I have a 1991 Honda Accord with auto. Today when I was driving home from work, the speedometer, odometer, trip odometer, temp guage, gas guage, and cruise control stopped working. Also, a light that lets you know if a certain transmission setting is on was blinking, and the check engine light came on as I neared home. At first I thought it was a fuse, but there appears to be no problem with any of the fuses.
Does anybody know whats going on?
I will take a guess. I have never worked on a Honda. Most of my knoledge is for Dodge.
Sounds like the guage pod is bad, or has a loose connection. In newer cars (not sure if this was done as early as 91) there are not seperate wires for each guage. The entire pod with all the guages, and “idiot lights” are connected to the car over a data bus, and a microchip in the pod takes the signals from the bus and sends them to the proper gagues(kind of like a PCI/ISA bus in a computer). If the microchip in the pod goes bad you could have the problem above, or could be caused by a loose connection on the data-bus.
At first I thought the problem was the speed sensor, but that wouldn’t take out your temp and gas guages.
Cross your fingers its a loose connection. Guage pods are not cheep.
Also just FYI your odometer will still have recorded milage because that is stored in the ECM/PCM (not sure which) and not in the guage pod.
Hope this helps.
Well, I’m not sure about that, but I should let you know that the idiot lights and the tachometer are still working fine.
So far I haven’t come up with one thing that would alone affect all the items mentioned.
Speedo, odo, & trip odo: If cable operated, a broken cable, broken instrument (speedo/odo assembly), or problem with the speedo gears inside the tranny. If fed by a speed sensor, then sensor, cable to it if it’s remote, instrument, or speedo gears. If speedo etc. are electronic rather than analog, also possible wiring or connection problem to/in instrument cluster.
Temp gauge, gas gauge: The gauges themselves, their respective sending units (the preceding very unlikely if both gauges failed simultaneously), gauge voltage stabilizer (if used), wiring or connection problem to/in instrument cluster.
Cruise control: Very likely whatever is keeping the speedo from working–cruise needs speed input. Problem with speedo instrument or instrument cluster wiring would not be related.
O/D (I assume) light blinking, check engine light: Some fault inside the transmission.
Everything but the temp & gas gauges could very well be symptoms of a single transmission-related problem. If you’re lucky, it would be with the speedo drive. A competent transmission shop or general repair shop could read the ECU (“computer”) trouble code memory and get an idea.
Well actually I am not sure if the gas guage and the temp guage quit for sure, because they didn’t move very much in the first place. The blinking light indicates a sport shifting mode, which I think makes the transmission shift faster, it doesn’t turn overdrive off. The odometers are analog, and I am not really sure if a car this old has a computer. It is Sunday now so I can’t take it anywhere, but any more help would be appreciated.
Not meaning to pick on you, but it really clouded and confused the issue to list them, and not explain the above till now.
You now have a transmission problem, to add to the unrelated low-reading gauge problem that you’ve already had for a while.
Probably not a relevant distinction, I was just guessing. The point is that the blinking of the light indicates a transmission-related problem.
It has a computer, they date back to the early 80’s, all 90’s car have them. Here’s a start on some more info: http://autorepair.about.com/library/faqs/bl969c.htm
I’d take it to a reputable transmission shop or dealer.
I think your right about it being a transmission problem, and I’m just gonna take it to the Honda dealership and let them deal with it. Thanks for your help anyway.
Incidentally, I drive a '91 Honda Accord, and I once had all my gauges go out on me, and the idiot lights all came on. It was because my alternator had died. (However, I was able to continue driving on battery power alone for a few days afterwards, until I could get it into the shop.) Hopefully, your troubles are caused by a much less expensive problem than mine.
I agree, kwc27. Get to the Honda dealer asap. I’ve owned an '89 Accord and presently have a '96 & '03 Accords. I would not let anyone other than my Honda dealer pop the hood. I ran the '89 up to 220,000 miles with just regular main. items. Your '91 should have some good time left in it. Don’t be afraid to spend some dough on your car, unless you wanna dump it. If it has been a good one, then get it fixed right; by your dealer. Good Luck with the repair. JB
Just chiming in again. With the new information I agree with everyone else here. It is either a Transmition problem or a speed sensor problem. Only reason I say speed sensor is that the trany requires a signal from the speed sensor to work (especially if it has features like ‘sport shift’). So if that signal is missing it would screw up the tranny.
Gary T what does ECU stand for? I have always used ECM - Engine Control Module, PCM - Powertrain Control Module, and BCM - Body Control Module.
ECU = Electronic Control Unit. I’ve seen ECU, ECM, & PCM all used to refer to the (main) “computer,” depending on which manufacturer is speaking.