93 Honda Civic. Recently had my speedometer and tachometer going to zero when on the highway then returning to normal after 5 seconds. During this time the clock and cruise control went out but nothing else, not even my radio. A couple times I smelled burning under my steering wheel. I looked and a couple of wires under my steering wheel are burnt. Are these possibly causing the problem. If so how do I fix them? Can I just splice them and reconnect them??? THanks!!!
This could very well cause the problems you’re having but you should not simply splice them without determining the root cause of why those wires are burnt.
It could be that the ignition switch is frying itself (not unheard of on a Honda) but there could be other issues also.
To try and get a better grip on this problem, exactly what color are the wires that are burnt?
Just wonderin’ about taking a look at a schematic to determine the likely cause.
I think that just replacing the burnt wires will not fix the problem. The burnt wires are probably a result of the problem, rather than the cause. My guess is that you have something intermittently shorting to ground – perhaps the “hot” wire that powers the things that that are cutting out. When the wire shorts, the voltage to the items goes to zero (so they cut out), AND the wires carrying the shorted power will get hot. You have to find and fix the short. It would be between the burnt part of the wire and the items that are cutting out. If you are real lucky, the short will be by the burnt part of the wire. If you’re real unlucky, the short will be in some printed wiring board in the instrument cluster, or in one of the instruments.
A problem with my guess: Why is the fuse not blowing?? Indeed, I would expect any current large enough to burn the wires should blow the fuse.
Hmmm…I’m Not much of a car fixer upper kinda guy. Any recommendations besides going to a shop? Oh, now my car also wont start. It turns over fine and then just ‘clicks’ off.
Thanks again!!!
There is a high current load on one of the circuit legs and you are going to have to find it if you are going to work on this yourself. You will need a meter to test with and you also should get a wiring diagram for a guide to help you locate the trouble. Normally a fuse should have blown to protect the wiring but something has happened to the protection. If you are patient and don’t mind a little trouble shooting you should be able to handle the problem. If you aren’t really interested in fixing this it may be better to have a shop look at the trouble and fix it. You may have to spend a few hundred dollars to to get this fixed if a shop does the work.
You don’t have the skill; not, the ability to do the repair. If you did, you would have done so already. Take it to a mechanic/shop which can.