Honda Car Forum

I bought this Honda civic about a month ago and it has been nothing but trouble. When I originally bought it I found out that the speedometer and a couple things didn’t work but ill put that in another post. My main concern was that when I first turn the car on every time all the lights are a little dim but the cars still seems to drive pretty normal. The only thing I notice is that when I stop the revs fluctuate from 1000 to 2000. I recently did a full tune up and replace the battery and the alternator so I don’t think that that is the issue. I found out that the lights stay dim until I hit about 5000 rpms, and they will stay dim until I hit the appropriate rpm, then the car will idle fine and the lights will be fine after that and they will stay fine for the remainder of the trip until I turn the car off for about an hour or so. If anyone could help I would appreciate it. BTW I also notices that the kid before me may have had a couple add-ons on the car like a V-Tec controll

It would be interesting to learn how you came to purchase this car. Try checking the trunk area and see if you see any old water lines. It's possible you've purchased a car that was salvaged in from a flood area (which would pretty much screw up the electrical lines that's for sure). You might try removing the adds on that that the kid installed too. Sorry, I can't be more helpful.

i own a repair shop,in Tennessee,and i get a lot of these that have been done like that,,had things added them or removed on them,and they leave the wiring harnesses in pretty bad shape sometimes,, also you need to start color tracing wires on this car and repair all the damaged wires on it,because some times the wiring can become a main issue,i had one that was to me to repair ,and it sat over night in the parking lot,and caught on fire because some kid had had wired up a stereo in it,and had it in wrong wires hooked up to something else you need a good Haynes repair manual and try to repair this wiring ,and you might find your problem in the process,,good luck,i hope this help,s.

it could be a bad ground coming off the alternator or a short in the harness for the alternator

You might have water behind your dashboard.The run off hose from the roof tracks are supposed to hang down approx. 3"" below your car.I had a serious accident in my 94' Civic and had several problems you mentioned.Finally a body shop discovered that the hose had some how been pointed in to my dash area causing NUMEROUS electrical and mechanical problems.It's worth checking out.