Hey Honda-techs what's up, I've got my 1990 civic hatchback with a very bad electrical problem. It all started about 6-7 months ago when my battery would die in about 2 days. I changed the alternator twice and replaced the battery. Nothing changed after that. So I thought to myself maybe it'd be my engine harness (exposed wires and mild wire tuck from previous owner.) after a new unmolested engine harness was put in. the car still had electrical problems. So I went to the next harness, the dash harness. While investigating that I found a wire to my fuel pump from my main relay that was cut and attached to a prong on my fuse box under the dash. The car starts and stays on ONLY when my lights are on. On top of this problem none of my dash lights work except for my check engine light. What would be my next step to take ?



The wire that was and is connected to the dash fuse box. When I traced the original wire and connected them back together my fuel pump stopped priming?

 

Replace dash harness, sounds like the fuel pump power was connected to the park light free pin in the fuse box.

Black/yellow is a 12V switched lead, it is fuel pump power and injector relay control, [turn on] lead, from under dash fuse box.

The yellow/ black is either the fuel pump power lead, [from relay] or the fuel injector relays output.

My guess is the PGM-FI Main Relay was bad and that was a "fix", better to repair the relay...
What is that black lead connected to the yellow/black? 94

 

Thanks for the reply ! Yes I already changed the dash harness I found the yellow/black with a gray dot wire disconnected after I replaced the dash harness.. I plugged it into the first prong that it gave power to my fuel pump and left it.

 

So are things working now? 94

 

Sadly not ! My dash lights aren't working.. My exterior lights work but not my interior lights. The only dash light that fully works is my check engine light.... Today I took out every single fuse while the car was on and when I pulled out the instrument panel fuse the car turned off.. Don't know what's next

 

Do you mean illumination dash lights or warning/indicator lights, [brake, oil, temp. and so on]? 94

 

Good luck . . . my dash lights in my CRX were out as well and I gave up trying to track down the problem. Same deal, only the warning lights would work.

I'm in the middle of converting this car to a race car with a carburetor so if you want a relay or attached wiring, let me know. I'm keeping the exterior lights/wiring but everything else is probably just going to end up in a box that I think I'll hang onto but will probably throw away in a year when I realize I have no use for it

 

Both of those ! I need to know where my ground for the dash harness goes exactly.. My temperature gauge is all the way up

 

The illumination lights do not use the cluster ground, the ground for the illumination lights are supplied by the Dash Lights Brightness Controller, [sometimes referred to as the dimmer control] it supplies a ground through resistance to the bulbs, 12V+ is supplied by the light switch.

Unplug the DLBC and jump the black and the red leads, if lights turn on, [full brightness] replace DLBC, if not test for power on the red/black lead, if none check fuses.

Warning light grounds are supplied by the sensors they are connected to, so if none are working, check fuses. 94