I'll try and keep this short...

I put fresh valve cover gaskets on my ZC the other day. The next morning (4am!), I started the car and the tach went dead and the fuel guage went straight up. I drove my car over by the flood light in the driveway (raining like a bastard!!) and checked my battery. Battery was fine. I then saw that the ground wire was not put back onto the engine. So a quick run to my garage to reinstall the wire to the engine and wah-la.

The ride into work, when I put my blinker on, all blinkers go on and the tach dips on/off to the blink of the blinker.

Driving home Wednesday night same issues w/ the blinkers. The check engine light came on. I quickly drove it into my garage and opened the hood. I saw that there are actually 2 ground wires that attach to the front of the engine (Keep in mind I have only been able to debug in the dark). I put that loop onto the engine and started the car. The check engine light went out and the blinkers were behaving.

Thursday morning... Car started up fine, I hit the blinker to pull out of the driveway, and the tach did its thing as well (I'll summarize all electrical issues wayy below). Since it's STILL FUC(*&G raining here, I drove to work (yup still 4 in the morning). It looked like I had a couple minutes to spare when I pulled in the parking lot, so I figured I would dick around in the rain a bit to see if the ground wire is broke or something. When I pulled into my parking spot and put the blinker on to start the debug... Everything was fine! WTF!!!!

It only does it once the car is under way. I can sit in the driveway and rev the hell out of the engine, and everything stays happy. But once I get underway it all goes back to s#it.

Last night I replaced the ground wire w/ 3 10awg wires (all I could find in a pinch at the hardware store). I removed the ground wire down on the side of the car below the passenger headlight/battery and the ground terminal on the tranny. I sanded them both to a bright finish and reinstalled. All this effort proved useless.

I then removed the ground on the battery and pulled the hazard fuse. This as well didn't do a thing except cause me to reprogram the radio stations.

HELPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Sorry for not keeping it short...

Recap...
Once underway the following things occur:
Turn on high beam - both blinkers turn on and tach stops working
Turn on either blinker - both blinkers turn on and tach stops working in accordance with the blinking (boing boing goes the tach)
Fuel guage is max'd at Full




Modified by 2hondafreaks at 4:47 PM 6/1/2005

 

u using the stock wiring harness from the original engine? Is it the stock tach in the car...i put a hatch back gauge cluster in my crx one time and it did that...

 

Other than the DOHC ZC and the PM7 ecu, it is stock head to toe.

Could the ECU have issues causing the guage cluster to not function correctly, or is the guage cluster seperate and could work if swapped out?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2hondafreaks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Other than the DOHC ZC and the PM7 ecu, it is stock head to toe.

Could the ECU have issues causing the guage cluster to not function correctly, or is the guage cluster seperate and could work if swapped out?</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

I finally got a code 17 VSS speed sensor code. This would explain why everything goes nuts once the car gets underway. Would replacing the entire cluster solve my issue since there is a circuit board on the cluster for the speed sensor, or should I find the actual speed sensor located somewhere else on the car?

 

Case Solved!!!

I went and bought another cluster and wa-la. I found a fried connector point.

Now I can get back to enjoying my car.

 

I wonder how the hell that happend?
were you blowing any fuses?

 

It was caused from reconnecting the ground to the engine while the car was running (see initial post for complete story)

I'm just glad the car is back to normal. I love my EF!!

 

can i have your old cluster?

i need a new one.

 

Diemaster - I just drove my car in the dark this morning, and there are some lights that don't work. I'll have to steal them from my old cluster.

Do you still want it after that? If so, PM me with your address and I'll just charge you for fedex.

 

2hondafreaks... nice tahetian green Hatch.. i can see the color .............anymore pics of the car by chance??

glad you figured things out

 

OptimusPrimeX - It's funny you should ask. I took my first picture of it yesterday. The car is as stock looking as the day it rolled off the dealers lot. The only thing I've done to it is the DOHC ZC and an Apexi WS exhaust.

I'm at work right now, but I'll try and remember to upload a couple pics tonight when I get home.

 

As requested...

Like I said, it's very stock looking... I'm saving my pennies for Koni Sports and H&R Sport springs, rims will come along sometime after that

Exterior


Interior


Some photoshop'ng I requested on ef-honda to aid in my rim decision making (not my car but close enough)