Hey all I just bought a 1998 LX Civic and one of the MANY problems is that the speedo is not working properly. The person that i bought it from never did on single mod on this car, if that helps. One thing that will happen is when you turn on the car and rev the engine the mph will go to like 50mph and come back down. Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that the electrical system is having problems. for example the Headlights will dim to almost off and then come back. any helps is greatly appreciated.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by da2005pizimp &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hey all I just bought a 1998 LX Civic and one of the MANY problems is that the speedo is not working properly. The person that i bought it from never did on single mod on this car, if that helps. One thing that will happen is when you turn on the car and rev the engine the mph will go to like 50mph and come back down. Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that the electrical system is having problems. for example the Headlights will dim to almost off and then come back. any helps is greatly appreciated.</TD></TR></TABLE>

WOW

about the speedo check the speed sensor on your trans


if nothing else i would just dump this engine and think about going for some kind of vtec setup

or just swap your head and gain that power! and then think about an electrical over haul

speed sensor could be problems with what your talking about though! just get a vtec trans with speed sensor

 

Thanks for the info, from what i have read that's what everyone says it is (vss) i will check that today, as far as the electrical system goes i will be doing a big overhaul on that. and i dont' have the cash to put a new vtech engine in this thing. i bought this from a friend of mine, i already have a car of my own this was just going to be a project for me. i always wanted to have one a civic, i paid $500 for this and don't want to put more than 2000 total.

 

check your altenator fuze for a start ill bet ya its blown ........ if this is the case ....... under neath the intake manifold you will have 2 wires touching im almost positive this will solve your problem

 

i can't find the altenator fuse, but i did install a new speed sensor.

 

ok i replaced the vss from one on ebay. Still the same thing, at first nothing and after driving around about 2 or 3 min. it started to bounce around the funny part about this all is that it was about 10 miles off unless you turned the headlights on, then it went crazy going up to 100 miles per hour. kinda funny but extremely frustrating. so what do i do now?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by da2005pizimp &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok i replaced the vss from one on ebay. Still the same thing, at first nothing and after driving around about 2 or 3 min. it started to bounce around the funny part about this all is that it was about 10 miles off unless you turned the headlights on, then it went crazy going up to 100 miles per hour. kinda funny but extremely frustrating. so what do i do now?</TD></TR></TABLE>


speedo gear in the trans???????

 

i told you what the problem is no go and fix it ........ i have had personal experince with this on several cars !!!!!!!!!

 

ok i drove the car for about 30 min today and didn't notice the headlights after changing my alternator, but while driving i went to my local autozone and had them check my check engine light and see what the problem was. the guy told me that the vss was bad, i told him that i just replaced it and he erased the codes and it didn't come back up so i'm guessing it's all good on that end. but when i was driving home it seemed like the speedo wanted to read out right, b/c it would start reading normal but just as i thought it fixed itself it started to go nuts jumping all the way to 120 and back down to 40. Also at the light when i was stopped it would be jumping and when the light turned green and i tried to go it would let me go until the speedo dropped back down to 0. so at this point i'm not sure what to do any and all advice is greatly appreciated. I don't know much about cars that's what my brother is for but he just got a job at the honda dealership and doesn't have the time to help so i'm on my own. that's why i'm coiming to you all.

 

not sure if these are the wires or not but look here at what i saw: http://photos.yahoo.com/da2006pizimp

 

need to find out what the problem is here very soon i just sold my main car and i'm going to be driving this around. PLEASE HELP

 

Jumping signals can be a sign that something's improperly grounded. Toss another grounding wire on the transmission and see if that clears it up. It doesn't have to be anything special: just a random piece of wire going from a bolt on the tranny to the unibody of the car.

Cheap and easy...give it a shot

 

eghatch4sale is completely right. You have a harness underneath the intake manifold (you have to be under the car to see it, it's above the oil filter). One or two of the wires have rubbed so long that the insulation is gone and now they are grounding out, causing the alternator/vss fuse to blow and you to lose your charging system and VSS, which is causing the speedo to act funky and your lights to dim.

Had this exact same problem on my wife's 98 LX.

 

it's the junction connector wires the two on the black plastic piece they are a blue and gray connector the wires come off those!

just as everyone said that is more than likely your problem!

You may even be able to find the service bulletin on the net if ya look hard enough

 

bubblegum you said that there should be blown fuses but there isn't any.

 

also what should i be looking to buy to replace this? what's it called? what's the price i'm looking to pay?

 

It usually shorts and blows the fuse, but I could see if it didn't pass enough current to blow the fuse. Also, the fuse is supposed to be a 7.5A. Check that the previous owner didn't put a bigger fuse in there to keep it from blowing.

As far as buying anything to fix it, I don't think you can. I mean, you could buy a whole new wiring harness but that would be a huge amount of money and work. All you need to do is find any wires that have the insulation rubbed off and tape them individually to keep them from shorting on anything. Our 98 LX has been doing great for 2 years after I fixed it. I also taped a little bit of foam over the whole harness to keep it from rubbing raw again.


--edited to include *correct* fuse rating


Modified by BubblegumTate at 2:40 PM 1/29/2007

 

all the fuses are what they are supposed to be. When i looked under the car everything looked fine as far as the wiring goes.

 

one of the codes that caused my engine light to come on is for the IDM i think it's called and my bro said something about the ECU being bad, maybe this is causing my problem? anyone know?

 

ok i just got a new cluster that i ordered off of ebay and i was going to install them in the car and see if that helps but i ordered the wrong kind this one doesn't have a tach, can they still be installed? thanks.

 

bump only a few days left until i need to get this car running, already sold my main car.

 

what fuse is supposed to be a 15a? also i need to get this thing up and running asap.

 

its fuse #15. its a 7.5amp fuse. also your alternator fuse and o2 sensor fuse.

if the car has an aftermartket replacement cat, the secondary o2 sensor wiring may be shorting out on the shift linkage.

hope this helps.

you shouldnt have bought that cluster, especially one without a tach.

 

My bad, I mixed up fuse position 15 for 15 amps, I edited my original post to include the correct fuse rating for the benefit of the archives.

 

i didn't realize that it didn't have a tach until i bought it. also the fuses are all right i check them out twice.