Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - View Single Post - i-vtec light for 2008 Civic R18 (LED indicator when 'Eco' cam profiles in use)

uabcar · 04-30-2009, 11:44 PM

wanted to follow up in the event someone later does a search here on the subject (like I did).
Here is the link to the 8thcivic thread.

i-vtec solenoid wiring help - 8th Generation Honda Civic Forum

==================

Okay- I finished (mostly) the final install a couple weeks ago.

Overall it was pretty easy. The most time consuming part was taking the dash apart- which when much faster the second time (more on that in a minute).

First, here is a quick look at the solenoid that you need to tap into. The black wire with the white stripe in the one you need to tap.

For a cleaner look, I traced this wire into the black plastic wire track behind the valve cover and tapped it inside the housing. There are two screws holding the wire track to the engine. Once you remove the screws there are several tabs that need to be opened in order to get inside. Once opened, I removed a few sections of the electrical tape holding all the wires in a bundle so that I had about 12-14" of the wire I wanted to tap into available. Here is a picture of the wire track. I don't have any pics with it opened because I did this part of work a few days ago and getting it open was/is a bit of a pain. Notice the wire coming out of the right side - this is my new positive lead for the LED.

Next, you need to get this new wire into the cabin. I took a few pictures of the point I went through but unfortunately none of them turned out well. So, to find this point , look straight back (to the firewall) from where I have the wire exiting the wire track (see the pic just above)- and then look down maybe 6-8”. You’ll see a big bundle of wires going into a large rubber grommet.

To get the wire through, I took a shirt hanger and straightened it (I'd guess it was 2-2.5 feet long). I put one end into my cordless drill and used it to drill through the outer edge of the grommet (outer edge to ensure I didn’t hit any of the wires). You need to go very slow with the drill and steady the hanger wire with you hand as you drill as the hanger wants to flop all around if you go too fast and without steadying it. Once through I disconnected the wire from the drill (with several inches of the wire still through the grommet). I then used black electrical tape to attach the wire to the end of the hanger. Note- I didn't over lap the wire and hanger- rather I had them touch end to end- I didn’t want to risk having the wire get pull off as I pulled it through the grommet. After I had the wire attached, I put a bit of silicon based lubricant on the remainder of the hanger and wire. This makes it much easier to get the wire through the rubber. Here is a picture of the wire coming through the grommet inside the cabin (the white wire in the lower middle of the picture). To orient yourself, this in just behind the center stack where the radio and HVAC controls are.

With the wire inside the cabin, it was time to tear into the dash. I snapped a couple pics of this along the way but not anything too detailed. How much of the dash you need to remove depends on where you want the LED. I wanted it in the upper gauge cluster near the speedometer and gas gauge so that it’s in my line of sight. This of course requires much more of the dash to come out. I’m sure there are some other DIY’s that go deeper into this process but here’s the high level and sequence. First, take the footwell cover off (if equipped). Next you remove the lower panel around the steering column. With this off you can remove the section that goes around the side and top of the steering column. With this off, you then need to pull the section that surrounds the radio. With these sections off, you can get to the last one- which is the section that goes between the tachometer section and surrounds the speedometer cluster. I think there were only about 4/5 screws in total to get all the panels off. It's really amazing how easy it is to disassemble these cars. There are however tons of plastic snap-in connectors holding things together. I should note that the hardest part of the process was removing (and reinstalling) the two screws that hold my radio in. I've got the Navi so I'm not sure if it's unique to this radio or not but they are a real pain to get to. They are accessed through the top of the cubby below the HVAC controls. There is not much room to work and it's very hard to get into a position to see what you are doing. Here are a couple pics.

In this picture, I've removed the speedometer cluster- very easy just three screws and one connector.

Here is a picture of the cluster out of the car. Notice the white tabs at the bottom. Unclipping these allows access to the black panel that I installed my LED into.

Here's the LED I used. I picked it up at the local Radio Shack. I liked it because it has a built in resistor to reduce brightness and was setup for direct mounting- all I needed to do was drill a hole. (I had figured that I was going to need to buy an LED holder and experiment with different resistors to get things the way I wanted. This one was very easy to use- the bottom section is threaded and there was a bolt (not shown in the pic) to attach it with.

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1213/dsc02252.jpg

Here is picture after I drilled the hole. Looks green due to the circuit board and flash. Placement is somewhat limited due to the way the black part of the cluster (where I drilled the whole) is constructed. Behind most of this piece is more plastic shielding to focus the other engine lights- which are actually mounted to the circuit board behind.

Here is the speedo cluster led in place.

Once I had the dash put back together I did the electrical work. It was getting late so I didn't take many pics of this process. The easiest route would be to take the positive lead wire from the solenoid and attach it to the positive side of the LED and then attach the other leg of the LED to a ground. There is so little power required to drive the LED that there would be no issue making a direct connection.

I went ahead and wired everything up using a couple .5 amp fuses and a relay- just to be safe- and because I wanted the slight audible click you get from a relay when it engages and disengages. Here is a picture of the relay installed- right next to the steering wheel driveshaft.

And now- jumping way ahead after reassembling everything- here is the light in action.

Of course, I was in such a hurry to get out and test drive the thing that I forgot to attach the connector to the speedometer cluster. Of course I didn't discover this until everything was put back together and I was ready to do the test drive - which I did anyway wondering the whole time if I'd damaged the speedo cluster somehow.

Luckily when I got back, and took everything apart again- I discovered the connector just laying there, unplugged. The good thing was that since I'd just taken everything apart an 90 mins earlier, it took me no more than 15 mins to disassemble and reassemble everything.

So there you are. Let me know if you have any questions.

04-30-2009, 11:44 PM	#13 (permalink)
uabcar EcoModding Lurker Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: OH Posts: 9 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	here's a link to my mini-DIY wanted to follow up in the event someone later does a search here on the subject (like I did). Here is the link to the 8thcivic thread. i-vtec solenoid wiring help - 8th Generation Honda Civic Forum ================== Okay- I finished (mostly) the final install a couple weeks ago. Overall it was pretty easy. The most time consuming part was taking the dash apart- which when much faster the second time (more on that in a minute). First, here is a quick look at the solenoid that you need to tap into. The black wire with the white stripe in the one you need to tap. For a cleaner look, I traced this wire into the black plastic wire track behind the valve cover and tapped it inside the housing. There are two screws holding the wire track to the engine. Once you remove the screws there are several tabs that need to be opened in order to get inside. Once opened, I removed a few sections of the electrical tape holding all the wires in a bundle so that I had about 12-14" of the wire I wanted to tap into available. Here is a picture of the wire track. I don't have any pics with it opened because I did this part of work a few days ago and getting it open was/is a bit of a pain. Notice the wire coming out of the right side - this is my new positive lead for the LED. Next, you need to get this new wire into the cabin. I took a few pictures of the point I went through but unfortunately none of them turned out well. So, to find this point , look straight back (to the firewall) from where I have the wire exiting the wire track (see the pic just above)- and then look down maybe 6-8”. You’ll see a big bundle of wires going into a large rubber grommet. To get the wire through, I took a shirt hanger and straightened it (I'd guess it was 2-2.5 feet long). I put one end into my cordless drill and used it to drill through the outer edge of the grommet (outer edge to ensure I didn’t hit any of the wires). You need to go very slow with the drill and steady the hanger wire with you hand as you drill as the hanger wants to flop all around if you go too fast and without steadying it. Once through I disconnected the wire from the drill (with several inches of the wire still through the grommet). I then used black electrical tape to attach the wire to the end of the hanger. Note- I didn't over lap the wire and hanger- rather I had them touch end to end- I didn’t want to risk having the wire get pull off as I pulled it through the grommet. After I had the wire attached, I put a bit of silicon based lubricant on the remainder of the hanger and wire. This makes it much easier to get the wire through the rubber. Here is a picture of the wire coming through the grommet inside the cabin (the white wire in the lower middle of the picture). To orient yourself, this in just behind the center stack where the radio and HVAC controls are. With the wire inside the cabin, it was time to tear into the dash. I snapped a couple pics of this along the way but not anything too detailed. How much of the dash you need to remove depends on where you want the LED. I wanted it in the upper gauge cluster near the speedometer and gas gauge so that it’s in my line of sight. This of course requires much more of the dash to come out. I’m sure there are some other DIY’s that go deeper into this process but here’s the high level and sequence. First, take the footwell cover off (if equipped). Next you remove the lower panel around the steering column. With this off you can remove the section that goes around the side and top of the steering column. With this off, you then need to pull the section that surrounds the radio. With these sections off, you can get to the last one- which is the section that goes between the tachometer section and surrounds the speedometer cluster. I think there were only about 4/5 screws in total to get all the panels off. It's really amazing how easy it is to disassemble these cars. There are however tons of plastic snap-in connectors holding things together. I should note that the hardest part of the process was removing (and reinstalling) the two screws that hold my radio in. I've got the Navi so I'm not sure if it's unique to this radio or not but they are a real pain to get to. They are accessed through the top of the cubby below the HVAC controls. There is not much room to work and it's very hard to get into a position to see what you are doing. Here are a couple pics. In this picture, I've removed the speedometer cluster- very easy just three screws and one connector. Here is a picture of the cluster out of the car. Notice the white tabs at the bottom. Unclipping these allows access to the black panel that I installed my LED into. Here's the LED I used. I picked it up at the local Radio Shack. I liked it because it has a built in resistor to reduce brightness and was setup for direct mounting- all I needed to do was drill a hole. (I had figured that I was going to need to buy an LED holder and experiment with different resistors to get things the way I wanted. This one was very easy to use- the bottom section is threaded and there was a bolt (not shown in the pic) to attach it with. http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1213/dsc02252.jpg Here is picture after I drilled the hole. Looks green due to the circuit board and flash. Placement is somewhat limited due to the way the black part of the cluster (where I drilled the whole) is constructed. Behind most of this piece is more plastic shielding to focus the other engine lights- which are actually mounted to the circuit board behind. Here is the speedo cluster led in place. Once I had the dash put back together I did the electrical work. It was getting late so I didn't take many pics of this process. The easiest route would be to take the positive lead wire from the solenoid and attach it to the positive side of the LED and then attach the other leg of the LED to a ground. There is so little power required to drive the LED that there would be no issue making a direct connection. I went ahead and wired everything up using a couple .5 amp fuses and a relay- just to be safe- and because I wanted the slight audible click you get from a relay when it engages and disengages. Here is a picture of the relay installed- right next to the steering wheel driveshaft. And now- jumping way ahead after reassembling everything- here is the light in action. Of course, I was in such a hurry to get out and test drive the thing that I forgot to attach the connector to the speedometer cluster. Of course I didn't discover this until everything was put back together and I was ready to do the test drive - which I did anyway wondering the whole time if I'd damaged the speedo cluster somehow. Luckily when I got back, and took everything apart again- I discovered the connector just laying there, unplugged. The good thing was that since I'd just taken everything apart an 90 mins earlier, it took me no more than 15 mins to disassemble and reassemble everything. So there you are. Let me know if you have any questions.