First..I would like to say hello. I'm coming from team-integra. I made a post there and I didn't get any replies. Thought I might join up and see if any of you have any insight to some of my questions. The story is kind of long, so please bear with me.

Ok. I have several separate issues, but I have a feeling they are related.

When I got my car everything seemed to work normal. The only thing was that the cruise control didn't work.. I took it to the dealer and the they said "Diagnose cable reel open - Parts & Labor $586." As the time I wasn't willing to spend that much just to fix my cruise control.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I was driving in my car and it started to rain, so I turned on my wipers. I put them on the intermittent setting. They weren't working. I thought this was weird. I let them sit there for a little while longer...still nothing. So I finally decided to kick them up to the high setting because my windshield was getting pretty covered.

Then about 10 minutes later I decided to try the intermittent setting again. It started working, but now every time the wipers moved...I heard a relay clicking near the lower left hand side of the car. I never remember hearing a clicking relay before on this setting. Is this normal?

Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago: I was leaving my girlfriends house and I noticed that my rear window was foggy, and I needed to use the rear defrost. The car was on…the lights were on...but it was so dark I almost had trouble seeing the button. "Didn't this button use to light up when the lights were on?" I asked myself. I also noticed the hazard light button wasn't lit either. Shouldn’t both of them light up?

That same night I also noticed that HALF of the lights that were on my HVAC system (the buttons you push for where you want the air to go) were not lit. I was like...”that’s weird...I guess the bulbs are dead.”

Then, the next day I was driving at night and I realized that the same lights that weren't lit up before, decided to light up .

Fast forward to today @ 7:30 AM. I was leaving the gym. I got in my car...and turned on my lights. Not only were half of the lights off on the HVAC controls, but when I clicked on the defrost button I heard what sounded to be a relay click on/off. Call me crazy, but I swear I don't ever remember hearing a relay when turning on/off the rear defrost.

I figured...”It must have always done that.” So anyways…I start driving down the road...and i go to change something on my stereo and I notice that ALL the lights are on my HVAC buttons (except the emergency/defrost buttons. Those are still dark, and have never come back on since I noticed they were off.)

Fast forward to 1 hour ago: I decided to search team-integra to find out what exactly a cable reel controlled, thinking maybe it had something to do with all my problems. Turns out it looked like the cable reel is only concerned with the horn, the cruise control, and the SRS system. This worried me a little. What if I get in an accident and my airbag doesn’t deploy? I'm thinking about just spending the 600 dollars. The other option would be to do it myself, getting the part cheap, but I'm not great with wiring, and I’m afraid I wouldn't wire it up right.

So my final questions are:

1. Should I hear any kind of relay sounds when turning my wipers to intermittent?

2. The Defrost/hazard buttons should be lit up with the lights on correct?

3. Why in the hell would half of my HVAC lights work sometimes and not others?

4. Should I hear a relay sound when clicking on the defrost button (for rear window)?

5. Is a cable reel easy to replace?

Overall I feel that the problems with the lighting might be related to loose or dead bulbs, but it almost seems like my electrical system is slowly failing on me. What should I check? Any ideas?

Thank you for bearing with me. I hope I don’t sound crazy.

James

 

1.yes
2.yes
3.loose harness ground wire/loose harness conn., many reasons
4.yes
5.yes

start with the dead bulbs and check everything back from there. See if anything is loose; check the ground to that harness. Check the dimmer switch.