Is the car running okay? According to the service manual, a crank position relearn must be completed with an HDS or other high end scanner after a timing belt replacement. I've done several timing belts on TL's and never actually had to do a relearn afterward, however, I did not unplug or move the crank sensor. I would say something you did may have threw off the crank sensor position and now it needs a relearn performed. Other than that, you may want to double check your timing marks and make sure no oil or coolant dirtied up the sensor.

 

Also, if you replaced the cam seals, you removed the aluminum plate behind the cam sprocket. The front plate has a cam sensor attached to it. Make sure that connection is good.

 

Like i mentioned I did perform the timing belt service with the engine out of the car and i did not unplug any thing from cam or crank sensors. At this point I'm thinking I either need to have the relearn done through a professional scan tool or I got the crank sensor too wet when doing the water pump (dumped some coolant on the sensor) Ill update this post when i figure it out hopefully.

Also, I did try the at home DIY crank relearn procedure but I'm not sure how effective this is as it didn't do anything for me. Car still runs like crap on some start ups and other times its fine, P0389 remains stored and wont let me delete it.

 

That explains everything then. The sensor was disconnected when the engine was pulled and harness disconnected. You'll absolutely need a crank relearn to make it run correctly again. The procedure you read that didn't require a scan tool hasn't applied to any Honda since the early 2000's.

 

The correct procedure requires a test drive with the scan tool plugged in and engine load ran through various rpm ranges and other environmental conditions have to be met before it completes the relearn.

 

Ah, ok. So you think because the battery was disconnected and the harness was unplugged that the ecu lost memory of the crank position sensor? Ill contact my local shop and see if i can get the crank relearn done today or tomorrow then.

 

Anytime the crank sensor is unplugged (via plug OR harness) and the crank is moved afterward, the relearn has to be performed. It's not so much disconnecting the battery, it's maintaining a wired connection to the ECU as it retains memory using internal capacitors in the ECU. You can unhook both the battery and harness, but the crank can't move AT ALL while it's disconnected in order to save yourself a crank relearn.

 

The only exception to this is when the sensor is replaced with a new one, the relearn has to be done then as well regardless if the crank moved or not. Theoretically, if you unplugged the ECU and pulled the harness through the firewall and plugged it back in before removing the engine, you would have retained your crank position.