A few months back I had my lights surging and speedometer not working which related to the VSS but RonJ helped me clear that up. So here it is, one day I was just filling my radiator with coolant and I heard a spark sorta of like a mini power line went down. Anyways I got checked all fuses which seemed fine but when I start the car and moved I noticed the speedometer was once again not working. I then proceeded to notice that my radiator fan stopped moving (it was tied in to a blk / yel wire for abut 2 yrs now), so right then I started to trace the wire down to the alternator. My guess is that this blk/yel wire is for the VSS cause I shaved the blu/yel wire for my wipers and tied the radiator and the blk/yel wire into it and they once again worked. So I know that there's no power going into that particular wire. I know I shouldn't tie stuff in like that so I rarely drive my car anymore to avoid any serious damages. Electrical work here is ridiculously expensive so I thought it would be best to just change the engine harness one time to solve both the radiator and VSS problem one time. My thing is I'm confused about that part as my uncle told me (not 100% surely though) that the engine had two engine harnesses. To be precise about this blk/yel wire though, it's on the driver's side with a big connector the goes into a slightly smaller big connector and runs into the car and a few wires to the wiper motor. I can't really use my wipers and it's been raining off & on here. Reason being the speedometer will flucuate and the car will lose power while driving so I would have to put it in N then turn on wiper then bk off, but with wiper at full power (constant) then the speedometer won't move at all allowing me to use the wipers. Like I said, I don't want to risk damaging anything. I recently changed my battery fuse to the correct one because I noticed my mechanic had a 100a which he said shouldn't cause any problems but I'm beginning to think thanks to him I am now having so many electrical problems. I ordered a chilton's manual to see what I can do but so far I'm sort of discouraged. Anyway with all of the above being said, any ideas? One person suggested the problems may be stemming from the main fuse box and another post I read suggested the ECU which fixed their problems. Yes my CEL IS on, it was on for a few months, came off one day, then came back on after I changed my IACV (go figure).

 

You didn't say which model year you have, but around 1998 they had a common problem that will cause what you describe. The wires underneath the intake manifold get frayed and short out. This cuts power to the VSS and several other things, for example the alternator can't regulate the voltage any more so the lights flicker. Typically this will blow fuse #15 under the dash. The cure is to repair the damaged wiring and tape it up. Inspection and repair is best done looking up from underneath the car.

I would also strongly recommend rewiring your fan and anything else that has been jury-rigged back to stock configuration. Then diagnose and fix the real problem with the system. Don't second-guess the Honda engineers, they're quite good. Running the fan all the time, instead of only when needed like it is supposed to, will wear out the motor prematurely. The fan motor is a rather expensive part.

 

I'm sorry, I did mention it but must have erased it without realizing. 1996 Honda civic 1.5L (D16Y5) vtec auto trans. swapped from 1.6L engine. And didn't second guess a Honda engineer, if you notice I said my mechanic had a 100a fuse where honda recommends 80a so I changed it to 80a as it should be. Also the fan is not run to the battery, it's run on a wire coming off the alternator from what I could tell so that the fan only runs when the car is switched to the on position. Also, like I mentioned, I was thinking of just replacing the harnesses instead of having them fixed which is quit costly, whereas I could just swap the wires myself. Honda charges about $2,000, maybe more for the amount of time they will need to correct my wire shortages which is pretty much buying a new used civic and I know this because my cousin just got the same problem sorted out with his car and he was charged $2,000 but I have about 3 more shortages than he did so I'm guessing my bill would be more. Look at my location and it will explain the cost (lol). Hence once again I am stating that I would just prefer to swap the wires. I have pretty much isolated the keypoint areas to my problem, just wanted some input from someone more experienced than myself. But can you tell me if the engine harness is a whole thing or two separate harnesses because I saw mention of an alternator harness but I cannot find it on majestic's site. I mainly just want to fix that particular problem then I will sell the car, I have a girlfriend now who sorta hates that I spend more time with my car than her (lol) so I just wanted to mainly know about this harness, where can I find one? Oh by the way there's no wires frayed, as I also mentioned RonJ helped me a while back with a similar problem relating to this same thing, turned out it was a wire disconnected was all, but like I said, now there's a wire shorted out so basically I just REALLY wanted to know like I said about this harness.

 

Parts diagrams at Majestic Honda (see link below) may answer your question about wire harnesses. This is also a very good site to purchase the harness(es) that you need.

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/

Here's more information on the common fuse 15 problem mentioned by mk:

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/tsb/civic/x99-029e.pdf

Pull the CEL codes as detailed at the link in my signature, clear the ECU (remove 7.5A BACKUP fuse for 1 minute), and then drive the car to determine codes that repeat. Post repeated codes to receive more feedback.

 

I think the engine harness is one piece. It plugs into the body harnesses on both sides, but it is all connected together as it goes across the engine. Also the big white wire from the alternator connects to a screw in the under-hood fuse box. New harnesses tend to be very expensive. Take one off of a junked car and inspect it very closely before putting it on your car. Probably just removing your harness and inspecting it will reveal the problem spot.

The fan uses a lot of power, thus it has it's own circuit from the under-hood fuse box with I think a 30A fuse. Now you're running it off of a 15 amp circuit that was only intended to run some sensors and other little stuff. This is not good. The fan is also intended to run only for short times while the car is in traffic and the radiator heats up. When the car is moving, the fan is not necessary, and in stock configuration it stays off.

The reason your electrical system lacks power seems to be the "I" (black/yellow I think) wire at the alternator is not live with the key on like it should be. This prevents the alternator from powering up fully and producing its rated output.

 

Like I said RonJ, I am unable to locate this particular harness on majestic unless as mk as stated, it may be one piece. From the only diagram of engine harness that I have found, it doesn't appear to be so but it may well be. Thus, it is somewhat very confusing to me. As far as the harness, I know it's quite costly to purchase, but which would you prefer? A $300 harness or a well over $2,000 service fee? I'm most likely going to sell the car after that problem gets sorted out anyway so spending a bunch at this point is useless but I will see if I can get to remove the harness sometime this week and see exactly how it's set up as you suggested mk.

 

Yeah, I think Majestic sells all the engine harnesses as a package. You might want to contact a Majestic representative to ask whether it would be possible for you to purchase only the specific harness that you need.

 

So I just called my local Honda dealer since Majestic is already closed and they don't even know how many harnesses are in the hood much less even sell it. They would have to order it and most likely quad up on the price it would even cost them. Trust me it's not double or triple because last time I called about weather strips and they told me $180 each and majestic sells them for around $60 each so yea.....honda stealership as I've heard lol.

 

Did some electrical work over the weekend with a friend, turns out because my mechanic had the radiator fan hardwired it kept shorting out the vss fuse and eventually the wire just stopped getting power (blk/yel) which I would have never guessed because it's been hardwired (or what u call jerry rigged) for 2 yrs now. Maybe from there stemmed all my other electrical problems because as I recall, I started having problems with my windows shortly after the radiator was hardwired. So it turns out it wasn't the harness at all.....but maybe I'll still buy one..i hate seeing taped up wires but then again harnesses are quite costly...if it ain't broke don't fix it rite?!