Hi yall, i have a 96 civic hatchback, not vtec, i should add i live in canada. after the blizzard of '07 my cars Engine Check light was on and my speedometer was all over the place, saying i was going 0kmh then quickly to 220kmh all while in first gear. then it died after i got gas and had to use a jump pack to get it going again. the garage said it was a frozen battery and replaced that. then yesterday i was driving and the same thing happened, check engine light and a messed up speedometer. i was wondering what could be the cause of such a problem and what i should do to correct such an annoyance. thank you.

 

Welcome Aboard, you will find that there is a wealth of knowledge on this site.

 

Have you checked you charging system(alternator,battery,starter)If you have a auto zone they will test it for free.It maybe your electrical system is having some problems.does it do this before the car dies?

 

The first thing I would do is see why the check engine light is on. I am willing to bet it will tell you exactly what is wrong. You may have to go to a shop to have them pull the code, and they will tell you what is wrong. And of course how much it is to fix it after they allready charged you for looking at it. Or, if you have access to a OBD2 scanner, which I doubt you dont because your are probably not a mechanic, you could pull the code and tell me what it is. I am a Mechanic and have access to what the code is saying if I couldnt tell you just from what the scanner says.

I highly doubt it is a problem with your electrical system. Your battery going dead sounds like a different problem that was probably affected by the cold weather. This problem sounds like a bad sensor, maybee a VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) Or speedometer cable or both.
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