98 Civic Check Engine Light

My brother gave me his 98 Civic with the check engine light on- here
is the story:

He told me the check engine light reading was "high catalyst", and he
was using a cheap little handheld diagnostic from AutoZone.

So, he took it to a shop with a bigger diagnostic machine and the code
read "misfire." The mechanics said that a new distributor, cap and
rotor needed to be put in, and they did it. It was over $300 because
they said that for this part the generics are shoddy and unreliable.
The light was off when the car came out of the shop.

Then I received the car after this and the light came back on. Next I
replaced the plugs&wires myself (since they didn't do that at the
shop) and one of the plugs looked a little more burnt and browned than
the other three. The light remains on.

What should I do? Is it catalytic converter or oxygen sensor?

 

The text descriptions you received are utterly and totally meaningless.
Worse than that, even, since they may be leading you in completely the
wrong direction.

You need to give the CODE NUMBER, which will look like "Pxxx", where the
x'es are numbers. There are about a hundred possible codes, so it's
critical that you be accurate in your reportage.

 

We don't know, but you can find out. The code (from a cheap reader or an
expensive one, it makes no difference) will tell the reason the light is on.
There may be a story behind the code, but without that code we are stuck.
With it you can learn what it really means at
http://www.actron.com/code_lookup.php We can also give you some background
about what often causes the code once we know what it is.

Mike

 

OK here is what the invoice says from the mechanic >>>>>> CHK ENGINE
LIGHT - P1362- MISFIRE CODE - REPLACE DISTRIBUTOR, CAP AND ROTOR -
CLEARED CODES

 

P1362 is Camshaft Position Sensor "A", which is the TDC sensor. That's
inside the distributor.

Since the light has come back on again, you need the codes that are stored
THIS TIME. We already know the P1362 was erased from last time.

 

You do need to be extremely suspicious of any text descriptions supplied by
aftermarket sources. I've found them to be incorrect as often as correct.

Actron has no definition for Honda's P1362. Many of Actron's text
descriptions do not quite match Honda's descriptions.
An example:
P0712 Honda: Short in ATF Temperature Sensor Circuit
P0712 Actron: Transmission Fluid Temperature Sensor Circuit Low Input

The ONLY thing that counts is the alphanumeric code.

 

True - the code will almost certainly be correct but the meaning can be
"off."

 

FYI;a "short" -is- a "low input".(can't go any lower...)

 

But Honda's official code text descriptions make a distinction between
"short" and "low input".

 

I will be re-reading the codes this weekend, I'll post them as soon as
possible! Thank you guys.