Hondata

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
Kenji OBD2a to OBD1 conversion harness
Mugen low temp thermostat
Hondata IM gasket

My car gave me some trouble for the first time yesterday since it was tuned back in June by Adrenaline Motorsports. 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 !

How can I tell if I have a bad S200 blue box or a bad ECU?

Bad s200 = cars runs normally but 4000 rpm limit, so it is not that.

It could be a bad EEPROM or solder joint in the ECU, but it is much more likely that it is the distributor or adapter harness.

Hondata wrote:Bad s200 = cars runs normally but 4000 rpm limit, so it is not that.

It could be a bad EEPROM or solder joint in the ECU, but it is much more likely that it is the distributor or adapter harness.

Something more to add to this is:

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.

I don't know what is to blame, but I am afraid to drive the car as it is now.

When it is having the problem you need to look at the interface box and see if it is flashing or solid.

Spunkster wrote:When it is having the problem you need to look at the interface box and see if it is flashing or solid.

problem being:

since the motor is boosted, I do not think that it is a good idea to keep driving it around, knowing that if there is a bad connection somewhere in the Hondata, that it might not be running in open loop. Too bad there isn't a trade in program for the S300.

Spunkster, What would happen if in this case the blue box is disconnected all together?

"cars runs normally but 4000 rpm limit"

If the interface cable is disconnected after the car is started then it will run normally until the car is shut off.

If the interface box is not connected when the car is turned on, the car will run normally to 4000 rpm but not above, and it will not go into boost at all.

I decided not to risk blowing my motor since it is boosted, and there is definately a problem somewhere.

Since I bought a new S300, can you guys at Hondata test out my chipped P28 / S200 for problems? and if so, how much is that charge?
I have the S300, but do not want to sell my S200 with not knowing what is wrong with it.