HOW_TO Install a VTEC light
Installing a VTEC light can be quite a simple task and very useful. I installed one on the Civic solely to know when the VTEC actually did come on, if at all. It was more out of curiosity than anything else. With that SOHC in the Civic, it's much harder to tell when it does engage.

You can go about this VTEC light two different ways. Actually, There's two different wires you can hook up to. The first method is going through the ECU. you want to do first get under the right side of the passenger seat and towards the back is a bundle of wires going through the firewall. On the 2000 Civic, you want to find a green wire with a yellow stripe. Splice this wire and add your own fused to it. Attach a light to the end of that and take the negative to a metal part attaching to the car. There you have it. After that you can leave the light wherever you want. If you're going to put it into one of the blank idiot lights in the dash, I would recommend getting a Chiltons if you don't know how. They go into detal on how to do just that.
The second method involves running a wire through the firewall directly to the soleniod. First get under your hood. The solenoid should be directly to the left corner of the valve cover. It's a single wire with slide-on rubber coating that coils around from by the fuel injection to the top of the panel by the valive cover. Slide the rubber coating back, splice the wire with your own. Now you have to find a place to run the wire through the firewall and your done. Make sure the wire isn't draping down into moving parts. Hooking directly to the solenoid is a more reliable method of connecting the VTEC light, but if for some reason you cut the wire or couldn't get it back on you could have bad problems, (and a lack of VTEC.)

All in all it's just a cheap, somewhat handy little modification that takes almost no time to hook up. The VTEC typically kicks in around 4400 RPMS, (although it may be different on other models.) I've heard that you have to have the engine heated and be driving, not idle revving, but I never cared to test either of these so I can't verify that rumor.


Pictures soon to come


Back to HOW_TO