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No, I don't mean it's sad. It's flush with the end of the handbrake lever so it has gotten hard to push to release the brake.

This is my wife's '03 Civic EX 5MT. The situation has been present for years, but she's, um, not "detail oriented" when it comes to mechanical things as long as they seem to be working at all (but watch out for misuse of em dashes, en dashes, hyphens, and Oxford Commas in writing - she's a copy editor and that's where all the attention to detail goes). It has been working well enough that she didn't want to bother with it until recently, but now it's getting hard for her to push enough to release the brake (it's bugged me for a while, but it's her car and up to now she's been saying "it works... leave it alone!")

So... is this something a reasonably competent person with a decent collection of tools could realistically fix in less than a day? I've only poked around the console enough to be convinced that I don't know where to begin, so instructions, tips, photos, and diagrams (or pointers to those) would be helpful. In general I prefer written information over videos for projects like this, but I'll gladly take what help I can get.

If there's a good service manual available for a reasonable price, I might be interested in that. Those are always handy to have.

If there's already a thread or discussion about this, a link to any would be appreciated. I'm new here, noodled around the site some, and tried the search function, but if this has already been covered I didn't find the right combination of search terms.

 
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The Haynes manual for these are pretty awesome. Alternatively, I think there's a sticky on the site for the Honda service manual PDF but I can't seem to find it.

 
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removing enough of the center console is the biggest pain to locate al the hardware holding it down.
Can't remember, had to move of remove seats?

 
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ah, haynes manual you can find on autopart sores or amazon pretty easily

 
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center console removal most recent thread

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/3...r-console.html

 
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Link to factory manual here: https://www.civicforums.com/forums/1...e-updated.html

Don't have to pull the seats to pull the console, you could drive the car without the hand brake lever if you need more than a day or two to fix it.
If you don't find anything in the manual on how to fix the button I would just put in another one from the junkyard

 
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Before i forget, LOL!

 
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Removing the center console in an EM2/ES1 is easy. You don't have to remove the front seats.

• 2 screws on the back side (slide the seats forward to see them)
• Remove the e-brake surround with pocket to reveal 2 (or 4?) screws mounting the center console down. Pry up around the edges to release the plastic clips. If you have the sliding door thingy, open that up and use the inner lip portion to grab on to
• 2 little plastic pop clip things on the front side (driver/passenger footwells -- depress center of the pop clip thing and out the come)
• Remove shift **** (pull down on the boot retaining ring, unscrew ****)
• Lift up and out

However, the issue with the button may not be the button. It might be the rubber plastic "sheath," we'll call it, that goes over the physical metal e-brake lever. I know the one on my 2002 came loose after some time. I'm not sure if it was adhered to the actual lever or just friction fit. I was actually able to take mine off if I really wanted. Grab the black portion of the lever and it should slide down the actual lever to reveal more button to push. I actually noticed it on mine when I would go to push the button and instead of the button moving, the outer sheath of the e-brake lever was actually moving upwards

 
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Thanks for the link! It took a lifetime of scrolling to find a download link that still worked (funny how that plays out after more than a dozen years), but there were some near the end.

I've never seen a Haynes manual I've considered useful, but there's always a first time. I'll look for one if the factory manual or other leads don't work out.

Now, there's something I hadn't considered! I'll check that out ASAP, maybe as soon as tomorrow.

Thanks for all the help and encouragement. I'll let you know what I find.

 
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That's what we're here for buddy. I'm also spitting everything out from memory. I haven't had my 2002 civic since 2017, but I did a fair amount of messing around with it.

Edit: I also never "fixed" mine. I just pushed it all the way down the lever as far as it would go and it just kinda stayed. If it did ever move, I just slid it back down again.

 
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sorry should have said to just go to the end and try the most recent link

 
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BINGO!

That was it. It took all of about 10 seconds to fix. If it happens again, we'll just shove it back into place. If it gets too bad, I might look at gluing or wedging it in place or something.

Once you suggested it, that sounded very plausible since the button still worked, which didn't make much sense otherwise. Thanks again! Gotta love these forums.

 
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No worries. Being new here and unfamiliar with this forum's particular layout, not knowing how many posts there were combined with the whole thread being on one continuous page (I'm not used to that), and not knowing how to skip directly to the end, I just kept on scrolling. I'll figure out how to drive this thing yet.