speedlever

I just did my first oil change in my old beater '99 Civic I bought a few months ago. The MR indicator turned red. After doing the oil change, I stuck the key in the slot but it won't change from red to green. I'm afraid to push very hard but I think I've pushed hard enough for it to change. Is there some trick to make this change back to green?

I know it doesn't really matter... except to my OCD.

Former User

It may be broken. Post a video.

Txdragon

1. Put key in
2. Hold down the trip button
3. Turn key to ON position
4. Continue to hold the trip button until maintenance light disappears. This should take 15 to 20 seconds.

Former User

What car?

oneheadlight

lol.. ron.. I think he's talking about a modern car with an LCD display! hahah..

not the 92-2000 civic's.. They were all mechanical designs!

And it shouldn't require much pressure to press the maintenance reminder reset button. Just take the ignition key push it, and done! If it's stiff or not working, then the mechanism inside the speedometer is hung up or broken.

speedlever

I'll hafta futz with it some more, but I lean to the mechanism being broken at the moment.

Txdragon

Lol my bad. I thought my cousin had a 99. They have a later year. Carry on!

speedlever

I futzed around with it some more the other day and finally got it to flip to green. I guess it's just showing its age!

oneheadlight

yup, they're going on 20 years old, lol.. Not bad for a long life! I had problems with mine the entire speedometer needed to be replaced. I worked on that circuit board over and over. I finally gave up, tired of seeing 0mph when moving along. I replaced it and all is well again. Hey so I can see how you'd have some issues too.

Glad to hear you got it fixed!

speedlever

My '99 Civic is a FrankenCivic. It originally was an automatic but the PO swapped in a '97 EX 5 speed tranny when the auto tranny failed. So it has the auto final drive with the '97 EX 5 speed and the wheels and tires are oversize P195/60R15 (I think 14 inch was OEM). So it almost equals out. (I had this figured out when I bought it last December but have forgotten the specifics now).

IAC, I notice that the speedo is perfectly aligned with my GPS for speed. But the odometer seems to run very short of the actual miles.. probably around 10% or maybe more. I haven't really driven a trip where I could measure it.

I'm puzzled how the GPS and speedometer can be dead on together but the odometer can appear to be so far off.

Any ideas?

oneheadlight

I bet the trip odometer is also off by the same amount. It's driven by a separate electric motor from what I remember looking at. On mine that stepper motor has begun to give up and was causing some odd trip odometer readings. Replaced the entire speedometer gauge and it's accurate again. This was after I made sure the VSS (vehicle speed sensor in the transmission) was not faulty.

Check the vss and make sure it's working properly, if it is, then the only option is to replace the speedometer gauge. About $150 new. Could try a junkyard but I didn't take the chance in case those junkyard parts have the same problem I'm trying to solve! lol

speedlever

Hmm. I'll hafta look into that. Thanks.