Rep Power: 0

So heres the deal. I was hardwiring my Valentine One today. For whatever reason, I ended up blowing a fuse. It is the "Meter" Fuse which is on the far right hand corner of the fuse panel under the steering wheel.

When the fuse was blown, the car had approximatley 8000 clicks. With the blown fuse, the gas gage, spedo and tach all did not work...

I drove the car approximatley 500 KM's until replacing the fuse. When I plugged it back in, the Odometer still reads the reading from when the fuse blew. It is possible that I can get the real meter reading using an OBD-II scanner?

Also - I noticed the Air Condition did not work with the meter fuse blown. Well, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Usually goes on for 10 seconds when you start the car, then the AC shuts itself off even though it is turned on it the cockpit.

Can anyone comment?

 
Rep Power: 399

no. your odometer now is technically "faulty" and reading not the true mileage.

when you blew that fuse, it basically prevented the speed sensor wire from transmitting to the ECU. the speed sensor wire controls your odometers, and your speedometer. obviously this also affected whatever sensor readings were sent to the gas and tach as well. the AC i dont know.

basically because you drove the car in this condition, the car's ECU and odometer thought the car was never moving. however, there are other sensors that may have given a clue to your ECU that the car was moving.

i'm somewhat surprised you didn't get a check engine light. i'm guessing, however, that you do not have an EX with ABS.

either way, i'm not aware if the civic had any other way of knowing the car was moving. if it did, you should hope the ECU did not record the fact that your odometer/speedo wire was cut/inactive while the car was moving. you could get into some trouble if it did, and the dealership or anyone finds out. if you or anyone ever has this happen, DO NOT DRIVE THE CAR until you get the problem fixed.

 
Rep Power: 333

sounds like a very serious issue. i would bring it to honda/pros asap.


stash the rader detector and make it seem like it just happened out of no where. show up and try to make yourself look unknowlegdeable to cars as most as possible. try to say random stupid things as well like "my miles dont go up"

 
Rep Power: 399

another thing. i doubt your problem was caused by a blown fuse.

the speed sensor wire as far as i know, does not go through a fuse panel anywhere. i'd need to see a helms manual to know for sure, but most cars have the VSS or vehicle speed sensor attached to the drive shaft or transmission output shaft in some way or another. the wires then run up through various harnesses directly to the ECU.

so no combination of fuses blown should cause your ECU's odometer to stop reading your mileage. i think you may have pulled a wire loose somewhere.

this is my educated guess.

 
Rep Power: 289

it was just a fuse. i have done it b4. you pull the fuse out and all your gauges go and cel or maint reqd lights turn off also your a/c wont get cold. but if you turn on your head lights your a/c will turn cold again. it is just a fuse the dealership told me thats all it was when they looked at mine.

 
Rep Power: 399

this would be the first time i've ever known a VSS on a car to be wired to a fuse of any kind and then to the ECU..... for this exact reason. you could simply pull the fuse and stop your odometer to prevent it from recording mileage.

 
Rep Power: 299

i agree honda would never let stopping the milage be as easy as removing a fuse. If it was that easy i would have done it along time ago

 
Rep Power: 0

Well, I am thinking now it is that easy.

Like nick95763 - I tried turning on the lights and now my AC does get cold. I assume the ECU is showing the correct mileage, but yes - if the fuse is pulled the odometer does not add miles.

 
Rep Power: 310

I'm guessing the VSS goes straight to the ECU, then the ECU talks to the odo via a fuse. If the fuse is blown, whatever that fuse protects wont work..

 
Rep Power: 0

Do u know what this means? we can rip off the entire world HAHAHA!

 
Rep Power: 0

Well, my main concern is that I plan on selling this car in two years. I am not a crook so I want the official mileage to be reported on the ODO.

At this point it does not need possible to "add back" what has already been missed. If I go and turn in the car, will the dealer know this has happened and mark my car as a salvage title because the Odometer is not correct? That would basically render the car as worthless.

 
Rep Power: 318

Have you tried resetting the ECU yet?

 
Rep Power: 0

No, I haven't tried to reset anything. How would I do that?

More importantly, I would like to get the correct odometer reading out of the ECU if that is possible.

 
Rep Power: 318

Disconnect your battery for about 5-10 minutes. If your speed cable IS connected directly to the ECU, that MIGHT bring the milage on the ECU (that correct milage if all the assumptions are correct), but I'm not sure. Hope fully it will reset the odometer. In any case, it won't hurt and doesn't cost anything.

 
Rep Power: 399

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the civics have a digital display gauge for the odometer?

If that's the case, then any mileage stored in the ECU would be displayed automatically on the odometer. The odometer is nothing more than a display for what the ECU knows the mileage to be. Even if you cut the wire to your odometer, and then 1000 miles later reconnected it, the odometer would STILL display that extra 1000 miles.


If they have an analog display for the odometer, then yes, the ECU will have the actual mileage recorded, and that will be known if the dealership ever queries the ECU. Which means they will then know the odometer is displaying false information.

Your best bet is to go to a dealership and tell them you suddenly noticed your odometer seemed to stop working. Remove the valentine and hope they don't find any evidence of tampering, otherwise you're screwed.

 
Rep Power: 0

I thought that the mileage was kept in the cluster. Not the ECU.

 
Rep Power: 330

the civics DO have a digital odo reading, but if you unplug it for example, then drive 10 miles, and plug it back in, it displays the cars actual mileage, less 10 miles. so basically it doesn't change. like in my car, i swapped stock gauges for rsx gauges at 31094 actual miles, and the rsx cluster had 35564 miles on it, so my mileage reads 4470 miles above actual mileage on the car.

 
Rep Power: 318

Yeah... my thoguht is that maybe the display freezes to show that something has gone wrong. So resetting everything might clear that up. And if it doesn't take it to the dealer and tell them some a**hole on the internet told me to take the battery off for a few minutes.

 
Rep Power: 289

my thought is that sometimes things dont get thought out. and this is one of them. why would the gauge hold the numbers even after you have them in your closet for a year if the milage was stored in the ecu. o yeah honda has a ton of small memory cards they need to get rid of that they love to place in their ecu and gauges.

 
Rep Power: 0

Ok, I disconnected my battery for 10 minutes to reset the ECU. Put it back on, ODO still shows the incorrect mileage reading (less).

My guess is that the ECU doesn't count the miles at this point...

 
Rep Power: 307

On the Toyota Corollas the cluster swap from CE to LE was a popular mod. On those the original speedometer/odometer section could be removed and installed in the LE gauge to keep the original mileage reading. There is a circuit board that counts speed sensor pulses and increments odometer. I would imagine this is made similar, I would not sweat the slight difference in readings.

Did the A/C work O.K. after fuse replacement ??

 
Rep Power: 289

yes once you replace the fuse and aslong as w/e blew the fuse is fixed everything works the way it should

 
Rep Power: 399

i found a rough electrical schematic for the civic.

VSS is uninterrupted to the ECU.

odometer mileage is stored in a memory module that is within the gauge cluster, NOT on the ECU. so resetting the ECU won't do squat.

the only way to get it fixed is to take it to honda and have them manual adjust the odometer. if the car is under warranty, just tell them your clusters went out one day when you turned on the AC. you found the cause was a fuse and replaced the fuse, but the mileage was not added on and you need them to fix the mileage.

remove any and all evidence of you installing the radar detector first.

 
Rep Power: 289

so what your saying is if we put a switch on that fuse we can set our cruise control and turn off our odometer and never be caught unless we are caught red handed.

 
Rep Power: 0

CraigW - After fuse replacement A/C works 100% normal.

 
Rep Power: 0

S2000man01

I was told by a honda mechanic today that the ECU does not store mileage... I brought it to the dealership today to ask them to reset the mileage, and the people basically laughed at me and said "your lucky... leave it as it".

I guess honestly is laughed at these days...

 
Rep Power: 318

wow... that's something. You could try to replace it your self, but I wouldn't, I would probably go to a different dealer. On the other hand if Honda finds out it went bad, they may mark your car is not having real milage, and that will make it very hard to sell. If you just fix it your self, no one would ever know and the car will sell fine.

 
Rep Power: 310

Some dealers when they install a new odo or cluster they'll place a sticker on the door jamb that shows the adjusted mileage... shouldnt be a big deal.

 
Rep Power: 399

yup, if the dealership can't adjust the odometer, they put the sticker on the door jamb.

 
Rep Power: 399

yes i already said that a few posts ago.