Hello all,
I have a 97 Civic DX fully stock. Last night driving home the CEL light went on and the speedometer started hopping around. The headlights were also flickering. I was able to drive home no problems and the car runs fine.

I cleared the CEL this morning and started the car as normal. The CEL came back after about 10 seconds of idling. I checked the codes. I got an ELD and codes for both 02 sensors.

So... is the ELD the brown looking "harness" with some black epoxy in the underhood fuse box?

Is it hard to replace?

I don't have a multi meter at home nor a code scanner so I'm not sure if the ELD is reading low or high.

Anyone have some advise?

Thanks

 

you should buy a multimeter and check voltage at the battery while you are driving. you can get multimeters for cheap at any parts store.

battery voltage should be around 14v when the car is running

the fact that your speedo was jumping is kind of weird, it sounds like you could have a ground problem, or possibly have a malfunctioning ecu

someone correct me if im wrong here, but i think the eld is integral to the ecu adn functions as the alternator voltage regulator. im not 100% on that, though.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ev13lf &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you should buy a multimeter and check voltage at the battery while you are driving. you can get multimeters for cheap at any parts store.

battery voltage should be around 14v when the car is running

the fact that your speedo was jumping is kind of weird, it sounds like you could have a ground problem, or possibly have a malfunctioning ecu

someone correct me if im wrong here, but i think the eld is integral to the ecu adn functions as the alternator voltage regulator. im not 100% on that, though.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I have a meter in my garage but I'm not there.

Also another stange thing is that if I start up the car and do not rev the engine the light do not dim. Its only when I rev the engine and there after do the lights dim and brighten.

Thanks

 

a friend of mine had a similar problem that ended up being his ecu, and he just replaced the battery and kept driving it. three days later, we got stuck on the ohio turnpike when his ecu decided to meltdown. it ended up blowing up his battery (literally), alternator, and two window motors.

be careful, and if in doubt get it towed.

 

Everything you've mentioned shares a common fuse. You checked all of them?

 

The speedometer and the headlights don't share a common fuse unless you consider the main 80 amp fuse but that is fine.

I will check all the fuses for good measure because its easy too. But the ELD is what I'm thinking is wrong. Just wanted to know if anyone else has had this problem.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EE_Chris &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Everything you've mentioned shares a common fuse. You checked all of them?</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

The fuse that is more than likely blown is the Alternator SP fuse, which just so happens to power the O2 heaters, the ELD and VSS.

Maybe you should buy a Helms...or download one.

 

I believe the car is charging though. I was able to drive it an hour home last night with the headlights on and the car still started.

If the alternator fuse was blown it wouldn't charge the battery correct?

 

I had this same problem, speedo jumping. The next day after this happened my car wouldn't start. I replaced the battery, and now it's fine.

 

Well, 'belief' might make the car charge but it ain't gonna make 3 other codes magically disappear, which all happen to share a common link. It'd be enough for me to just check the damn thing irrespective of what I thought might be happening with the charging system.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by zerovandez &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had this same problem, speedo jumping. The next day after this happened my car wouldn't start. I replaced the battery, and now it's fine.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah. I've had a similar problem with my prelude where the voltage got so slow the speedo started jumping.

The thing is here is that the car seems to be charging OK.

I figure tomorrow I'll do all the easy stuff, cleaning the grounds, check the fuses.

I don't have the ODBII tool to read the code to see if its the high voltage or the low voltage ELD cel.

Well thanks for the ideas, I'll follow up with what I can find if that helps anyone.