I have a 98 Civic EX Coupe.

1. Some thug ripped out my antenna. It rains a ton where I live and rain got in that antenna hole.

2. Sometime after that my gauge cluster lights (not the warning lights) began to work intermittently. Often I would be driving at night and couldn't see my gauges.
Then randomly the lights would turn on for the rest of my trip. Only to be off again the next day. This went so far as to where they lights could be off for
weeks and then come back on again. Now they never come on.

3. And now for the part that I hate the most. My car stereo started to glitch often. I would do things like lose settings or lose the radio station I was on.
It would even sometimes randomly cut off if I hit a bump. It didn't have to be a large bump either. A lot of times I could power it on but nothing would work right.
And just like my gauge cluster, my radio would work for a day and then not work. It would work for a week and then not work.

About my radio. It's an aftermarket Sony that I spliced in myself. I used the splice crimp (tube connector types) Years before that, I had a friend who went to
school for automotive work, install a bazooka subwoofer. It used a type of weird connector that screws into and pierces the wires. That worked fine with
previous radio for years. If you ask me did I install the current radio correctly; I believe so 100%. It worked fine for years until these things happened.

4. I would start to smell a very faint burning sometimes after driving; like right after I cut the car off. It seemed to only happen after I had been driving very fast.
I couldn't tell for sure, but it definitely seemed to me to be coming from the gauge cluster area.

It finally hit me to remove the radio. To my shock. I noticed that the two green wires in the radio wiring harness were burnt (only in the area of the splice crimp connector)
Many days later I noticed that one thin white wire was also burnt in the splice crimp area and one larger red wire was burnt in the splice crimp area. I assume that
thicker red wire is a power wire? The fuse on my car radio is not broken. I don't know how to test car fuses, but I have a mechanic friend that has the equipment to do it.

Going with the very first problem of the broken antenna, could water have caused all of this, also could the antenna wire (which was still connected at the receiver, but
torn from the antenna) have caused this? I know there can be probably a ton of reasons for what has happened. I just hope there is not some crazy issue with the cars
main wiring.

5. I almost forgot to add that with the radio out, I smelled the faint burning again one time after driving fast. It hasn't happened since then. The car starts perfectly and runs
just fine.

Please help.


burnt wires at the ends of the connectors

 

126 views so far and no comments. I hope somebody out there is willing to help me. I haven't asked for help in 9 years! My last post was in 2013 when my stupid drivers side door got broken shut.

f ANYBODY out there at all is reading this, I figured out that the aftermarket stereos aftermarket wiring harness is the only wiring that burned in the car.
I had it in the car for a good four/five years before this happened. I figure if I just throw in a new harness, it will happen again. If it took years I could deal with
that but it will probably happen fast since I don't know what caused it in the first place.

 

Sure seems that when it got ripped out, it tugged on the harness possibly scrubbing wires against a sharp metal edge causing a slight short. I would follow the harness from where the antenna wire trails along and inspect thoroughly.
Should either replace the antenna or unplug it from the receiver and seal the hole so no water gets in.
When you say you would only smell it when you'd be driving fast just makes think it was a small short and the wind would slightly stir it up from the dash.
Testing fuses is as easy as opening your eyes and looking at it if it has a transparent body, if not you would check for continuity with a multimeter which is very simple.
I haven't done a stereo in years but I think (not 100%) the yellow wire is power, the red is switched power from the key? You could mate the red and yellow wires together if you wanted to have power to the stereo with the key out.
Your car should drive normally since the engine harness is separated from the stereo one. But then thinking about the gauge lights, I think they may be connected to the radio. Basically you might have to pull a bit of your dash apart to inspect and either test individual wires or look for the problem.
I would be curious as to which speaker the green burnt wires are feeding and follow those wires. Obviously shorted out.

 

Hello and thanks for the reply.

A mechanic friend pulled my gauge cluster and checked all the connections and looked at the bulbs. None of the bulb filaments were broken.
He thinks I should try a new (used) dimmer switch mechanism.

On the wiring harness, the green wires go to my left speaker. I have had a problem with it's wires becoming disconnected at the speaker
several times somehow. So I have to pull the door panel, unscrew the speaker and reconnect it. That's happened maybe 3 or 4 times
over several years.

As for the fuses, I will try to check those. I know you said I can do the eye test and I will. I also might be a tester. So isn't there a fuse box
under the steering wheel somewhere and one in the engine bay also? Should I just be concerned about the one under the steering wheel or
check both? Do I need the battery disconnected while doing this?

 

Just the fuse box in the cabin is what you need to look at, the one under the hood is mainly just for the engine. All the fuses are labeled so that should help you determine where to start tracing from but might be something as easy as fixing your speaker connection.. If you do happen to start grabbing wires under the dash, probably wouldn't hurt to disconnect the battery just incase it starts shorting somewhere where you can't access it fast enough to stop it from burning up your wires. You never know.. I would simply trace every wire that is connected to your stereo harness to find the problem and use a Haynes or service manual (which you should have, it's your Bible for your car) to distinguish which wires to check for the instrument cluster lighting situation.
Maybe your speaker connection is just crappy and where your burnt connection was just the weak link causing it to melt? Kinda odd though since it's melted just at your connection. Definitely cut off the burnt section and redo it using solder and heat shrink tubing or some spade connectors and check your door speaker.
2 things you should have is a multimeter to test things and a service manual if your the type of person who is mechanically inclined.

 

I have a new stereo wiring harness coming so I won't need to cut the wires. I will just replace it.
I do have the Haynes manual and I read up on what the different fuses are for just now. I don't
have a fuse puller yet but I guess I can gently make do with pliers. Also I will be checking the
wiring like you mentioned. I'll let you know how it goes.