My civic is possessed! - Fuelly Forums

Click here to see important news regarding the aCar App

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 08-20-2006, 08:53 PM   #1
Driving on E
 
Matt Timion's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 3,110
Country: United States
My civic is possessed!

We were driving tonight in my civic. I'm trying to drive it as much as possible so that I can get a good MPG reading sometime soon.

Anyway, as I'm waiting at a stop light my dashboard lights cut out and my radio dies. I look at the gauge cluster and see smoke coming up.

I quickly pull over expecting the worst.

Popped the hood... nothing was on fire.

Got back inthe car and drove home.

On the entire drive home, I noticed somethign weird. The gas gauge now read 1/2 full instead of the previous 3/4 full. The coolant temperature gauge was moving relative to my engine speed, and would actually pulse with the vehicle speed sensor.

When I got home I turned off the car. I have a small alarm rigged up to let me know if i left my lights on. It was sounding off, even though my lights were not on. when I removed my foot from the brake the alarm stopped sounding.

It's obvious to me that I have a wiring issue... I'm guessing that a wire burned somewhere and now I have crossed wires, which explains why my guages were measuring the wrong thing.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to where to start? I need these demons out of my car.
__________________

Matt Timion is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-20-2006, 08:58 PM   #2
*shrug*
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 6,195
Country: United States
Get a wiring diagram and chase the wiring on the vss and temp gauges. Sounds like it could've happened behind the cluster?
__________________

SVOboy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-20-2006, 08:59 PM   #3
Driving on E
 
Matt Timion's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 3,110
Country: United States
Quote:
Originally Posted by SVOboy
Get a wiring diagram and chase the wiring on the vss and temp gauges. Sounds like it could've happened behind the cluster?
that's what I'm thinking... considering the smoke came from behind the cluster and only the cluster was acting up, odds are it was something down there.

Then again, my radio started acting up too, but I also think that someone ghetto-rigged my radio to run off of the wrong wire.
Matt Timion is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-20-2006, 09:00 PM   #4
*shrug*
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 6,195
Country: United States
I had a similar thing happen when I burn up the wire on the cluster itself going from the plug to the tach. I have a wire in there all weirdly now and luckily it works.
SVOboy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-20-2006, 09:01 PM   #5
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 125
Country: United States
the fire was under the dash! check your fuse box, i suspect you'll fine something melted. they're not demons...they're melted wires!
white90crxhf is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-21-2006, 10:08 AM   #6
Registered Member
 
LincolnW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 108
Country: United States
Location: Portland, OR
I would bet that the problem will be obvious once you start taking things apart. You could have burned up a section of your cluster that fried a bunch of connections together that should have been separate.

In my experience things like this are easy to find once you start taking stuff apart. Especially if you saw smoke, that was most likely a connection getting fried behind your cluster.

Things like this some times happen with cars that have heavily modified wiring (like mine. *crosses fingers*).

Good luck! Make sure to take pictures of what you find!
LincolnW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-21-2006, 10:14 AM   #7
Driving on E
 
Matt Timion's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 3,110
Country: United States
Quote:
Originally Posted by 90CivicStandard
I would bet that the problem will be obvious once you start taking things apart. You could have burned up a section of your cluster that fried a bunch of connections together that should have been separate.

In my experience things like this are easy to find once you start taking stuff apart. Especially if you saw smoke, that was most likely a connection getting fried behind your cluster.

Things like this some times happen with cars that have heavily modified wiring (like mine. *crosses fingers*).

Good luck! Make sure to take pictures of what you find!
I'm hoping it's just the cluster and not the entire harness. Considering i have a highly modified harness now I really don't want to get a new harness and redo everything, so I'll most likely just rerun the affected wires.

I'll be trying to figure this out after lunch.
Matt Timion is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-21-2006, 03:38 PM   #8
Driving on E
 
Matt Timion's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 3,110
Country: United States
I went through the trouble of removing my dash today (I've wanted to learn how to anyway) only to find that the problem is....

in my gauge cluster.

Check it out



Notice anything? How about this:



Now what would cause the cluster to just spontaneously combust like that?
Matt Timion is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-21-2006, 03:50 PM   #9
*shrug*
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 6,195
Country: United States
Just getting ****ty or a short somewhere else in the wiring. That's what my cluster looks like and it was a short somewhere in the dash wiring.
SVOboy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-21-2006, 04:00 PM   #10
Driving on E
 
Matt Timion's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 3,110
Country: United States
Quote:
Originally Posted by SVOboy
Just getting ****ty or a short somewhere else in the wiring. That's what my cluster looks like and it was a short somewhere in the dash wiring.
Do you think I should get a new dash harness just to be safe?
__________________

Matt Timion is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
126 mpg! Draigflag General Fuel Topics 4 08-20-2009 10:10 PM
new link for Mobile after submit Pontiac Fuelly Web Support and Community News 1 02-07-2009 05:48 AM
I hear crickets GasSavers_davens General Fuel Topics 18 07-24-2006 08:01 PM
Honda TPS Sensors - $15/ea Matt Timion For Sale 7 06-27-2006 12:05 PM
The Honda Fit GasSavers_DaX General Fuel Topics 54 05-13-2006 01:52 AM

» Fuelly Android Apps
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 04:50 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.