Talk me out... or in? Honda Civic

Battery is on the charger, time for class then another attempt to get her fired up at least long enough to go up my driveway and into the warm embrace of my garage
(stupid steep driveway, my street is almost, almost, so close to being steep/long enough to get a rolling start and make it up)

Then at least I can bang knuckles and swear out of the cold.
You guys like pictures, right?

Engine Bay, in all its glory

JDM yo!

Noooooooooooo!

Everything is so neat and tidy under the dash

I like that if I didn't have the miata I'd have already started looking at what class to Autocross this in.
Officially I'm still leaning towards flipping... officially :P

The brake pedal making the lights on dash light up is likely a ground/brake light bulb or bulb socket issue. I had a very similar issue last year with the twin filament bulb cross feeding the circuit from one (Brakes) to the other (tail lights) and back feeding the dash lights.

I think you have the potential for a fun little car there.

Sonic wrote: There is plenty in the distributor that likes to go wrong. If the main relay checks out, the distributor is the second thing to check.

Truth. Also, those relays are like $40 on ebay, resoldered, or pulled from the jy and tested, though I doubt that's the issue.

I have a 92 I ran in the challenge a couple years ago and I use as a daily when I don't need my truck and its not too hot for lacking ac (having gotten around to fixing the ac yet). I love driving the car and it is good on gas. I would recommend getting it.

I have a 92 I ran in the challenge a couple years ago and I use as a daily when I don't need my truck and its not too hot for lacking ac (having gotten around to fixing the ac yet). I love driving the car and it is good on gas. I would recommend getting it.

we heard you the first time

I just wanted to emphasize and posting from my phone is less than ideal

SnowMongoose wrote: Noooooooooooo!

Lots of Civics sold in NA are from Alliston, ON. I am not sure why that's a problem.

NGTD wrote: Lots of Civics sold in NA are from Alliston, ON. I am not sure why that's a problem.

It's not actually a problem, I just work retail just south of the border, so many/most of the headaches at work are Canadians down to shop.
Thus, a negative feelings towards anything connected to the Maple leaf.

Snap decision: Instead of invading Canada to play rugby, I'm going to get this sumbitch running over my long weekend.

Phase one: buy multimeter
Phase two: consult internets
Phase three: Profit!

My 89 Civic had an interesting electrical gremlin.

Pull into a parking spot. With your foot on the brake, turn off the ignition. The car would keep on running.

Learned that the harness to the CHMSL was too short. The insulation on the hot lead to the light frayed and when you hit the pedal, the power would back flow to the main circuit and the engine would continue to run. Take your foot off the brake pedal.....the engine stopped.

BTW: The early warning for this problem was the failure of the rear window wiper to work. Totally mis-diagnosed that one.

Spliced in 6" of wire to the CHMSL harness...problem solved.

Rog

Ive been down this road. Before you do ANY diagnosis, remove whatever that aftermarket wiring mess is. If they cut up the ignition switch to install the alarm you may need to repair/replace it. I have seen more than one set of intermittent stalling problems caused by that gobblety gook. When a car would come in the dealer for that type of issue and it had a remote start or alarm, we wouldn't touch it until the customer authorized removal.

Thanks logdog
Happily, AFAIK there is no alarm, from what I've seen so far the pictured wiring and 'tyte JDM HIDs' are the only modifications electrically speaking.

I've gotten my hands on a multimeter, now I just need to figure out, er, how to actually use one.
Conceptual level, I think I've got it.
Application wise, not so much.

Interesting status update though, as of five minutes ago she fires up and idles...
until you go to give her some gas.
Revs go up, hold, but as soon as they start to drop, she dies.
More pieces to the puzzle!

SnowMongoose wrote: That being said, when I push on the brake (without key in the ignition, everything off) the same dash lights come on. Huh.

Single-filament bulb in a double-filament socket? That's a common way to cause weird lighting issues - hit the brake, the power backfeeds to the parking light circuit. Turn headlights on, brake lights come on, sometimes cruise control stops working...

All because someone wanted to save 20 cents on a bulb.

Yeah, two things are apparent now.
I overpaid for this and I'm in way over my head.
Thankfully it's 'only' a thousand dollar mistake

I'm just scratching my head at what could have gone wrong over the course of a month to change it from firing up and running/driving when I test drove it to ... this.

PO removed/cleaned/re installed the interior and replaced the T-stat during that time, but afaik didn't do much of anything else.

Knurled wrote:

SnowMongoose wrote: That being said, when I push on the brake (without key in the ignition, everything off) the same dash lights come on. Huh.

Single-filament bulb in a double-filament socket? That's a common way to cause weird lighting issues - hit the brake, the power backfeeds to the parking light circuit. Turn headlights on, brake lights come on, sometimes cruise control stops working... All because someone wanted to save 20 cents on a bulb.

lol my volvo had a double filament bulb where one of the filaments broke and fell onto the other... when I hit the brakes it would light up the dash lights and stuff... was funny... I dug all though the fuse box trying to figure it out when it was just a stupid bulb

Buy it. Its cool enough for Hotwheels.

I saw one of those in the hotlink thread!

And I've owned it for almost a week now.

So, at the recommendation of a thread from 'ef-honda.com' I monkeyed around with the fuse box, disconnected and reconnected various things (including the electric load detector, which was throwing the code) and....

she neatly went into gear and drove up my driveway just fine.
Oh, automotive shenanigans.

How concerned should I be that there is some sort of oily liquid spread around inside the fuse box?
Likewise, level of concern for two (and counting) wires coming out from under the dash?

EDIT: Took her around the block. Died partway round, coasted home.
Back to square one.

Update mostly for my own edification.

Replaced the fuel filter at the suggestion of some buddies.
Good based on the sickly brown color of the gas that came out of it.
Seemed to help, as the car proceeded to drive a half mile loop around my house without failing on me.

Half hour later, after monkeying with the rear hatch, I go to park it on the street... had to resort to a compression start, as she wouldn't even turn over.

Any ideas where to start with the whole "every time I brake half of the dash lights up" issue?
Same with the whole 'turn signals don't work at all on the right side, and light up in a non-blinky way on the left.'

Yay projects!

Poor grounding at one of the light assemblies can cause that too... the brake lights find ground through the parking light circuit. Do things change if you have the lights on?

The lights don't even always work with the lights on :P

As bad as my last post sounded, it was indicative of progress...
even if that only means it's one step closer to driving to my buddy's shop.

Turned out to be a missing (not bad, missing the bolt) ground along with the O2 sensor wire folded back against itself.

Oh yeah, someone stole it from in front of my house last night.
Sad panda.

91 Civics parked outside are required to be stolen. Really sorry to hear that.