mojoes2

hi -- 1st post...

so my 05 civic lx broke the hood latch cable handle off... got new cable from local dealer today & watched some youtube, then set about fixing it.

first car i owned that had to remove the bumper cap & headlight to swap a hood latch cable... kind of a pain... goddamned plastic clips suck.

btw same time was having wierd issue w/ tach needle jumping past redline & sticking there, but only starting or turning car off (key on / key off). could make come back to 0 if turned key on & off many times. later, figured out gauge sweep test, saved me like 20 key on/offs...

this happened once or twice before, but after this summer (lotsa driving in rain) it was everyday i go out, there's the dang tach needle pointing 5 o clock. notice too it was doing something it was'nt before -- when shutting car off, tach needle would bounce up to like 1000 rpm for a split sec, then go down to that pin (0 rpm).

someone here a long time ago said the alternater bolts gotta be checked regular, cause theyre the ground for it. once the cable was in, i notice since the headlight isn't in the way, the alternator bolts are able to get a socket wrench on... so checked -- 1 was pretty tight but the other was able to get a bit more tight.

also, theres a ground cable right behind where the hood latch bolts on, so I unscrewed it a bit, used a old toothbrush to scrub away some nasty white corrosion (salt air don't help) & tightened it back. got the footwell back together & started it up...

1st thing i noticed... was the car felt diff reversing out of my space... like i'd diconnected the battery, that soft, wierd way it drives. so shut it off and did the idle learn procedure... 10 mins of idling, shut it down, then went home.

pulling onto highway no diff than any other time i did idle learn, gonna take a tank to feel like normal again. but after parking at home and setting my alarm... noticed something else - my chirp sound for 'armed' was like, way higher than normal. like the battery was more charged or something. and the tach didn't do the jump to 1000rpm before going to 0 either...

so figure, maybe the alterntaor bolt tighten, or that braided ground cable bolt, or maybe even both helped the grounds for this car? read here and other forums that bad grounds are like the cause of most wierd electrical problems in cars, so am glad i found those two things before like, my alternator fried something...

never thought i'd fix two electricals (one i did'nt even know i had) by replacing a hood latch cable... but there ya go -- check your grounds for those two problems (weak charging, and tach wierdness). guess i got lucky, thanks for your time.