I found a switch in my 87 civic sedan, to the right of the steering column, there is a factory spot for 2 switches. There is one switch there, looks to be factory, it looks to be an iluminated switch as well.

Anyway, since i bought the car, i have tried flicking the switch several times, and it has never worked, regardless of key position, or accessories that are on.

Last night, i popped the switch out, and was going to follow where the wires went, there must be a broken wire. At the back of the switch, there was 3 wires. A black (ground i'm assuming), a yellow (for the iluminated switch power) and a purple.

I followed the wires, the black and yellow were paired together in black factory loom, while the purple ran independant. I followed the wires, they ran underneath the driver side dash, and past the fuse panel, and the black and yellow wire ran up into the body, i could no longer follow them. Now this is where it got intesting, i found the purple wire cut. It ran near where the black and yellow wire ran into the body, but i could find NO trace of the other end of this purple wire.

By chance, does anybody know what this purple wire would control????

I can take pics if people are more interested. I would like to solve this mystery. And everything seems to be factory, wires, wire ends, switch, loom, ext....
weird!
-mark

 

Is there anything on the face of the switch? Some sort of symbol? I thoguht it might just be rear defrost. But the way they run made me think not.

 

factory fogs maybe?

 

Yes take pics! I dont have a switch but I have the same purple wire and plug your describing! I think it runs though the firewall but in the engine bay I'm clueless.

Could it be a "power take off" switch? The ecu gives the motor more horsepower with it on and better economy off?

 

bump

 

Wow!

If I had a mystery switch it would be well worth my time to figure out what it is!

Do the wires go through into the engine bay?
If they do, do you know how to use an ohmeter? You could hook up on one of the wires and then unplug the main connectors in the engine bay to see where the wire picks up again. Then you can keep going and search OHM out all the connectors until you figure out where that thing goes!

There might be a leprechaun smoking a gold bowl of pot at the end of it.

 

That's the switch for the flux capacitor. Previous owner probably removed it already and sold it on ebay.

 

"Could it be a "power take off" switch? The ecu gives the motor more horsepower with it on and better economy off?"

You gotta be kidding me....LMFAO

 

At least i made an educated guess at it! thats more than you did.

BTW the only car that has a flux capacitor is my dream car, the delorean.

 

bump

 

take a pic of it. foglights seem to be the best guess so far

 

are you sure it'a a purple and not a red/blue or blue/red?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JC18 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">At least i made an educated guess at it! thats more than you did.

BTW the only car that has a flux capacitor is my dream car, the delorean. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i cant tell if your joking but you do know thats only in the movie right? delorean recalled the flux capacitor because they were all defective. oh and that switch coulde be for and alarm. my brothers car has one too. ive never traced it. and a 95 civic i looked at had a mystery switch. just cut the wires and wire it to something you need.

 

the flux capacitor must work and does exsist because 1. i have one hidden under my rear seat in my 91 LX civic sedan and can go + - 10 years of today, due to goverment reguatons and 2. because the AOL Top Speed thing is powered by a flux capacitor. watch the car ad and you'l see.

 

ok, i took pictures, but i dunno how to post them. Can anyone host a link for me, i can email the pics.
-mark
PS
its not the foglights, the car never had or looks like it never COULD have foglights. And rear defrost is on the left side of the steering column.

 

For those who dont know what a flux capacitor is...

A flux capacitor is the fictional core component of Dr. Brown's time traveling De Lorean in the popular 1985 movie Back to the Future and its two sequels. The flux capacitor is what makes time travel possible.

It is not made clear in the movie exactly how the flux capacitor works. It consists of a box with three small, flashing incandescent lamps arranged in an upside-down 'Y', located above and behind the passenger's seat of the De Lorean time machine. At the end of the third film in the series, when Doc Brown has converted a steam train into a time machine, the flux capacitor is located on the front of the train, in place of the lamp.

It requires 1.21 gigawatts of electricity, supplied during its first two trips (one minute forward in time, and thirty years into the past) by a plutonium powered nuclear reactor, during its next trip (thirty years forward in time) by a bolt of lightning. Plutonium was used once again for a trip thirty years into the future, and thereafter the power was supplied by a "Mr. Fusion" home energy generator from the future which was fueled by garbage, except for one accidental trip (70 years into the past) when another bolt of lightning triggered the flux capacitor.

The flux capacitor is activated the moment the time traveling vehicle reaches 88 miles per hour. Therefore, the unleaded gasoline that fueled the automobile (or the steam train that was used to push the automobile) was another energy source that was needed to activate the flux capacitor.

 

Just wondering;

Did you get all this information off of the "how things work" web site?

Wes

 

well, if your talking about my last post, i got it by searching yahoo, and found a website with a description...

Please, can anyone host a site for my picture of the switch, i would like to figure out what it does.
-mark

 

Send the pics to me on MSN.

i_dunno_what_to_say@hotmail.com

 

ok, i'm at work right now, i will send pics when i get home
-mark
PS
Thanks

 

Wheres the pics!?

 

in my dad's car it is the switch that controlls the parking lights when you lock the car. It works with the remote door lock wiring or something. so if it is off or on the lights will come on/off when u lock the car.

 

i cut my car in half to find where it goes for you, i was amazed to find out, it controls the

 

"Make it so"

 

ok, took me forever, i have been working straight the last few days with no time to pick my nose, i sent the pics to "skelly ed666" just 5 minutes ago, so they should be on here soon.

Thanks for all the interest.
-mark
PS
The car has no daytime running or anything, no power locks or pw, no command start ext.