broken off and hanging down.....question is will this go to the next service (1,000 miles) without doing more damage?

The car in question is my daily driver (2005 Honda Civic not the S2000). Hit some debris in the road this morning on the way into work - the car in front went over it first and I didn't see it until too late Its snapped the wires off the wiring harness just behind the catalytic convertor and the CEL light came on straight away.

I'll have a look when I get home and get the car up on some ramps but can anybody here tell me:

Do you think I'll be likely to be able to join the wires up and fix the problem (the connection to the sensor looks ok still but it must have withstood a lot of strain as the wires are actually ripped apart at the harness)? I get the feeling I'm not going to get a free repair under warranty!

If I do leave it until the next service (only a month and 1,000 miles away) do you think the running of the engine or fuel consumtion will be affected to any large extent (I'll obviously tape the wires up to stop them hanging down)? I could do without the hassle of two trips to the Honda agent.

Any comments welcome....

 

I work at a large ford dealer (in service) and from experience, you probably will suffer poor fuel mileage, slight performance loss and long term you may damage the converters. If the wiring looks like it can be fixed, then I would recommend you repairing the connection, if the connector is not damaged. Make sure you solder the splice if at all possible. If you do this and want to see if you have solved your problem, disconnect the battery and wait a few minutes and reconnect. Road test the car and if the light does not come back on within 20-40 miles you should be ok. Let me know what happens. Not a Honda expert, but this should work-any feedback would be cool.

 

Thanks for this - I was thinking of being lazy and using "scotchclips" on the wires but you probably have a good point about the solder! As for the effect on the car I was kind of hoping that you might have said "this won't affect the way the engine runs as its only the after-cat sensor and is just there to light up a tell-tale if the emmissions go out of range". As it is, if I can't fix the wires and if fixing them doesn't cure the CEL, I'll get it booked in to a Honda agent asap.

I'll let you know how I get on.

 

Good luck!

 

On the S2000 at least the secondary sensor in the cat, is as you say, a sensor to see if the cat is working. No effect on fuelling etc. Personally I would get it sorted ASAP as with the CEL already on you aren't going to know if you have another problem. Would try soldering, it should work, you could also try a resistance test over the sensor before you solder it, that way you should be able to tell if it is working.

 

OK - so I've had a look at it from underneath now. Something has caught the wire that runs from the rear lambda forwards to the bulkhead where the connector is. Trouble is its ripped the wires clean out of the connector. The female part of the connector is OK, but the male part is now disconnected from its wires and these are integral with the lambda probe. So it looks like I've got to get a new lambda (I've cable tied the loose wires up to stop them dragging on the ashphalt).

Since this happened I've done about 120 miles and the mpg is ok still (the dash display for this is where it always is on motorway runs at about 41 mpg). The car seems to start and run ok. So, what I'm going to do is get the Honda agent to order in a lambda and fit it on the service (only a month away).

Thanks for your advice both

 

Your assumption is right. I'd drive it another 1000 miles with no hesitation.

Take care,


Siepel

 

Mike i bought one from a breaker for

 

Thanks for all your inputs - Ian its actually a company car so I'm just figuring out the best story to use to get the fleet manager to pay for it (if I didn't think I could get someone else to pay the repair bill I would try a breakers)

 

Spoke with the fleet manager this morning - has has authorised the repair - Honda garage has ordered the part and the car is running ok so I can wait until the service to get it fitted

Thanks again for the replies.