Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty?

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Thu 10 Nov 2011 16:40
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - Fred the Needle

My wife has a 2.2 diesel Civic, 57 plate with about 25,000 miles on the clock.

A few days ago, a warning light came on and she lost power. After consulting the handbook, she drove straight to a garage (not a dealer, but one she's used for years). After looking in to it, the garage said that it was one of three possible faults. Apologies as I've lost the piece of paper that I wrote them down on.

The first 2 are fairly cheap to fix (if you call £150 +VAT and labour cheap) and apparently Honda have issued a Service Bulletin about these and there are "uprated" parts to be fitted at the next service.

The third of these faults was/is the ECU. The garage in question has spoken to the local Honda dealer who has said that it appears that this in an inherant fault with certain ECU's on this engine and it is only now becoming apparent. The belief (and I stress the word belief at the moment) is that Honda have discovered this and issued the replacement parts as a fix to prevent the ECU being damaged.

Guess what the cure for my wife's car problem seems to be? :-( And for a 25,000 mile supposedly reliable car.

Questions, anyone else experienced this or heard anything about it?

The Honda Dealer says that Honda are unlikely to contribute anything to the cost as the car is about a year out of warrenty

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Thu 10 Nov 2011 20:43
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - likerocks

I run the same engine in an Accord and am also a member of a popular model-specific internet forum. I'm not aware of any long standing ECU problems with Honda diesels.

It is difficult to recommend a course of action without knowing what faults the local garage flagged up. What I do know is that these engines are generally VERY reliable but also quite complex when things do go wrong.

The most common problem that causes a fault light and limp mode is low fuel pressure caused by a blocked or non-standard fuel filter. Unscrupukous dealers often do not change this when needed because it is a sod to get to. Other common stuff is blocked EGRs and inlet tract butterfly valves and / or the sensors that control them. These are relatively easy to get to and a good diesel specialist can sort this. (Bosch components I believe, which sounds wrong on a Japanese car!)

I would suggets perhaps cutting out the middleman in this case and getting Honda or a specialist to repeat the diagnostics and give you a stright story.

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Fri 11 Nov 2011 20:29
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - focussed

I have 2007 2.2ctdi civic and am a member of civinfo forum. There is no known general problem with the ECU on diesel civics. You are advised to take the car to a Honda dealer who will:-1. Be able to diagnose what is wrong 2. Know what to do about it, because civics are going in and out of the workshop all week. 3. Have access to up to date service information. 4. Have access to the parts needed.

Have a look at the Civinfo forum.

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Mon 14 Nov 2011 14:56
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - Fred the Needle

Hmmmmm

If the ECU isn't faulty, then how come Honda are paying for the new one, despite the car being out of warrenty? It still leaves us with a £600 bill (which we're going to "sort") but is a lot less than it could have been.

My wife has an almost pathalogical mistrust of main dealers and I have to say that the garage she uses know their stuff (IMHO - I'm an Engineer by profession - apprenticed at CAV, the diesel fuel pump manufacturers). In fact, they wanted a second opinion and therefore took the car some 20 miles to a reputable Honda dealer (the one nearest to us is well.....) and the Honda guys confirmed the diagnosis.

According to this particular Honda dealer, it's a fault that is only now becoming apparent and it MAY be due to a faulty batch of parts. Apparently Honda have quietly issued a service bulletin requesting that "uprated" parts be fitted. Don't know the details on this as I haven't seen it (was at the MPH show this weekend).

Her car's done 23,252 miles btw.

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Tue 18 Jun 2013 21:43
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - nav114
Hi I had an ecu lockdown.. The uk ecu,s are ok if they get a power over boost or flat battery issue they will go into lockdown mode- a software update will fix this my local honda garage only charged £50 for the update .. It's a 2006 civic 2.2 and well out of warranty

Some none uk Civics do have an issue with the ecu fuse box usually around $200 for a new fuse box and recoding ecu should fix the problem.

The civics do need a bit of a trashing every one and then to clean out the exhaust and stop blockages.. My civic just hitting 160,000 miles only expense has been 1 seal replacement on an injector (£90 parts and labour as the retaining bolt snapped).. And most recently the constant flat battery and jump starts locked the ecu and a simple software update for £50 fixed the battery drain and ecu/imoboliser issue..

Hope some of this was helpfull
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Mon 14 Nov 2011 15:54
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - jc2

Bosch have factories in Japan.

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Mon 14 Nov 2011 16:00
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - madf

My Yaris was made in Japan with Bosch fuel injection....

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Mon 23 Jan 2012 08:39
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - naomireinhart
Why were there many faults noted? Actually, I bought a car months ago from Pennsylvania Honda Civic Dealership. So far, I haven't met a problem with regard to the deal. In fact, the automobile was great! Indeed, I was lucky enough to find one that could help me get every little thing I needed. Oh well, I hope that I will not have the same problem as yours.

Edited by naomireinhart on 23/01/2012 at 08:45

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Mon 28 Jan 2013 22:10
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - johnart
I have recently had to replace the ECU in my 2.2 diesel 2007 Civic. The local Honda garage said its' failure is down to a power surge to the unit. The unit itself cost nearly a thousand pounds. Surely it is a design fault that there is no effective fail safe built in to the system.
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Mon 28 Jan 2013 23:04
Honda Civic - Honda 2.2 Diesel ECU's faulty? - gordonbennet
I have recently had to replace the ECU in my 2.2 diesel 2007 Civic. The local Honda garage said its' failure is down to a power surge to the unit. The unit itself cost nearly a thousand pounds. Surely it is a design fault that there is no effective fail safe built in to the system.

Did you not try one of the very competent ECU repair/overhaul workshops to see if they could fix it, i've had two MB ECU's repaired competently saving me approx £2200.

ECU's can get damaged quite easily, one of my MB units was damaged when the wiring loom degraded causing a coil pack short which spiked the ECU, this is very common and the specialists are experienced in sorting this problem.

its things like this will ensure that cars made in the last 25 years won't be those lovely rebuildable barn finds 40 years later.

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