Mods - I know this probably isn't the place for this, but I didn't know where and this forum has the more technical crowd that I need as an audience. Move it if you must.

Car: 1997 GS-R

So the other night I'm driving home and my cluster/parking lights go out. I pull over and have a look and its a blown fuse. I replace the fuse, but about 10 seconds later it blows again. When I get home, I arm my alarm, which flashes the parking lights. Later when I go back out and disarm, they flash, but rearming the stop mid-flash. More on the alarm later.

Next day I get out my trusty manual to try to find out what is amiss. It is fuse #19 and here is what is on it:

- Instrument panel lights
- Instrument panel dimmer
- Combination light switch
- parking lights
- license plate lights

I pull down the panels and find the wire that runs all this stuff (black/red). Near the connector to the fuse box, I find where the alarm output for flashing lights was spliced in. I remove the alarm wire and check the black/red wire for continuity with ground and there is (short). I disconnect all the plugs from the alarm brain and recheck and there is still continuity.

Next target is the combo light switch. I disconnect it completely and recheck the wire; still grounded. Note that the fuse will not blow unless the light switch is on, either for parking only or all the way.

I then go ahead and disconnect the dimmer switch for the instrument panel. Rechecking the wire still shows ground. To make matters more confusing, the dashboard wire harness that goes into the fuse box that has the black/red wire isn't plugged in still, yet plugging in the combo switch and turning the lights on still blows a fuse. (I haven't checked the back of the fuse box for the front and rear wire harnesses, but now it appears that the short must be on one of them??)

So as it stands right now there is nothing on this circuit except for the wires and light bulbs and I am showing a short. Can light bulbs be the source of a short? Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Mike




Modified by RacerMike at 4:35 PM 11/30/2004

 

I had similar symptoms in my old Civic hatchback and it was the switch causing the problem.

Does the FSM have a tree for diagnosing the problem?

 

Nope, it only has tests to diagnose the combo light switch and dimmer. I just went out there and put in a fuse with everything disconnected and off. I'm going to leave it there a while and check to see if it blows becuase I am at a total loss right now.

 

Is anything else not working??

I had an issue with my 93 Teg a while back where some of the interior lights were misbehaving. I started to get out the manual when I also noticed the my radio presets were not staying there when the car was shut off and after replacing this fuse, the other lights started to behave. Since then, everything is working fine. I cannot explain it but it worked.

So my suggestion is to check other features that may or may not be working before taking the harness apart and getting too deep into this.

 

check the grounds/relays on the front and rear harnesses is what i would check first as well as the connections to the lights..

 

If you are checking for a short to ground on the wiring to the bulbs you will need to pull the bulbs out. You have a feed wire and a ground. When the bulb is plugged in it then completes the circuit. If there is no +12v on the feed the feed wire will show a ground.