My 1995 Honda Civic is a 5 speed manual.

Here's my issue.

When I went to look at the car it had the P R N D D3 2 1 running between the gas gauge and the coolant gauge. I immediately asked the guy if it was an auto to manual conversion. The guy said no, that Honda used the same dashboard for the auto and the manual EX civic, but just didn't put in the lights behind the PRNDL in the manual. It made sense, but over time things just didn't stack up. For one thing, my cruise control doesn't work. I originally attributed it to old age, but then I got to thinking: all of the carpeting in my car is very loose, and not attached in some places around the door sills. It's not torn by any means, just not snug under the door sill. In a sense, you could pull the carpet up to reveal the firewall behind the pedals. Then I read another forum on this website about someone who swapped their auto for a 5 speed. I found a post that said this:

"Hey I was planning on doing this to my EJ1, but I'm curious what happens with the lights on the cluster (you know where it shows P R N D4 D3 2 1 etc?)"

So I went to some down-home google searching. I looked up the 5 speed dashboard, and it appeared to not have the P R N D D3 2 1 running between the gauges like it should be! I am not bothered by it, but I just want some closure here. From those who own EJ1 5 speed Civic's please tell me: Do I have a factory 5 speed, or do I have a tranny-swapped car?

Thanks.

 

He lied. An auto cluster was obviously swapped into it. No biggie. I've seen where people just put a strip of electrical tape over that part o mask it off.

If he lied about that simple fact he'll probably lie about something else to get the car sold.

 

My coolant gauge doesn't work, but when I short out the sensor, the needle moves up, so there's probably a problem with the sending unit, not the gauge. Why do you think he did that though? I mean, what's the point?

 

Most likely that is the only gauge cluster he had or found. Not a big problem, Just found your self a Manual cluster and swap it in.

 

Availability.

 

Please explain what you mean by this. It may be cause for some concern depending on how I am interpreting it.

 

I own a EJ1 and some came in manual and some came in automatic. Mine was an auto and I swapped it.The cruise control not working is surely making me think swapped. That guy lying about the cluster is probably just trying to dump it off. If you can look underneath the car where the shifter goes and look for welded spots on some kind of metal that covers the giant hole the auto shifter makes. Also look in the engine bay for an auto to manual conversion mount or a welding tranny mount onto the frame. Do the reverse lights work? can you start it without the clutch pushed in?If you need help with wiring or just in general pm me man

 

The reverse lights work. The car starts without the clutch, and cruise doesn't work, but the button lights up when I push it. I did some reading that the clutch-to-start sensor and the cruise control sensor are both under the clutch. Maybe the last owner wanted to disable the clutch-to-start and undid the cruise control by accident. Either way, I want them both back. The fact that the carpet comes up easily makes me think this. HOWEVER... it could have been an auto to manual swap as well, hence the dashboard, and the guy didn't bother with the sensors on the clutch pedal. I really am stumped. Would there be anything in the VIN that would tell me the transmission? Or maybe a transmission code on the tranny perhaps?

 

Maybe not the firewall, but in the passenger footwell I was able to lift up the carpet and literally grab ahold of the ECU box. Of course I didn't f*** with that cuz that's out of my area of expertise. The same thing with the driver side footwell. Now I haven't actually peeled the carpet back yet, but I assume I can since it's the same situation as the passenger side.

 

The dark picture is a picture I took with my phone (the picture is sideways). I crawled into the driver footwell and pointed the camera up to look up the clutch pedal. I just checked everything. Although the passenger carpeting is loose, and the driver door sill carpeting is also loose, the carpeting behind the pedals is firmly attached.

 

Just did a VIN search. It had my car down to a T as far as specs. Turns out my car was a factory 4 speed automatic. It was therefore converted. Whoever did it did a damn good job of it, because there's no shakiness in the pedals, the clutch feels as natural as any other clutch I've felt, and the clutch holds the engine power under full throttle. Maybe that's why the air conditioning system is missing, to more easily remove the transmission from the car. I don't know though, I've never done any kind of swap.

 

For the cruise to work just go into your dash behind the radio and there should be a harness. It has 2 big wires. Black w red stripe and black w white stripe. In that harness there is a pink wire about 16g. Just ground that wire to the black ground in that harness. That of course is if you have a cruise control module and everything. If it can start without the clutch then he didint wire up the clutch safety switch. You have to extend wires from that same harness over to the top part of the clutch and to the sensor. I dont have mine wired up because its not needed. If you do get cruise control to work just make sure you either wire in the safety switch or press the brake before coming out of cruise control. Otherwise youll clutch in and rev the **** outta your engine.

 

Yep, that car has definitely been messed with. Not such a big deal if it's done right, but the fact that certain aspects AREN'T is cause for some concern. Notably: an unmounted ECU, cruise and clutch-in switches that aren't connected properly. It just makes me think that other short-cuts were also taken. The golden rule is: "Don't buy someone else's (unfinished) project" because it inevitably leads to countless headaches.

 

What is an unmounted ECU? Also, how can I get the carpeting to stay against the floorpan again? It's not really in the way, but it looks trashy with the carpeting loose like that.

 

I just mean it's floating around like that in the passenger's footwell, under the carpet. It is supposed to have a cover and be bolted down.

As for the carpet ... I think some tiny self-tapping screws back into the underside of the side stepsils will keep the carpet in place. I don't know for sure; I've never tried, but you can have a look yourself. I'm thinking a #4 screw with a washer?

 

Yeauh, it's not really sliding around, it DOES have a cover (it's in a sealed metal box).

 

Well obviously the internal electronics are not exposed - that would be ridiculous. The point I'm trying to make is that it doesn't have the covered bracket that's used to hold it in place and protect it and the wiring when it's bolted to the frame.