This 1996 Honda Civic came in with a complaint of the battery going dead. I checked and sure enough it was not charging and based on experience I checked to see if the speedometer was working. It was not. Knowing that this is a common fault with Civics, I checked to see if fuse #15 was blown in the interior fuse box and it was. Time to rack the car up. The following pictures are from underneath the car looking up past the driver’s side half shaft assembly.
The wires above the bracket that braces the intake to the block commonly rub through the insulation until a short circuit is made.
The bracket is easy to remove, just two bolts.
If you will double click on the following picture you can see where the Black/Yellow wire is melted.
This picture shows where the wire has shorted out against the bracket and left a rusty arc mark.
If you double click on the following picture you can see the bare copper wire exposed on the Black/Yellow wire. I took a short piece of electrical tape and wrapped it around the one wire.
Then I wrapped the harness with friction tape.
I also wrapped the bracket with friction tape. I installed the bracket and a new wire tie for the harness attached to it. Replaced the fuse and checked the system. All okay.
Update: Although the harness rubbing on the bracket in this article is a very common problem on these vehicles, there have been several reports in the comments that Civic owners are finding shorted oxygen sensors as another cause of fuse #15 blowing. So you may want to check the wiring around the oxygen sensors to make sure they are not shorting out on the exhaust. If no problem is found there disconnect the oxygen sensor wiring to see if the short will go away.
Have you checked to see if you have any missing or blown fuses?
Any advice for a guy with a 1992 Civic with the exact same symptoms? I looked under the intake and couldn’t even find exposed wire, much less shorted wire. I also checked the O2 sensor and all the wiring looks good. My speedo has been working and not off and on since I bought it, and I didn’t realize that it wasn’t charging too until today when it wouldnt’ start. The guy I bought it from put a new alternator in it and a new VSS sensor, so I’m pretty sure they aren’t the problem, but I’m stuck where else to look for wiring problems.
Sounds the the needle is on the wrong side of the stop peg. On some cars you can use a small piece of wire inserted through the hole used for the trip odometer reset button the flip the needle to the correct side. Others require removing the cluster and is’s bezel to rotate the needle back into the correct position.
I have a 94 eg civic with a d16z6 in it and I noticed my mph needle had some how got stuck on the little pin but setting still it’s not actuality touching it (pin). When I take off I can see the needle start to move like it should but gets stuck on the pin until I stop then the needle will drop off the pin about 1/8 of an inch. I’ve checked everything I could think of I’m out of ideas if anyone could help me out I would really appreciate it ALOT…
Thanks,
Ty it was the front o2 sensor had some frayed wires that were very hard to see till i took it out, then it was apparent, chqnged sensor and life is good again