JPelto

Hey, guys! I'm hoping someone can help me diagnose my problem! I have searched the forums and have found a few useful threads, but none seemed to address my problem exactly, so I'm starting a new thread. Hopefully this will be helpful for anyone else with this problem!

I have a 2003 Honda Odyssey.

First, I can't shift out of park, my brake lights do not work and my horn doesn't work. From the Honda-Tech forums, I discovered that I had blown my STOP fuse under the hood. I replaced that and it worked -- once. And then the fuse blew again.

I changed the brakelight switch, which is often the culprit (according to the forums!) and that fuse still keeps blowing. I also cleaned the connection there. I also looked at all of the wires and everything seems to be in order -- nothing exposed. I looked at the brake light connections and around the brake pedal.

Also, I had read that isolating the horn and the brakes to see which circuit is bad can be helpful. For the record, I blew my horn about 20 times in a row but as soon as I stepped on the brake pedal, the fuse must have blown.

Any ideas on where to look next or what to try?

ALSO: after I changed my brakelight switch, my brake pedal seems to be sticking down. I have to push it up manually with my foot when I'm driving. My brakes are also SUPER sensitive. I thought it was the new brakelight switch being weird, so I swapped it with my old brakelight switch (which is in the car right now, actually) and my brakes are still sensitive and sticking. There is literally no way I could be installing the brakelight switch wrong (right?)...I watched a YouTube video and it seems really simple. This could be a coincidence (that right after I changed the brakelight switch my brakes were acting a little funny) or it could be part of my larger problem.

Thanks, guys and gals! Any help would be ENORMOUSLY APPRECIATED. I'm trying not to spend money on a technician if I can do it myself. I WILL report back to close this thread with what the problem was. Hopefully it can help someone else out!

JPelto

More info: when I turn the key over into the "on" position (just before starting the car up) and press on the brake while in park (with my blown fuse, of course), there is no "clicking" noise, and if I push on the brake pedal a couple of times, the brake pedal locks up.

dwashy21

What specific action causes the fuse to blow? Is there a pattern?

JPelto

Stepping on my brake pedal is what I am pretty sure is doing it. A few days ago, it would take a few hours for the fuse to blow (once, it made it ALL DAY) but now it blows immediately.

JPelto

When I put a fresh fuse in, I can blow my horn a lot -- then I try to shift into drive (which doesn't happen) and the horn stops working. Fuse is blown again.

JPelto

OKAY. If anyone comes across this thread and feels like their brakes are very sensitive and sticking after installing the brake light switch: you probably have done it wrong. I just found this great comment under a YouTube video ( ) showing how to change the switch:

"It's fine to depress the brake pedal to eject the switch but when you insert the replacement you want to have the pedal back at rest. Insert the switch into the slot so that the white trigger is depressed against the pedal (this will cut off the circuit to the brakelight and your brakelights will turn off).

Then you want 3mm of clearance between pedal and the pad (essentially 3mm of white showing between your pedal and the pad). Inserting the switch all the way with the pedal depressed as in the video is going to result in the brake pedal permanently engaged a good cm or more into most Odysseys and result in your brakes being slightly "on" the entire time you're driving the car."

So that solves my secondary problem!

Still trying to figure out why my fuse keeps blowing...I'm taking it to AutoZone tomorrow to get any free readings they can offer. Not sure how helpful that will be...

Also: I had heard that the horn relay could be bad, so I switched it with one of the lighting relay fuses (universal, I think?) and that didn't make a difference.

holmesnmanny

This sounds like a relay issue. I bet they are all part of the same relay. I would find the relay and test it.

JPelto

I switched the lighting relays and the horn relay around, and it's still giving me problems. I haven't tested them individually yet, but I think that those three all work. I doubt the condensing fan or other non-related relays would be the issue.

JPelto

When I was checking my brakelight wires, I noticed that one of my bulbs looked a little discolored. Could one burnt bulb be blowing the fuse? That seems implausible.

Runnerdown

Yes take any suspicious bulbs out and inspect them and try the fuse again.

JPelto

Replaced the suspicious bulb. Still blowing the fuse.

Went to AUtoZone and tested the old and new brake light switch (both are reading at the same voltage, which probably means that they both are fine) and tested 3 relays: horn relay, lighting 1 relay and lighting 2 relay. All read at the same reading (and my headlights and interior lights work, so by logic, this means that all relays are fine.)

Runnerdown

Water and corrosion in the base of the bulb socket can cause the fuses to pop. But didn't you say it pops when you put it in drive?

JPelto

Pops when I put my foot on the brake in an attempt to put it in drive.

Runnerdown

Ok yeah then it's highly likely to be one of the brake bulbs, sockets, harness etc.

Boost2014

I would try and drive it say in your driveway with no brake lights in the sockets. It is centered around your brakes so I would start at the rear and move to the front . Many times I have found the bulbs or even the sockets to cause all kinds of problems.

Miguel613ekb18c

Get a schematic diagram and go from there

daxr

I knew a guy at an auto-electric shop who's technique was to replace the fuse with a 10-gauge jumper wire and then do whatever would ordinarily blow the fuse. Then he'd feel around the wiring harness for what was getting hot.

Of course, you don't know how bad the short is so you'd risk burning up a harness, or worse. I think he was good enough that he knew he'd be able to fix whatever burned up, and it would save him time hunting (and, of course, someone else was paying the bill).

Anyway, I'd start by disconnecting things until the fuse didn't blow. You could safely wire in a circuit breaker in place of the fuse so you didn't have to keep replacing fuses. Then disconnect the brake lights and so forth. One other thing you might do is just assume its a short in the wiring to the rear lights. Its a reasonably simple circuit, and you could just bypass the whole thing with new wiring. Sometimes that's easier than opening up harnesses and hunting down problems.

JPelto

Thank you so much for the suggestions. I have been so busy with work and school that I haven't had a chance to get back to the car, but I think and obsess about it all day.

I will report back soon when I've had the chance to try some things out.

JPelto

I took out all of the bulbs today and it still shorted out immediately.

I do have a circuit tester light. Do I keep the car running or the battery on when I check the wires with it? I'll be researching this next and I'll try to test a few of the brake light wires to see where the current is not going.

JPelto

After the fuse blows, I should note, my backlights DO work. But my brake lights do NOT.
Does this help narrow does any wiring shorts?