. Hondata is a good company and should hook you up!

I just purchased my S300, so we will see what happens.

Still in need of a P06 / P28 / P72

I have a chipped P28 I can trade also.

ITR 1102 wrote:I just purchased my S300, so we will see what happens.

Still in need of a P06 / P28 / P72

I have a chipped P28 I can trade also.

LMK if you want me to get you an ECU that is S300 ready. I'll see what I can do.

I HAVE A STOCK P72 STILL A VIRGIN...THROW A PRICE AT ME...

I already bought a Kenji P06 that is converted to P28 specs, and is S300 ready for $150 shipped. I just need it to get here now! The Hondata came in yesterday, but I am still waiting to hear on my order status with Kenji.

ITR 1102 wrote:I already bought a Kenji P06 that is converted to P28 specs, and is S300 ready for $150 shipped. I just need it to get here now! The Hondata came in yesterday, but I am still waiting to hear on my order status with Kenji.

Get on it. I wanna hear the results.

I guess I slacked after the tuning was done and did not post any results.

Jeff and I flew in Trey to tune both of our cars. It was a great weekend; we went to Heartland Park and watched some of the national runoffs, then headed over to the dyno to tune the R's.

Both cars were tuned by Trey, and he tought me the basics so that I can retune myself once more mods are added.
Jeff and I are both very confident in the tunes and are very pleased.

After some dinner, Jim, Jeff, John, Trey and I all headed over to my garage and diagnosed the S200 / ecu problem. As it turns out, I have a faulty P28 to blame for my problems.

As it sits now, with stock exhaust manifold and a near stock catback, the car put down 188.8 HP on the DynoDynamics dyno, with a dynojet number of 217 HP.

Thanks again Trey, for showing me the tuning process, opening my eyes to a DynoDynamics Dyno, and flying from TN to MO to get my car tuned correctly!