2003 Honda Civic Logo
Anonymous Posted on Feb 06, 2010

2003 honda cicic dash lights, tach, speedometer, fuel and tem guage work intermittedly. when they go out thel low fuel and air bag light come on. this happend the firt few miles and then they usally kick in and stay on. any idea.. is there a ground for the dash that could be loose?? Thanks

  • Anonymous Feb 14, 2010

    took off the negitive cable and cleaned, The car only has 60,000 on it! when it turn it on the dash lights and everything else works then they kick off, if i turn the car off and back on, they do the same thing until the car is warm and then they stay on! Could there be a circut breaker that is the cause of this? i bought a maintenacne manual.. no help at all.. the car store has nothing in the sysem to buy. and the dealer said it will be atleast $200 to trouble shoot and the the cost of what ever is wrong and the pasts.. ouch, my wife wants it fixed and wants me to pay someone.. i think its something simple just need to locate the problem... help and thanks

  • Anonymous Feb 16, 2010

    Thanks, Took the battery to auto zone and had it checked. It was just under the acceptable reading. I had them try to charge and no go, so replaced the battery. The lights stayed on longer but still went out. Took the car in and had the charging system checked and it failed so I pulled the alternator and had it checked. It failed. Replaced the alternator everything is working.. Did all the repairs myself and saved lots of money!!!!

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  • Master 677 Answers
  • Posted on Feb 06, 2010
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BINGO ! I think you hit it right on the nose ! The negative cable that comes from the battery may also have a lead going to the body.
Make sure you do not just look at it but pull on it to make sure it has not coroded through
Check any other body grounds as well, let me know what you find.

Testimonial: "Good info, was a big help in troubleshooting, and led me to the proper repair! "

  • Anonymous Feb 14, 2010

    OK, you say when the car "warms up" the lights stay on. This leads me to think that maybe your battery has enough power to start the car, but then the alternator is slow to react, then as the car keeps running the alternator has enough time to start charging the battery, and the lights now stay on.

    You may want to have a load test down on the charging system.

    Now you said you took off the negative cable to the battery, but what I did not see is that you ALSO checked the OTHER ground wires, to the BODY.

    Please let me know what you find.

  • Anonymous Feb 16, 2010

    Sometimes it takes a couple of trys ,but YOU did it. YOU hung in there, were persistent and took care of the problem.

    I hope your wife is very proud. If you are, like me, you probably tossed and turned at night trying to figure out a solution !

    I am glad I could help.

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