I have a 98 civic ex, my cousin bought a 98 civic ex.

I have two dome lights, the standard one in the center of the headliner
and one in the middle of the sun visors, but my cousin's only has the center dome light!

Can someone please enlighten me as to why? I tried searching a bit but couldn't figure how to organize my words. (seem to have that probably in far to many aspects of life)

Does your ej8 have two dome lights?

 

Your cousin's missing light is called the spotlights in the service manual. The other is called the ceiling light.

Enter your cousin's VIN into the VIN Decoder under Tech Tools. What does it say?

What trim for each car? Both have a moonroof?

 

Okay, spotlight.
He's at work, I shall retrieve his vin and do so when possible.
Yes he and I both have a moon roof..as well as vtec and power options.
As stated, his and mine both are ex trim.

 

Okay, only took him 5 days to get it to me..
The HT vin decoder wasn't working for me so I used another website,
his vin is 1HGEJ8144VL053858 (just sold today)
It appears his car is a 97! All this time I thought it was a 98..and so did he (can't read I guess).

So possibly the 97 usdm civic ex came with out the spot light, then in 98 the usdm model received the spotlight?

Anyone, Do you have a 97 or a 98 ex and do you have a spotlight?

 

Your cousin has 97 Civic EX coupe with a manual transmission.

Is your 98 Civic also a coupe? Does it have a manual transmission?

The VIN decoder seems to work with some browsers but not all. For example, on my Mac, it works with FireFox and Safari but not Chrome.

 

It is a coupe, auto converted to manual.
I'm a little baffled, his title says 1998 (guess he can read)

 

My 00 Civic EX coupe, auto has spotlights, also referred to as map lights. When I enter its VIN into the VIN Decoder and look under the Equipment/Interior section, map lights is listed as it should be. See first diagram below.

However, when I enter your cousin's VIN into the VIN Decoder, map lights is not listed under the Equipment/Interior section. See second diagram below.

Maybe map lights came only with Civic EX coupe, autos?

 

Map lights were offered on the 98-00 trims on ALL vehicles with moonroofs. Interestingly, they were also additionally offered on Canadian 99-00 non-moonroof Civic sedans with power features (EX in Canada) as well as the non-moonroof 99-00 Acura ELs.

 

Thanks. This seems to solve the mystery.

 

I believe, though don't quote me, that the OP's cousin can retrofit a set of spotlights quite easily - all bolt holes will be there. He just needs the unit from a junkyard donor (~$10) plus a length of wire to connect at the A-pillar.

 

Exellent info! You gave me an answer that even my local honda dealership tech could not give.

I noticed some things that sparked a ?

He does have a trip odometer and a headlight-on reminder.

Still mind blown about the vin decoder saying 97 and his title saying 98. Must be a 97 I'm thinking after reading what deschlong posted.

Irrelevant side notes: Interesting for your specs they call it a trunk open indicator light, and for his they call it a trunk open warning light.

I was rather confused when I saw the title was changed(for the better).