2000 Honda Civic CEL not working
 

This is probably a long shot but a friend of mine bought this car from a shady flipper who promptly vanished and blocked her number.
Her being young and trusting got burned. The check engine light does not come on with the key on and the car has two codes, O2 sensor and map. Here in Kalifornia a working CEL is a must. I have already pulled the instrument cluster to check the bulb and it's an LED. The Honda forums are next to useless and youtube doesn't have any I could find on the light not coming on. Any ideas? I haven't really checked the harness real close yet. The car looks/runs great.

I found some info on you tube. I'm no mechanic. Guy said diagnose with computer. He did say so meone could have messed with it like black tape. May be in cluster.OBDII could communicate with on board computer. Gage control circuit board he said could be problem. Hope I didnt confuse issue.

I have had good luck getting help on the 8th (2008 Civic) and 9th gen (2012 Civic) Forums in the past, surprised they were no help in this case.

Best I came up with was this:

https://www.clubcivic.com/forum/thre...-civics.59115/

But since you removed the cluster already and say it is an LED, not sure what to make of it except that perhaps the CEL is LED and doesn't normally go bad.

Saw another post that said check for a fuse (#43 I think) but seems to me that fuse would power more than the CEL.

As you have access to it, can you put power to the LED to see if it lights?

If it does, at least then you'll know to trace the circuit back from there.

Would be nice if you can fix it for cheap so that the crook doesn't win in the end.

Good luck.

This video is about swapping to LEDs. He mentions the CEL but says no worth swapping it to LED cause it doesn't matter what color it is.

Check it out to see if his cluster is same as yours. Looks to me that the bulb is replaceable either way. Maybe it was swapped to an LED or maybe Honda started using LEDs after '96?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqREpXFtZvA

From what I gather the two most common ways to permanently disable a "pesky" CEL is to remove the bulb or cut a wire at the ECU.

If the bulb appears to be in place and if you can apply power to it and it lights (proving it isn't simply burnt out), then check for a cut wire at the ECU.

The ECU should be behind the trim panel in the RH footwell. This video shows how to remove the trim to expose the ECU and the connector where you would look for the cut wire that might be disabling the CEL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHtfewneRwE

The wire harness is seen at about the 1:20 mark. Should be easy to see if a wire has been cut.

I'm thinking that the plastic push pins that hold the trim panel might show evidence of having been previously removed as an indicator that somebody has been in there before for the purpose of clipping a wire.

And FWIW, elsewhere I read that it appears a Green/Orange wire is for the Check Engine Indicator. Could be at the cluster or at the ECU I believe.

I would imagine an unscrupulous party would easily discover that little tidbit and quickly clip the proper wire to disable the CEL at the most easily accessible location.

Could still be a dead bulb of course.

I pulled the cluster back out and inspected the wires...no sign of monkey business. I've checked all the fuses, reset the ECU. Still no CEL. My scanner says MIL "on". Using a test light I was able to get all the warning lights to illuminate except for the CEL. It's still showing a bad O2 sensor. I'm going to inspect the ECM today for cut wires but since my scanner is seeing the CEL I'm thinking I'm not going to find anything? I hate electrical problems! lol

In Commiefornia - if a seller sells you a car that won't pass smog that person by California law must refund you your money or pay to have the car repaired even if you signed a release that you purchased the car as/where is. I've been trying to find the CA vehicle code that states this but so far no luck on my end. I'm in Phoenix for the next couple of weeks and my BIG California Vehicle code book is at home. If you have AAA insurance or their road service you can ask at one of their offices - if not try the local CA DMV or maybe even ask your insurance agent they might know off hand. Even if the seller bought the car to flip it the previous owner should have sent a release of liability - hopefully with the flippers address & info on it. If the seller didn't use a burner phone leave a message him you'll take legal action through the CA DMV. As I'm sure you know a CA fine for deliberately selling a car that won't pass smog would be astronomical.

Here's what I was looking for
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/f...ctionNum=24007.

Yeah - do this.

The green/orange wire is used by the PCM to ground the bulb and turn it on. If other warning lights in the cluster work, the MIL probably has power. You could ground the green/orange wire and the lamp should light. The fact that the scanner says it’s on just means that it’s commanded on, not that the lamp is lit.

I have a pdf of service manual of 2002-2003 if interested send me a pm. Should be the same.

Thanks for the replies, haven't had a chance to get back to looking at the car, will post when I do!