I don't know the answer to your question but I'm impressed by you doing the rings. What did you follow to do that job? I don't think I've seen any videos about that or read any good information on that. If you have pointers on that and a lot of information maybe another thread telling about that process would be very helpful as many of us may have to do the same thing at some point. I think many have replaced engines because of the oil usage past the rings and maybe it's better to do the job you did. So yea, how did you do it, where did you get help, parts needed, cost, time involved, tools involved.

Thanks!

 

I don't know the answer to your question but I'm impressed by you doing the rings. What did you follow to do that job? I don't think I've seen any videos about that or read any good information on that. If you have pointers on that and a lot of information maybe another thread telling about that process would be very helpful as many of us may have to do the same thing at some point. I think many have replaced engines because of the oil usage past the rings and maybe it's better to do the job you did. So yea, how did you do it, where did you get help, parts needed, cost, time involved, tools involved.

Thanks!

Thank you, sir. I am a bit crestfallen after doing this extensive job and then being somewhat derailed by an apparent electrical problem. To put it simply, I took my time, labeled everything(bagged and tagged everything). There are some pretty good YouTube videos on all aspects of the job(cylinder honing, ring gapping, head gasket w/checking for a flat deck, timing chain, valve adjustment, oil pan seal). This job would probably be called a “partial rebuild”. When I took the pistons and rods out, I found exactly what I thought I would find. The oil control rings were basically welded into the ringland, oil flow holes were completely filled with crystallized oil that was basically rock hard. The compression rings seemed fine, which would explain the fact that the engine still ran well, in spite of the staggering oil loss. I completely cleaned the pistons and drilled out the oil holes. I also completely disassembled the cylinder head and cleaned the carbon off of all 16 valves. My advice would be to take your time, watch lots of YouTube videos, and take lots of pictures, notes, etc. I went ahead and bought a few tools that I had to have, like a cylinder hone, K-series valve spring tool, piston ring compressor, cam lock tool, crank pulley tool, piston ring grinding tool, assembly lube, and Hondabond adhesive. I don’t know what use they will be to me in the future, but I’m glad to own them. I already owned a straight edge from doing my Civic head gasket. I bought everything(the tools) off of eBay, but I think they can all be rented. I bought some parts from Amazon, and from genuine Honda part dealers. There are a tremendous amount of counterfeit parts on eBay, so watch out for that. In terms of component expenditure, things didn’t get expensive until the purchase of the new catalytic converter, which is predictable. Thank you for the kind words, here are a couple of before and after pictures that you might like to see.

 

Here is the service manual for P1164.

P1164 — 2003 Honda CR-V 4WD L4-2.4L Service Manual | Operation CHARM

Detailed repair manual for the 2003 Honda CR-V 4WD L4-2.4L.

charm.li

As you can see, it is a pretty short diagnostic algorithm. So here are some of my random guesses …

One thing I’ve taken from my DIY experience is that if you run into “check for poor connections or loose terminals at the …” they really mean it. Checking pin fitment, spraying with deoxit for subtle fretting corrosion etc. one bent pin or slightly loose female terminal has caused me havoc chasing all sorts of ghosts.

Also, where did you get your Denso AF sensor from? There are a number of Denso fakes on the market, so an authorized dealer (see Denso website for list) is probably the most reliable place to get an AF sensor. That said, I have heard of a small handful of people over the years that have said their supposedly authentic Denso AF sensor was bad when new. I have only heard once ever that a Honda AF sensor was bad when new.

Lastly, I can’t help from thinking some kind of nefarious stupidity may have happened when on your post from prior said that you bought the car from an unreliable car lot dealer. I might be looking at the AF sensor wiring loom to see if there is any evidence of it being opened/tampered with. There are people in the past who have put in “RC low pass filters (basically a capacitor and a resistor)” into the wiring to get rid of P0420 codes by flattening the voltage feedback on the rear o2 sensor. Who knows what would happen if some idiot thought they could apply that to the front AF sensor?

BTW - those are some nice looking pistons/ring Pictures. You’re only the second person I’ve seen do a partial rebuild in car. Here is a thread of another guy:

https://www.elementownersclub.com/threads/partial-rebuild-with-engine-in-vehicle.169161/?post_id=1734049#post-1734049

 

Thank you, sir. Charm is an excellent resource, and I used it during my project. Unfortunately, I’ve already performed this reset procedure without success. The Denso O2 sensor was purchased from O’Reilly’s. I’ve spent quite a bit of time under the vehicle checking that connector and the power seems normal(12v key on, 14v engine running) and I tried the lightbulb test shown at the 7:20 part of this video

. The lightbulb did not illuminate, but it did illuminate when I grounded it to another source if it was a heater circuit issue, though wouldn’t I get a code specific to that(P0135)? I have not done any wire tracing further into the vehicle. I noticed that the wire goes behind a steel plate wall bolted to the firewall. Can you share any information on that? Have you ever done anything like this? Is there another connector back there? I will include a picture of my connector, which is not a very good picture. I seem to remember that the plastic piece.(the white piece) fell out at sometime during the process, and I put it back in, but there does not seem to be anything abnormal about the way it looks, and as I said, I have full power at this connector. I should’ve mentioned that a couple of times I have also gotten code P1163, but that code clears by itself without having to be deleted. Thanks.

you for your help. Photo was a bit deceptive because of the angle, the electrodes are not that far up from the horizontal part of the place where the O2 sons were electrodes go in. Is it possible I messed something up here?

 

Yes, a P1164 is a AF signal code. P1166 and P1167 are an AF heater codes. P0135 does not exist in the 2003 CRV. P0139 and P0141 are rear o2 sensor heater codes:

A L L Diagnostic Trouble Codes ( DTC ) — 2003 Honda CR-V 4WD L4-2.4L Service Manual | Operation CHARM

Detailed repair manual for the 2003 Honda CR-V 4WD L4-2.4L.

charm.li

here’s the manual drawing of the harness. The AF and rear oxygen sensor connectors are referenced as #3 and #2 respectively.

Engine Compartment Wire Harness (Left branch) — 2003 Honda CR-V 4WD L4-2.4L Service Manual | Operation CHARM

Detailed repair manual for the 2003 Honda CR-V 4WD L4-2.4L.

charm.li

FWIW, I can’t imagine anyone nefarious-nutty enough to modify the wiring anywhere else other than either underneath the car or next to the PCM.

Here is a video which demonstrates some of inspection techniques of connectors. the pin fitment test at 3:00 and the concept of fretting corrosion at 9:00 are some things that have helped me with some older car problems before:

If it comes down to the AF sensor, id probably try another Denso. I have a mechanic friend that would probably hit me in the head saying “go OE Honda and stop wasting time”.

 

I took your advice and tried another Denso. Lo and behold, it is fixed! Passed smog yesterday. Thank you for your help!

 

Thank you, that’s an excellent video. A simple Internet search said that P0135 or P1166 were the A/F sensor heater circuit DTC‘s in a 2003 Honda CRV. Thank you for the other references as well. Do you have any opinion on why my light bulb test failed at the heater circuit connector pins? I cringe the thought of having to pay for a Honda O2
sensor! Any opinions on my connector here, at least from a visual sample point. I mentioned in one of my earlier comments that I think the white plastic piece fell out at one time, and I put it back in. Have you ever removed the plastic piece deliberately from one of these connectors? How is that done? Thank you for your excellent input!

 

Light bulb test - I’m not sure why you’re doing the light bulb test. That is to test the heater circuit. If you plugged it into the heater circuit and it didn’t work, then you would have either a bad power, bad ground, bad connector/poor connection, or bad bulb.

Visually, that one pic looks fine to me. I see part of the female terminal and they look symmetric.

The white plastic piece should pull out of the connector to expose the terminals. I’ve used needle nose pliers to grip the outsides of the whites to pull. Try combining these videos:

 

Thank you, this has been a huge learning experience for me, and the light bulb test was just a simple test that I saw in that video when I was first exploring what might be the cause of the P1164 code. Since we are discussing this, do you know why this test apparently failed? I have full power at the pin, but did not get a light up until I grounded it to source different that the other heater circuit pin. So basically, the lightbulb test failed. Thank you for these two videos. In your opinion, is this something I need to do(repinning the connector) to fix this problem?

 

I have been struggling with this same issue 03’ CRV, although I did try 2 TRQ upstream O2 sensors. The first one I thought was defective. So I returned and requested another. Installed and cleared code. Drove 20 miles one way to work, and the code came back after 36 miles. Half of my drive is 40mph or less and the other half is highway speeds. It seems to chugg a little around 2000-2400 rpms. Then does fine (don’t know if it’s related). I found under the passenger side dash / glove box the 2 right relays of them seemed to not hold constant ohms. So, I flipped the relays to see if the issue would follow the relay, and sadly it didn’t. My P1164 issue came back. I watched live data on my scan tool while driving, seemed like it was (v) .640 average I pulled my MAF sensor and cleaned it. I still need to technically test voltage to the sensor but, it if doesn’t trip right away I would imagine it would trip the light immediately. But it doesn’t. Seems like I have to drive above 60 mph to get it to trip. Any other suggestions?