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Just bought a 2000 civic and this is on the dash

 
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Looks like a shift indicator light

 
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Or a redline light, or oil pressure.....

It's a big freekin' warning light, meant to get your attention! (Usually when something BAD is happening.)....If this had been a real race car, that light would most likely be hooked to the most important things to keep an expensive race engine from self-destruction.
Oil pressure and redline are 2 real important things when you are racing, IMO.

It's probably a warning light for whatever it is connected to. Follow the wires and find out.

 
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It comes on when you first turn on the ignition , then goes off, then when you turn it more so the car starts it goes on again then it goes off again

 
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That wasn't very helpful yet.


Which idiot light on the dash does the exact same thing as the light on top?

Or, which idiot light in the dash is now inoperative because its wire now goes to the bigass light?


Does the original oil pressure warning light still work?

 
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OK I'll check it out, by the way I'm willing to look dumb to get a answer
because it really doesn't hurt that much.

 
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I wasn't trying to...... I was thinking the likely thing a normal person would connect it to (on an unmodified car) would probably be the oil pressure light.


Associating it with a regular warning light (with proof) would be easier than actually tracking down the wiring.

 
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Looks like a shift light. Similar to this, just maybe not adjustable:

http://m.dhgate.com/product/adjustab...67.html#pd-112

Redline the car and see if it comes on. Could just be a lamp hooked up to something important like ezone said.

Did you buy it from a young kid who thought he had race car?

 
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Easy way to figure it out: contact whoever you got the car from and ask "wtf is this thing...?"

 
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*********************************His wife needed a car so he got the Civic, then thought it needed a different exhaust system, so he put one he liked onto it. Then he went out and bought a used set of used low profile tires. With a big smile on his face he gave the civic to his wife, well she got in it and said this is a stick I can't drive a stick , I've never been able to. So she starts it up and says , holy cow this car is loud. Well he was getting a little disenchanted so he suggested that she hop in the passenger seat and go for a ride. Well he got out of his driveway, about a block down the road and she said this thing rides like a truck. He gave up . That's how you get a good deal on a car.
By the way he said he had to pay $40,000.00 for the vehicle she wanted that was just a little more then the few thousand he had in the civic.
He didn't know what the gizmo was either.

 
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Fair enough. lol.

I'd do what ezone suggested then. If you have the time, pull plastic trim off and trace the wires, see where it taps. The use the power of google to find out what it taps into via the color banding on the wire.

To me, it screams shift light, but that doesn't quite line up with when you say it illuminates.

 
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I have no clue what it was, I was guessing at stuff I might have hooked it to.

I think that thing would be annoying as all hell if it was a shift light.

 
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That's how most people hook up a shift light, or a red line indicator.

For all we know, it could just be a big *** CEL.

 
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I'm just used to seeing a lightsaber-esque shift light accompanied with an obnoxiously large tach.

Now I'm genuinely curious as to what its function is.

 
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I'm not use to these high winding engines, I tried to run it up to red line and with this exhaust system it sounded like it was going to blow up, so I chickened out. I'll have to wait till I have some time and a nice day to follow the wires

 
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Just to try and be a nice guy I trudged out through 6 feet of snow to my car and checked my 'idiot' lights. lol

Ignition 'on' (2nd positon) oil - bat stay on until started - check engine - srs - abs come on and go out and at ignition abs comes on for a second or two.

I can't imagine it's an ABS light but that behaves almost exactly as described

 
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Chicken.

That's not a high winding engine.
Redline at 8000-9000RPM would be a high winding engine.

Check the oil.....Get it warmed up and give it hell, the computer won't let you over-rev it.

 
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Another thought comes to mind, maybe the PO was a forgetful person, and it's a big *** seatbelt reminder light

 
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A little research,
And I'd say this is pretty much spot on, wouldn't you?
[Youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj2-MnYd2Nw[/Youtube]

http://www.glowshiftdirect.com/silve...red-light.aspx


I'd dismount it, or look on the back through the front windshield to see if there's a dial to set the RPM limit for the light to go off.

 
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Yes it has a switch for 4, 6 or 8 on the front .It has to be a shift light

 
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I still say you trace the wires, just to have definitive proof instead of speculation. But that's just what I'd do.

 
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Or adjust dial to 4, and rev it up to 4k to see if it turns on. That'd give you a quick indicator.
If it doesn't light up, then you'll have to do some tracing.

 
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4,6,8 sounds more like the # of cylinders to me. It actually rings a bell for me as a cylinder count but too long ago to remember what it was.

Obviously this car doesn't have a tach in it to begin with?

 
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^ somebody read the instruction manual

stock 99, I am deleting the double post

stock99, darn, stand still, so i can delete the right post

 
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Well back to the drawing board switched it to 4 and it didn't light when I hit 4 grand, maybe tomorrow I'll have time to run the wires down

 
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Get on the road and drive it, floor it first gear all the way up to redline and see if it lights up as you bounce off the rev limiter.