Well, I just bought a 94 Accord from a friend. The car was originally wrecked, so the back half of the car was cut off, and a 97 Accord rear was molded into the 94 Accord front and the car was repainted Black. Now, the car runs excellent and has been kept in maintainence very well. The only problems with the car are a few of the ones that happened because my friend changed a few things on it. I'll just ask a few questions to start.

First of all, the gauge cluster has an overlay on it that looks nice during the daytime, but at night you can't see the needles worth a crap. They're a reverse glow style gauge that you can switch between green and blue. Also, the gas gauge needle is broken and doesn't work. So, I'm guessing my best bet would be to buy a used stock gauge cluster, reset the odometer to the correct mileage, remove all the wiring that was for the different overlay, and start over from there?

Nextly. The dimmer switch for the lights doesn't seem to work. Is there a fuse for it? Could it just be that the lights behind the ***** and such are burnt out?

And lastly for now. The door hinge seems to be broken. When you open and close the door the hinge that goes inside the door jamb seems to be moving for some reason. Is there a pin inside the jamb that's supposed to be holding it in place? How would I get to it?

Thanks for the help guys.

 

I will only remark on the door hinge, you should have two major hinges holding the door to the car and one small hinge looking item that does go inside the door as you close it, this is used to hold the door in the open position with some resistance so a small breeze will not blow the door closed.

As for your fuel gauge, you need to troubleshoot it before you just up and change it but if you are going to change the entire cluster and the next one does not work then you may have a wireing problem due to the body work or a broken sending unit in the tank.

Are you saying that the radio or AC control panel or center console lights do not dim either.

 

soounds like you have the egay gauge cluster lights..they dont really get that bright....2nd your gas guage is broken...when that happened to mine I jsut replaced the whole cluster....not to hard just time consuming with all the little screws and ****......3rd...buy a wrecked car!?!?! okay man...loose the gauge cluser..listen to duane..and hope your car dont split apart at the seams

 

does your gauge cluster look like this? mine changes color (green to blue) with that little pad below my boost gauge.



your fuel gauge probably does not work because the needle was probably tampered with.


for your dimmer problem.. are the lights that are supposed to dim completley out, or do they work?


Modified by JDM_Acccord at 7:28 PM 10/6/2007

 

hi JDM,

How do you add picture in the forum? Can you please tell me?

Thank you.

 

you have to use a primary source.. somewhere you can upload it then you can either click on the [img] link.. or you can type in <.img src=""> and put the link in between the "".

 

If the body shop did it right, it should be alright and you have nothing to worry about. I don't get all the negativity on cars that have been in crashes. If taken to a quality bodyshop, a car can be just as structurally sound before the accident after its repairs. You guys need to stop jumping on bandwagons and talk to someone in the auto collision industry. I am no expert by any means, but still a student and that was covered on day 1.

 

the reason you do NOT want a car that is 2 halves put back together has to do with the fact that the weld is stronger than the rest of the car and the sheet metal will fold around it. This could compromoise the integrity of the passenger compartment in a crash and that could cost you your life in a severe accident that would normally leave the passenger compartment intact.

 

The hinge that is broken is the one that goes to the door jamb. The one that attaches to the door is fine, it's the other one that's broken and moves around. The door still closes fine, it just makes a loud creaking sound when you close it.

I'm pretty sure the fuel gauge needle is just broken from when he tried to put the new gauges in. The only way I know of to fix it is to get a new cluster setup.

The lights that don't light up are the ones for the shifter select in the middle of the cluster and the ones for the radio and AC panels. Maybe I'm thinking the whole panel is supposed to light up. The dimmer for them just plain doesn't do anything. Nothing on the panels or cluster dims right besides the gauges because they have their own seperate dimmer and color switch. Could anyone get me a picture of the gauges and panels at night when they are on?

About the body thing - it's not something I'm worried about. The shop that did the work is very reputable and does VERY good work. This is something I am not concerned about.

 

lube your door hinges and the creaking should go away. adjusting the strike plate should fix your loose door problem

 

I know to lube the hinges, that's a no brainer. I guess I forgot to say that I'm an ASE Certified mechanic. What is the strike plate? The part that's lose is the part that goes into the door jamb. It's got a little piece that's supposed to lock in place somehow and not move. I guess I can take a look at it more today.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to get a new cluster. The only way I know of to fix the gas gauge needle is to just get a new cluster.

I'll also have to look more into the dimmer thing today. Are you guys sure there's not a fuse for the dimmer switch? I guess that it could maybe just not be hooked up too. It basically seems like it's turned all the way down because I've got no dash lights besides the cluster lights for the aftermarket gauge overlay.

 

Just figured I'd post a quick picture of the car before I run out to do some diagnostics.



Debating changing out some of the lenses back to the stock ones. Also, some of the bulbs need changed back too. But overall the car is very nice. The rims, tint, and color go well together.

 

^^ looks like it was a costly repair, I can't even tell anything happened to it!

 

Honestly, you can't tell AT ALL that it's been changed besides obviously the fact that it's got a 97 rear end. You can't see any welds, differences in the paint, or anything. I absolutely love the 97 rear end compared to the 94.

 

Well, I did some more messing with the car today.

I looked more at the door hinge. The part that's broken is the part that goes into the door jamb and then connects to the sliding bar thing with the pin. It's loose inside the door jamb and it shouldn't be. I checked the passenger door and it doesn't move at all, so I'm not really sure how I can get inside the door jamb to fix whatever is broken on it. Any suggestions?

Nextly, I looked at the dimmer problem. I understand that the only things that light up are the things you select, and that works. The problem is none of the white back lighting works. You can't see any of the buttons or anything because the back lighting doesn't come on. After messing with it I got it to work, but the back lighting only comes on when you turn the blower motor on, and I know it shouldn't work like that. You can't see which shifter position is selected or anything either. Now the blend door won't change positions after messing with it. I'm honestly thinking of getting a new cluster and the surround with the climate control panel. The pins for the climate control panel are bent, and that's probably what most of my problem is. I'm thinking maybe the dimmer relay could be bad also, but have no way to tell. I guess it's time to call the junkyard and see if they have any Accords that I can pick through.

 

nice ride are those 17's or 18's? also wat suspension set up are u running.. i want to lower my car but i dont want the "boat" effect.. yours looks pretty even

 

you gotta remove the inside door panel to access the locking mechanism.

 

Getting to the back side of the A Pillar is not going to be fun.

 

They are 17's. I'm not quite sure what's under it yet for a setup, but I'm pretty sure they're Dropzone coil overs with stock suspension. After I actually get a chance to check it out I'll post more specs.

What inside door panel are you talking about? The one that has all the window and lock controls? That piece on the door is fine, it's the piece that goes inside the A Pillar. I'm not quite sure how to get behind that thing. Maybe I might be better off just removing all the pieces to this thing? Isn't it only to hold the door proped open if it's windy or something?

 

You should buy a used gauge cluster, and swap the gauges from it into your housing, or at least put your speedometer/odometer into the new cluster so you can retain your original mileage. It's no easy chore to just go in and set the odometer to whatever you please. Replace all the bulbs as well when you have the gauge cluster out and that should hopefully clear up your backlighting issue. I would just go back to the OEM setup, it works pretty well.

 

I wasn't trying to say nothing bad about wrecked cars...in fact mine was in a bad accident...thats why I have a 94 accord with a 96 front end but it really wasen't all that bad just a new hood, core support, fenders, bumper, etc. I was saying 2 cars put togeter! okay..from the pic it looks fine...but i dunno it aint my car..have fun

 

Well, I did a little more looking around for the car. I called the junkyard and they said they have a 94 Accord with gray interior. I'm going to have a look at it tomorrow and see what I can pick up off that car. I'm pretty sure that I'm just going to buy another cluster and swap it in. I'm not going to worry about setting the mileage, but rather just write down what the original cluster mileage and work off that.

I'm thinking that I'm also going to just buy a whole new cluster surround piece too. I know for sure the AC panel pins are fucked up, and instead of trying to swap the AC panels between surrounds, just put the whole new piece in. I'm now thinking that my friend fucked up the dimmer wires when it wired in the new cluster. After I get my new pieces I'm going to go through it.

At least I was able to scrape all the glass chalk and stickers off the windows with a razor blade scraper. I also washed the car off and am once again happy. Helped to take my mind off fixing the other things.

 

it appears when he did the gauges he took out the dimmer system in a part of the car thus making it all not work.....the first thing to do is pull the actually dimmer control out and make sure its plugged in(yes it will make the whole dimmer system not worked if its not plugged in) and then go from there checking the wiring(i would recommend a wiring diagram)

 

I was able to get a new climate control panel today from the junk yard for 30 bucks. It appears that in 95 Honda redid the back of it. Mine did not have a plug in for the climate control panel. All it had was the pins sticking out of the panel and the circuit board showing. I'm going to give it a try and see if it works.

They had a cluster at the yard, but it had a crack in the plastic and wanted 60 bucks for it so I passed. I also tried looking for interior parts, but none of the cars had the charcoal gray interior that I have. So I'm going to have to do some calling around and see if I can find a cluster and an Accord with the same interior color is some of the other junk yards.

I'm pretty sure he just wired up the dimmer wiring harness wrong when he put the gauges in. Once I take the cluster and surround out again I'm going to look into it more.

 

Well, I'm happy tonight after working on the car and started making headway. I bought a new climte control panel from the junkyard and started on replacing the old one. I found out that the previous owner broke the **** out of the old on. The plastic cover over the circuit panel and the prongs was busted and all the prongs were bent. I replaced the old one with the new one and now all my blend options, AC, and vent options work perfectly. Only problem is now is that my heat blend door cable is broken. I know it should be a very easy fix, just buy a new one and replace the old one.

I also had a chance to check out what was with the dimmer control. I found out that the problem lies in the wiring. Previous owner hooked up the aftermarket gauges and did a really shitty job doing it. For the power source he wired it into the corner light by running a wire from the interior all the way to the corner light. He had the wiring setup VERY rigged, and honestly I'm not even sure how the stock setup was wired up. I'm going to take another look at it tomorrow and see what I can figure out.

Another thing I'm going to have to look at is the alarm and remote start wiring setup. I found out they were tucked up underneath the dash while looking around at the dimmer setup. At least I'm making headway though.