Greetings. A couple of weeks ago I was driving when suddenly my engine started behaving erratically. I pulled over, and it died totally. It restarted immediately, but would not exceed 3000 RPMs regardless of how much gas I gave it. Since it was less than a mile to my house I drove it home at a snails pace. After sitting in the garage a couple of hours, I went to start it to take it to the shop, but it started up fine. The check engine light was on, but since it was running fine, I decided to drive it to work on a Wednesday, and would drop it off at the shop on Friday. By Friday morning the check engine light was not coming on anymore. I thought all was fine until I drove it at night, and noticed half of my instrument panel was dim. I removed it and found that only 5 of the 12 small bulbs behind the gauges were working. I checked all the fuses, and all are good. I do have an after market CD player, but it has been installed for around 3 years, and all has been good until now. I am unsure how to proceed. Has anyone ever experienced this problem? Thanks.

Greg

 

check the grounds is what i would do... the not going over 3k is "limp mode" and as long as the ecu hasnt been reset the code should still be stored, i think. so it wouldnt hurt to get it scanned.

 

Thank you so much Vartok, for the quick reply. I guess I should have noted that I am not experienced at working on cars in general. I'm not sure what you mean by "ecu". Are you saying I should take it to the shop where they can hook up one of those devices to detect the error code? Also, which grounds should I check? Thanks again.

Greg

 

i know someone has a diagram of the main grounds, all the info i have is on the EGs (92-95_.... ECU is the engine computer. and you dont need to take it to a shop, places like autozone have handheld scanners that will read the error codes and will scan your car for free.

 

Ah, free diagnosis...that's what I'm talking about. One last thing. I read a post a couple of days ago about how to get the odometer to display the error code. It involved turning the key to specific positions, and for defined amounts of time. I did not think much of it then, but now that I need it, I can't find it. Was I mis-interpreting the post, or is it really possible to get digital odometer to display the code? Thanks.

Greg

 

not as far as i know, but mine is OBD1, so to read codes on mine, i have to count the CEL flashes

 

I don't think Hondas do that with the key, you need to use a code scanner on models after 2000. Also check the battery voltage with the engine running. Too much voltage from the alternator will blow out bulbs rapidly as well as cause other problems.