Here are some maintenance tips to help you get the most from your Civic:

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cars-t...tml#post219991

Just received a call from the shop. The problem with my car is 3 damaged wires on my wiring harness. The wires are located behind the intake manifold. Tech. does not know why this occurred but he did not rule out the possibility that it could be chipmunks or some other animal. Apparently this damage was enough to foul up a large of systems - speedometer, lights, alternator, etc. I'm kind of frustrated that wire damage could send me on such a wild goose chase but I guess I've learned. The wires were able to be repaired by splicing new insulators in place. I've yet to pick up the car but apparently everything is working fine now.

That's pretty wild.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by treespectro

Just received a call from the shop. The problem with my car is 3 damaged wires on my wiring harness. The wires are located behind the intake manifold. Tech. does not know why this occurred but he did not rule out the possiblility that it could be chipmunks or some other animal. Apparently this damage was enough to foul up a large of systems - speedometer, lights, alternator, etc. I'm kind of frustrated that wire damage could send me on such a wild goose chase but I guess I've learned. The wires were able to be repaired by splicing new insulators in place. I've yet to pick up the car but apparently everything is working fine now.

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Treespectro,
You should be glad it was only simple wires repair. Alternator would have cost much more. Also referring back to Parts Store person who said "Alt Dead", he was merely observing it was not producing output. Again you were lucky those faulty wires did not do serious damage to the Alternator. If rodents (even cute ones) were under hood long enough to gnaw the wires, which are normally inside plastic protective tubing/wrapping (? ), seems you would see their signs under hood even now. Once I went to look at a car for sale by owner, and when opened the hood there were acorn shells and leaves packed all around the engine. I have also been told some small critters even bite/chew the rubber water hoses and cause major leaks. But still I wonder why and how all this just happened exactly when you were driving in rainstorm?? Maybe there was still some cause and effect there!

I have a 1997 honda civic , 5 speed, and my car done the same thing, my car does not have a tach, but when you first start the car it runs fine then the check engine light comes on and the speedo keeps bouncing up and down also does it while driving, two weeks after this happened I put a new battery and altinator in it and it continued doing the same thing,

codykey31, attach a code reader and check for codes.

I'm having the same issue... Did you ever get the problem fixed?