Calling all 92 - 95 Civic owners !!

[93civicvx]

Hello,
I have a 1993 Civic VX ( purchased in Dec of 2010 w/ 175k on the clock...).
I am curious about the function of both the light control arm & windshield wiper control arm ( left and right side of steering wheel ).
Both arms seem to have an indent feature, i.e. when you push in on the arm, it feels spring loaded and moves in just less than an 1/8". Now, I wouldn't think that this does anything for the light arm, however, I would assume that on the wiper arm, that it would perform a quick squirt of fluid and wipe the window about 3 times ( my other vehicles have this type of feature ).
It is my assumption that the feature is inop on the Civic. I just wanted to ask here before I delve into tearing apart the control arm and seeing whats going on inside of it.
Can anyone confirm normal operations of these arms for me ? Also, if there is a known issue/corrective action, could someone please share this with me ?

Thanks,
Douglas

[Ryland]

I always figured that the give when you press on the tip was there as part of the flex in the rest of the control.
I haven't taken one apart yet, but my head lights don't come on if it's really cold out and I hear that there is no relay to go bad that it's an issue in that switch, so if you are taking it apart would you mind taking a photo or two and some notes on how to fix the headlight switch?

[some_other_dave]

If your WS wiper control stalk is like the one on my 1990 Civic-derivative, you pull back on the wiper stalk to activate the washer (the water spray). Pushing up on it does a single wipe of the windshield, and twisting the end sets the wipers to intermittent/low/high or off.

The light stalk on the other side activates the turn signals when moved up or down, switches from high beam to low when pulled back (if the lights are on; if they are off it does a blink of the high beams). The lights are turned on by twisting the end of the stalk.

I don't know if Honda changed the controls between your car and mine, though.

-soD

[Ryland]

If you press the tip of the stalk straight in there is a bit of give, I figured that it was there as part of the indexing on the twist part of the switch, not as another place to put a button, the only variation I can think of is the civics with cruse control but I'm pretty sure that they have a button on the dash and two more on the steering wheel.

[TomO]

If you pull the wiper stalk towards your body, it will activate the washer nozzles. the wipers do not function from this action, only washer fluid sprays. Depressing the wiper stalk towards the floor activates the "Mist" mode (single swipe of the wiper arms).

I usually pulse the stalk towards my body to spray fluid on the entire windshield then depress the wiper stalk down a couple times to get the wipers to clean the windshield.

The "give" that you feel by pressing in on the end of the stalk is just a result of the mechanisms inside that stalk getting old and having some play.

Your VX is acting just fine, hope this helps.

[93civicvx]

Thanks for the replies everyone !
I will consider this a non issue and that both of my stalk controls are operating properly with all features.
Thanks,
Douglas