Stupid Car problem!! Please help.

I was driving last night and I noticed that my temperature gauge went way up almost to the red. I also noticed that my clock and headlights were dim and later on, my check engine light came on. I was hoping just to get home, even though the car seemed to be running fine. I got home ok, then woke up this morning and forgot all about it. I got in my car took off, and not right away, but within about 5 minutes my check engine light came on again. My temperature gauge kept fluctuating from way up to way down, then I realized something. It either went up or down when I hit my brakes. Sometimes when I hit my brakes, the temp gauge would shoot way up, or drop down. I also noticed that hitting my brakes caused my cigarette lighter to short out, but letting off the brakes would me the power to it come on again. I noticed this because my radar detector kept turning on and off. My clock kept dimming when the brakes were hit as well. This must be a vacuum line, or an electrical problem. ANY ideas? Please help. Thank you.

dude juss check ur tire pressure on the passenger side tire..happens to me all the time..hope this helps.

wtf? i hope your not serious. lol

perhaps your alternator is on the way out....

good point...possibly...

Check all of your grounds. Most likely problem.

First get your CEL code, its most likely a code 20 for electric load. Then as stated above, check your tranny to battery, valve cover, and thermostat ground. After that you might wanna check your dash harness and brake wiring, they could have gotten mixed up and melted together thereby causing electric signals to be sent to your temp guage intsead of your brake lights, when you brake.

i 3rd to check you grounds for sure, probably corroded or not attached.

i 4th that idea.

checking the grounds is ur best idea

First, check the codes. Then after that maybe you should take the time to investigate your wiring. Sounds like you have a short somewhere.

check for short in brake light wiring also trailer hitch wiring if you have it seen many with trailer plug wiring shorting on exhaust

ryan you say that like your questioning us. what would you do mr. smart ass?

ok...so now i am going to sound really stupid, and i know people flame for totally retarded questions, but if anyone could help me out by telling me how i go about checking the codes. i know where the ecu is at and the light, but i dont know if there is a right way. like turn the ca on....or accessory position or what. i dont know how to read the codes either.

Just turn the car on, pull back the passenger side carpet and start counting blinks. When there is a significant pause, stop, then start over again. If the same number of beeps repeats then it is just one code. If there is then a different number of beeps you have two codes, etc. OBD0 d-series engines go one beep at a time. Check the FAQ thread for the code chart.

yep and they should be blinks not beeps in obd-0

it's like,

short blink= -
long blink= _

ok now

short blink value of 1
long blink value of 10

now add

_ _ - -

that would be a 22 code

get it?
it's really easy, you'll get it.

yep and they should be blinks not beeps in obd-0

Okay, smartass, I edited it.

BTW, hondacivic99sivtec, if it's a stock engine it doesn't go one long blink for 10... Jeez... not everybody has a swapped engine and ecu in their car.

If you have a stock engine in your 88-91 civic/crx and you have a code 17 (speedometer cable) for example it will blink 17 times like *****************...

If you have a code 1 (Oxygen content) for example, it will blink 1 time and pause and repeat like *___*___*

Get it?

Yes, ive realised that b16 ecu's are different, they will blink one long time for 10,
But the stock ones will just blink 10 times.

well i have a Z6 engine with the stock pm6 ecu. vtec is not hooked up. tonight it was annoying. my headlights kept going dim then bright, and everyone thought i was flashing my bright. gh3y:screwy:

Stock PM6 blinks one for one... so code 17 would be like dude said.. 17 blinks.. I got a 16 for the longest time b/c of a shorted ground... (INjector wiring/faulty injector)

Anyway, if you take your car to your local autozone, they can hook up the baer machine and test your electrical system for free. I suggest that. It tests the charging/starting circuits... if it comes out good, have them run it one more time, and depress the brake pedal when the guy asks you to rev to 2k rpm (at the same time as you're revving) it will put load on the charging system if there's a short, and that will tell you the problem.

Good luck.

The first easy thing to check is all of your double filament brake light bulbs. Look for a broken filament that has jumped over to the tail light filament. Every time you step on the brake the short circuit feeds back to the dash.

...
BTW, hondacivic99sivtec, if it's a stock engine it doesn't go one long blink for 10... Jeez... not everybody has a swapped engine and ecu in their car.

If you have a stock engine in your 88-91 civic/crx and you have a code 17 (speedometer cable) for example it will blink 17 times like *****************...

If you have a code 1 (Oxygen content) for example, it will blink 1 time and pause and repeat like *___*___*

Get it?
hey sorry never had to check codes on a stock car.
but thanks for the info. i never knew that.

The first easy thing to check is all of your double filament brake light bulbs. Look for a broken filament that has jumped over to the tail light filament. Every time you step on the brake the short circuit feeds back to the dash.


as a matter of fact, i dont know if this would have anything to do with it, but my left taillight IS more dim than my right. it was like this when i bought the car, but this problem was never occuring. could it have something to do with this problem?

as a matter of fact, i dont know if this would have anything to do with it, but my left taillight IS more dim than my right. it was like this when i bought the car, but this problem was never occuring. could it have something to do with this problem?

You should take your tail light apart and check it out. It's not hard to do. Better to fix something easy than to be stranded on the side of the road with a dead car...