Vehicle: 1989 Honda Civic Si Hatchback - stock D16A6 - 5 speed

When the vehicle is good an warmed up sometimes the cel will come on. Checked the code on more than one occasion and its giving me code 17 "vehicle speed sensor malfunction or circuit fault". The speedometer and odometer work fine, kinda.

OK...the speedometer reads mph as long as Im on the gas, when I let off the gas the speedo drops down to zero. When it does that though you can press on the gas a little and it will go right back up and start detecting the speed again. Also if I let off the gas and the speedo goes down to zero, I can press in the clutch and the speedo with detect the speed just like when pressing the gas...weird. I have never come across this problem in any of the hondas I have owned so Im a little lost on this one.

Also, after the car is good and warmed up after turning off the ignition sometimes it wont start back up right away. Gotta kinda give it a couple minutes to set then it fires back up. Im thinking fuel problem on this but no sure. Prob fuel injectors, fuel rail..but I could be wrong.

Thanks in advance.

 

Your car has a faulty speed sensor, and your starting problem could be the PGM-FI relay

 

As far as the car being warmed up and not wanting to start I had the same prob in my 88 civic dx. It turned out to be the computer went bad. I pulled the hazard fuse and waited 10-15 secs then put the fuse back in. This reset everything and it started up every time. I lived with that prob for over a year before I sold it. It does clear the codes so if there is another code popping up make sure and check it out b4 you try this approach. In my case no codes were blinking. just a thought.....

 

Check the ground and power to the gauge cluster.