Civic - Honda :: 1998 DX - Erratic Speedometer / Needle Will Sit And Quiver On 20 Mph When Going At 60
May 18, 2011
I have a 98 Civic with 218,000 miles. It's my around town car (the bigger more expensive car sits in the garage most of the time). The speedometer whacked out about a month ago. The needle will sit and quiver on 20 mph when I start it, when I'm going 60, and at stop lights. Suddenly, with no apparent reason the needle will jump to to the correct speed, work correctly and then as suddenly drop back to 20. I replaced the speed sensor (an easy job) and that didn't fix it. What else might be going on? Wiring harness? What would I do with the wiring? I do a lot of low level maintenance myself; oil, plugs, brakes, struts, but I've never done wiring work.
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I have a Honda Civic EX 1993. The mechanic said that this is not due to a sensor and checked all the wires and said all of that is fine. And said only a new speedometer would fix it but I wonder if something else couldn't fix it. Quite expensive to get a new speedometer, especially if it doesn't work.
For about 2 years I have had a problem with the speedometer. It does not come on right away. In the summer it takes maybe 5-10 minutes to come on. In the winter it rarely comes on before I get where I am going (I live in a small town so about 20 minutes). Tapping on it does nothing. Once it comes on it works fine.
I rarely go on the highway unless going out of town. When I do go on the highway (high speeds) after anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on the weather, it first flips over to about about 100 mph, and then if I hit the front of the face of the speedometer it goes to the correct speed and works fine from there on. If I only stop for a short time, it comes back on fine. If I am stopped for a long time it goes through the same thing.
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Well, I'm still driving the same old 1998 Honda Civic DX two-door coupe, and I've got a problem with overheating. The temperature gauge needle doesn't get quite to the red, but it's popping up higher than usual, and I'm concerned to see it getting anywhere near the red. It usually spikes when I get off the highway and stop at a light, but it also does it occasionally in a drive thru, and recently, I discovered that when I give it a little gas in neutral, it brings the temperature gauge needle down to normal.
Here is the history of recent repairs and troubleshooting:
-About 3-4 years ago, I had a leaky radiator replaced, so the one that is in there isn't very old.
-Last year I had a mechanic replace the thermostat, the radiator fan, and the radiator cap when I started having this problem.
-A few months ago, I had the timing belt serviced (the entire kit, not just the belt), but since the water pump looked fine and the car has so much mileage (275,000 miles), I opted not to replace the water pump. (I regret that now. I usually replace the water pump with every other timing belt, but I've learned my lesson.)-I've been to several shops to get a diagnosis, but they have a hard time getting it to overheat at all, so they can't diagnose it.
One guy suggested the water pump might be worn out (inside, without leaking outside). Another guy suggested that "if it was the water pump, you would know it's the water pump." Each mechanic has done a pressure test on the cooling system and a flow test on the radiator, and they all say they are fine. One mechanic theorized that I might have a very small head gasket leak, but nobody else thinks that is the case and there is no sign of coolant and oil mixing. Besides, the temperature gauge has never been in the red.
-One mechanic who tried to diagnose the problem recommended replacing the plugs, plug wires, rotor, and distributor cap. After doing that, it is running better than it was, but that didn't resolve the overheating problem. He also retarded the spark timing, but it is self-adjusting, so it re-advances itself after a couple days of driving. I can hear what sounds like minor knocking, but it's always made that noise since it was new.
-Everyone who has tried to diagnose the problem says the thermostat is opening and closing as it should, and the radiator fan comes on and shuts off when it should.
I'm done getting second and third opinions, and I'm ready to start throwing parts at it. Do you think I should start with the water pump? What are your thoughts? Don't tell me to replace the car. I just bought a new motorcycle.
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I have a 95 Honda Accord V6, the D4 light is flashing and the speedometer needle does not work. When in stop and go traffic, the needle bounces around and makes the car stall and downshift and rev up. I replaced the speed sensor with no change.
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A friend has a 2005 Honda Civic with approximately 120,000 miles that she just bought the end of 2013. The car was kept immaculate by the previous owner. This week as she was driving, she said the temperature needle suddenly went all the way to H. Earlier in the day, she had noticed the A/C was not consistently cool but didn't think much of it as there were no other problems with the car. When the temp needle suddenly went to H, she shut off the a/c and before she could pull over the temp needle went back to normal. She checked the coolant level which was very low and she took it to the dealer who ran multiple tests including checking the thermostat, cylinder compression tests, etc but they could find nothing wrong. I keep telling her there is a reason it did that and that coolant doesn't just disappear and that I think she should take it back.
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This weekend I was one a trip in my '98 Civic, and I noticed some movement in my temperature gauge. It didn't really overheat; the needle never got near the red, but it did go a little higher than usual.
Normally, once the engine heats up, the needle on the temperature gauge doesn't move, not even a little. It sits right under the squiggly lines on the temperature gauge icon. However, on Friday, when I got off the highway, the needle rose into the upper part of the icon, to the part with the thermometer.
As soon as the car started moving, the needle on the temperature gauge went back to its normal spot, so I assumed it was a problem with the radiator fan and I kept on driving, prepared to turn on the heat if the needle on the temperature gauge started going up.
Saturday morning I took the car to a local shop in Jacksonville, and it turns out the engine needed a new fan and a new thermostat.
The first lesson that comes to mind is that keeping an eye on my temp gauge might have saved me an engine. It certainly saved me a head gasket. Since a head gasket or new engine would have been worth more than the car, catching this before it became a problem saved me from having to buy another car.
The next lesson is that my Civic had two things wrong with the cooling system, and yet it barely showed any symptoms. The air conditioner doesn't work I guess since a working A/C would probably have made it overheat. In any case, I've probably been driving without a working radiator fan for some time.
The final lesson is that if I had tried to diagnose this myself, I'd probably be driving around with a new radiator fan and a bad thermostat. I paid about $435 for a new fan, thermostat, and fresh coolant (I declined the cooling system flush) and it was worth every penny.
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My speedometer on my '02 Honda Civic was working, then not working. Now it doesn't work at all. I replaced the VSS, and it still isn't working. There are over 150K miles on the car. I read somewhere that it could be the alternator, but that doesn't seem to make sense to me?
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Driving on highway, check engine light goes on, speedometer drops from 60 to 0 but nothing else happens. Come to a stoplight and engine light stays on and speedometer works again. Any diagnostics?
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I took my son's 2008 Honda Civic Coupe in for an oil change at a local third party shop today. While there, I was persuaded to let the mechanics carry out a fuel injection service. On driving home I noticed that the digital speedometer no longer read correctly. It now reads about 20 mph over. This is particularly noticeable as the vehicle slows down. I saw that the mechanics were having trouble connecting into the fuel system. They were working in an area behind the air filter, and just in front of the instrument cluster. I believe that they may have disturbed a cable or something in that area, which has caused the problem.
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My 1998 Honda Civic has been dormant in my drive way for about a month and a half with very little gas. I went out to try to start it the other day and it struggled for a bit and never turned over. It isn't the batter considering the headlights and radio work just fine, thus I sought out the nearby gas station and attempted to solve the problem by putting gas in it, yet when I returned and emptied out my gas can into the tank it was the same ol' story. What it could be?
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I have a 1998 honda civic LX that slips very very seldom upon acceleration. It happens under light acceleration and medium acceleration (I dont accelerate hard enough to see it slip at high acceleration, it might!)
What happens is, the car stops accelerating and simply idles. As the motor idles the car drifts and slows down. I have never done it, but I bet in this state I could come to a complete stop just by drifting if I keep my foot in the same spot on the accelerator. When I change my foot, and accelerate harder, the car wakes back up and keeps accelerating like nothing even happened.
I don't think it is the transmission slipping, because in that instance revs would climb and acceleration would halt and that is not the case. I recently gave the car a huge tune up, here's the list
Valve adjustment
Oil and filter change
Cleaned throttle body and IAC
New distributor and cap (Plug wires aren't really in good shape)
New spark plugs
New air filter
Set the timing
New belts
Cleaned injectors
Cleaned battery terminals
I don't know what could cause this problem! The only thing I have come up is the Possibility a TPS (Throttle position sensor) going bad. The only thing that I know of that is wrong with the car is the exhaust manifold has a big crack in it right before the upstream 02 sensor. No doubt this leak is messing with the cars readings of the AFRs. Could this be part of the problem? It is throwing a code for the catalyst system.
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I have 1998 Honda civic 2 Dr and i was trying to switch cd players in it and blew some fuses so i checked all and replaced the blown ones but now it won't start.
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I've been checking my oil every morning for a few weeks now because of a worry about it burning off. I check it at the same time each morning, in pretty much the same parking spot, before driving it. Every time I take out the dipstick, wipe it off and put it back in to check. What's weird is that the level seems to fluctuate. Some days it's up over the higher dot. Some days it's down closer to the lower one (though it hasn't been under). Most days it's somewhere closer to the middle between the two. Is it common for it to fluctuate that much on a day to day basis? Is it something I should be worrying about?
In case it matters, it's a 1998 Honda Civic LX.
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I have an issue with my 98 honda civic lx, with 197000 mils. Recently I had my Check engine light on. I ignored it for a day. The next day started my car and in the middle of the road it stopped moving, meaning in spite of accelerating it doesn't move. So I stopped at the shoulder, turned off the engine. After a while I started again, the car moved but later on it stopped moving when I was accelerating. The Engine did not turn off during the stall. Couple of weeks back the car was shaking on the front side when I was driving, it felt like the car was about to stop as if it was short of fuel.I changed the spark plug 15000 miles back. Water pump and timing belt was changed 25000 miles back.Car has a highway mileage of 32 mpg.
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My 1998 Honda Civic has oil in the radiator. And even stranger, the oil winds up in the overflow coolant reservoir. What is the most likely cause of this?
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My car drives fine till it heats up then if I come to a stop it won't go into gear.....
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My 98 Civic ex runs and shifts perfect to have 200,000+ miles but when you try and shift to reverse it grinds. It acts like it's gonna shift into reverse but doesn't. When you shift back into park or neutral you can hear it still spinning. Sounds like a card in spoke of bike. We have drained fluid twice and replaced also added trans-x.
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I've got a 1988 Honda Civic Sedan. 151, 000 miles. Runs great,except when I have to stop for gas or I pop the clutch maladroitly to get going and kill the engine. Then it won't start up. It used to do it once or so every five times I stop to gas up. I don't drive it much and have to re-charge the battery every month or so--even the new battery. It started this herky-jerky thing last summer but the tow guy convinced me it was a bad gas problem. A gas additive seemed to clear it up, but not the starting problem.
Just last night I recharged the battery,let the engine run 15 minutes or so the next morning, then shut it down and tried to restart it; turned over but wouldn't start. In general, when it cools down about an hour or so later, it starts fine. So engine heat seems to cause it.I've giving up trying to gas up at the cheap stations. Instead I go to the local station two blocks away so I can push it aside and come back later to get it if it stalls. Could this be something simple I could fix?
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I have a '98 Honda Civic that is regularly maintained and seems fine with the exception of a starting problem when left outside. I have it in a garage normally and have never had a problem starting it. But when left outside, it usually takes a couple of hours for the car to warm to the outside temperture as it rises. The battery is new and the spark plugs seem fine so I am at a loss.
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I have a '98 Honda Civic EX with 260K miles on it. Car normally runs better than my newer cars. Yesterday on the way to work, I came up to a stop sign, and the car died. I put it in park and tried to restart several times. It cranked over fine, but sounded like it had no spark. After several attempts, I thought I would just put it in neutral and get it out of the road. I turned they key on and tried to put it in neutral, but the shifter wouldn't unlock. After turning the key on and off what seemed like a hundred times, the unlock button on the shifter finally unlocked. Without even trying to put it in neutral, I turned the key all the way, and the car started right up. I believe this same thing happened to my wife several months ago, except she just told me it died and the engine light came on. Could this be a problem with the ignition switch??
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I have a 1998 Honda Civic with 166Kmiles that is new to me. For about 1.5 months I had no issues but about a month ago I was driving and noticed something odd. If I tapped the brake, the lights would dim and the radio would cut out. Not every time but frequently. As I was coasting into my parking spot, I pushed the power window button to close the window and the car stalled. After that I started having hit and miss troubles getting the engine to crank. Either it would crank or there was NO power (i.e. no dashboard lights, radio, etc.) at all. Jump starting would work but I had to get the cables just so. Last week it gave up occasionally starting. I can still jump start but again the cables have to attached just so. Once started the car will run but I have to keep it above idle or it might stall. I replaced the battery to no avail. What is my next step in solving this electrical system problem?
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