Hey guys, havinga strange problem with my '97 Civic. The engine runs fine and the car drives no problem, except the dash is completely messed up. All of the lights on the dash go on and off randomly and when I touch the brake pedal the speedometershootsup to 100mph.

Is there a separate computer that controls my dash functions or do I need and entire new ECM?

I just think it's weird that the engine doesn't have any driveability problems. My battery died a couple of weeks ago, and after I got a jump it started doing this. The battery was shot and wouldn't hold a charge, so I replaced it and have no problems there, but now my dash is all messed up.

The car only has 93K on it, and has no other problems, so I have no problem putting any kind of computer that I need to in it.

Is there anything I can check diagnostically to see what's going on?

Thanks for the help.

 

I don't think the ECU has anything to do with the dash lights other than the check engine one. You may have a bad ground somewhere. The ground wires on the back of the engine (thermostat housing) can cause stuff like that but the engine would probably stall at the same time.

Another possibility is the alternator or bad connections at the battery causing the system voltage to go crazy.