93 Civic engine light on after turning off engine and restarting

We have a 93 Civic that when you first drive it things are fine. Then you stop
and get out and get back in shortly after, restart the engine and it makes an
intermittent grinding noise and the Check Engine light comes on. Any ideas
what this could be?

Thanks

John

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John

If your owner's manual describes the 'lamp test' feature, do that (with
park brake on). If your car has ABS read the part that describes what
ABS is supposed to sound / feel like. Try it on a dirt road to see what
it actually does when working.

The grinding noise: Is it while cranking, or when engine starts to run,
or after vehicle starts to move, ie: about 10 km/hour?

reply back to group. 'Curly'

 

I don't think it would be the ABS. The noise does come after the vehicle
starts to move about 10 Kmh. I definately do not hear the noise when
starting the engine or at a standstill.

Thanks.

John

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I will add one more thing. I have been told that they think, the mechanic
that it is the Air Conditioner bearings making the noise. But that doesn't
make sense as to why it only happens after stopping and turning off the engine
and then restarting and driving. As well as the engine light being on.

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If anyone was interested, it was the bearing in the distributer. So we needed
a new distributer. Seems it would heat up and then that would cause the engine
light to come on.

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Thanks for reporting back . . . It's really good you discovered the 'red
dust' inside the distributor. If left untreated, I think the extra
load on the camshaft can gause the timing belt to start jumping teeth.

I thought the noise was supposed to be a high-pitched squeel ? ?

Did the mechanic explain why the CHECK ENGINE light was coming on? It
might help somebody else diagnose a similar problem.


'Curly'

 

He said the engine light was coming on because the bearing was going out. He
didn't say exactly why. But shortly after hearing the grinding noise the light
would come on. My guess if the distributor was missing then it would throw the
engine timing off? I am not sure.

John

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