I always thought my Civic was a Canada model as the sticker inside the driver door says Canada, but I went to change my alternator the other day and it had a US alternator (square plug, not long).

How can I tell for sure if the car is US or Canada including engine and body?

 

If the VIN starts with a "2" then it's a Canadian model, if it starts with a "J" it's a Japanese model.

 

It is a 2, but why then does it have a US alternator? The car is a rebuilt. Is it possible that the rebuild was done with an engine from a US model?

Also, in my manual it notes the US "ABS" light actually says ABS and the Canadian version shows an image similar to a drum brake. mine says "ABS".

 

They built a lot of them in Canada for sale in the USA. Those would be considered US models. The sticker and VIN is where the car was made, not where it was intended to sell. A full Canadian model would have Daytime Running Lights and speedometer in km.

I didn't think the alternator would be different, anywhere in the world. It's a Japanese alternator.

 

That's why I'm confused when I go to buy parts. I told the guy it was a Canadian model but luckily that part wasn't in stock and we looked at the alternator differences and the only thing was the plug. I double checked mine and saw it was the US model alternator, so really....I do not know. I do know there aren't any day running lights, BUT the speedometer does have KM on it as well as MPH.

PS: It's a 1998 Civic EX.

 

ALL speedos that have MPH also have KMs on them, if it was a KM gauge it would only show KMs no MPHs.
Try using this link, not sure if itll be much of help.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Vehicle...onda/VIN_Codes

 

I know about the VIN.
What I'm unsure of is when I buy parts I'm asked if it's the Canadian model or US. The sticker says Canadian but some parts appear to be US. I know, I've said it dozens of times before.

The vehicle can be built in Canada to be sold in US or be built in Canada for sale in Canada but brought to US?

 

well the only thing i could suggest then, is to pull out the part you need and then take it to a parts store to compare...im not sure what else there is to do...Im sorry i can't be more of help. But what i am thinking is they rebuilt the motor and put a U.S. spec in there and even switched the speedo to U.S. for the MPHs.