Malfunctioning Digital Fuel Gauge on my Honda Civic FD2

One of the innovative and futuristic features of the Honda Civic FD series was the 2 tier dashboard. Notably, the traditional speedometer dial gauge was replaced by a digital display aligned to the center of the steering wheel, sitting right in front of the driver. Of course, when this first came out, there was an instant love-it or hate-it reaction.

While it bore a close resemblance to the digital speedometer found in KITT of the Knight Rider frame, a slow refresh rate of ~1 second initially drew criticism that the display was not in "real-time". To most of us, this was OK, as one did not need to know the exact speed of the car at any given time while accelerating or braking, unless trying to test for 0-100 times. Then again, most speedometers weren't accurate at high speeds anyway, usually erring on the side of caution (actual speed being lower than displayed speed).

The display is capable of 3 full digits, meaning a theoretical maximum speed display of 999. In actuality, the left most character can display a "2" (enough evidence available on the internet, don't need to ask me how I found out), so speeds of >200kph are attainable. Unless, of course, you have a stock FD2R, with a built-in limiter of ~180kph.

To the left and right of the display are the temperature and fuel gauges respectively. The temperature is shown in little squares, with the normal operating temperature of my car being around 9 squares. Somehow, i feel this is better than the light / no light display found in some cars like the Toyota Vios (2nd Gen), where you either see no light (meaning all is fine) or you see the light (meaning it's too late). On the right side is the fuel gauge, which is made up of a total of 20 squares, plus a low fuel orange light that comes on roughly when the last 2 squares are reached.

Don't trust your eyes, less risk your tank running dry....

Now the reason I'm writing this post is not to explain this digital upper instrument cluster in detail, but rather to highlight some minor issue which cropped up recently. Being a ~12 year old car, I'm not too surprised when my dear FD2 starts to show signs of age. Specifically here, the fuel gauge has started to malfunction intermittently (as you can see above), that is:-

• Display back-light is sometimes dimmed, as can be seen in the photo where the F and E are somewhat dimmer than the H and C on the left side temperature gauge
• Fuel display squares can be "inverted", or all fully + partially on (something like the photo)

Not sure when was this first time this happened, but it was fairly recent and not a one-off event. This tends to happen at any random time, and can suddenly revert back to normal at any time too. No co-relation to time of day or temperature of the car. Searching on the internet, looks like the entire module is replaceable, but not sure how much it would be the cost. Have to find out during the next service run to GS Tay Honda Muar, which is probably another 9 months or so away, given my current mileage and typical daily drive distance. As this will probably cost quite a bit and is not really life-threatening (odometer is still working, so I roughly know when to refuel), if it costs too much I may decide to just live with it.

Other possibilities include 2nd hand (if can find), either stock FD2 (not sure if common part with FD1) or perhaps from an FD2R (might be compatible). But the FD2R back-light is red, and has a matching lower tier as well, so a red/blue hybrid just doesn't work, IMHO. Check back here for updates (after nine months or so). Anyone else out there ever face a similar issue in your own FD1/FD2/FD2R? In the meantime, if anyone has any parts to let go, and you are in the vicinity of Melaka, do let me know.