Abyssus

I'm a car noob, so please be gentle.

I've just got my 91 Prelude Cita back from the mechanic and the fuel and temp gauges are broke.

This happened after the electrics got fried when the mechanic tried to troubleshoot a cooling fan problem by connecting the battery to the fan-belt switch directly via a spare wire.

The auto elecs been in and cleaned up a lot of the wiring, but now the fuel gauge needle sits at max at all times, while the temp guage starts at minimum when the engine is not running, and rockets to max in a single movement after the engine starts to heat a little 1-2 mins into running, or straight away if the engine hasn't cooled down.

The cooling fan seems to always run for a bit after the engine is turned off, but I've been told that's pretty normal.

Any help appreciated.

Colfax

Welcome to the forum. There isn't a lot of 3rd gen traffic here, so I doubt anyone will flame you.

It's normal for the cooling fan to run for up to 15 minutes after shutting off the engine. If it's running for longer than that then something is probably wrong.

As far as the temp and gas gauges go, if the mechanic screwed them up, then you should take it back and demand that the shop fix it. They are going to have to figure out what they damaged and make it right. You should not have even paid for any service until they repaired what they broke.

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89 Prelude 2.0Si 4WS
91 Prelude Si - SOLD

Abyssus

Thanks for your reply.

The cooling fan seems to be ok from what you described.

I would like to take it back to the mechanic, but this isn't the first thing he's messed up and tried charging me for, even threatened to withhold the car. So long story short, wont be using him again.

Got offered a tidy 4th Gen today for a good price from a friend. The ride quality isn't as good but its in better condition. Going to sell the 91 off cheap.

Abyssus

Did some more investigating, turns out the fuel and temp gagues died after the gague specialist replace the trip meter.

Thing that really annoys me is, before I knew this I took it down to the gague specialist (same one.. didnt know at the time) who charged me $80 to tell me I need to replace the entire instrumentation cluster... which they destroyed in the first place.

Dodgy mofos.


On the upside, I've befriended a semi-retired mechanic who's doing some mechanical work for me on the cheap.

Colfax

Good to hear that you found someone you trust to work on your car. The person that messed up your gauges should not be in business.

Too bad you're all the way down in Aussie. I can buy used gauge clusters for less than $20. I have a spare 88/89 Si cluster for troubleshooting on my 89. It's come in very handy.

Did you pick up that 4th gen?

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89 Prelude 2.0Si 4WS
91 Prelude Si - SOLD