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 both O2 sensors?
so I’m back to square one. I unplug the Oxygen sensor and it seemed to work fine ( speedometer ) but last night the fuse blew again. so I have no burnt wire behind the intake I unplug the oxygen sensor wich I thought would have been the problem as everything was warking fine until last night. What else could be the problem?
I put electrical tape on the black wire on the oxegen sensor and although it’s not a very good idea becuase the electrical tape gets hot and starts to loose its grip and shorts the fuse out again. But I manage to get it to where is working for know at least until I get another oxygen sensor. I tried to use the slip that melts over the wire but could not do it correctly last night. I will take it off and try to do it better, maybe I wont have to buy another sensor. Thank you so much for this post you have saved me time and Money.
If that is the culprit, everything should work correctly except for as you mentioned, the SES light will be on and there will be O2 sensor codes.
I also pulled out the harness from the C115 clip. unbolted the engine wire harnes but all the wire were fine. I first checked under the car before taking of the intake manifold as I thought I might be missing it. I will check the oxygen sensor. Is that the one on the exhaust manifold. because it does have a wire exposed right were it goes into the sensor. I taped it last night and alll was fine went to the store nearby my house and the speedometer started acting funny again wich makes my tranmission act up which tells me the #15 fuse blew again. so I unpluged the connector to the speed sensor and it runs fine. But I will disconnect the sensor tonight and let you know. Thanks for your help. Oh after I disconnect the sensor I’m sure the egine light will come on right but the speed sensor should work fine assuming thats the problem correct? Thanks again.