everytime i pull my e-brake while my lights are on my dash a tail lights fuse blow. but if i turn lights off then pull the e-brake then turn lights back and it doesnt blow. whats with that?

 

Do you have an alarm or anything non-factory on it?

It sounds to me like you have an issue with the dimmer circuit. Try it with the dimmer switch set at different levels and see what you get.

 

nah nuthin electrical thats new but ill try a little dimmed and pull it

 

I would say a short to ground if the fuses are blowing but that would really only be if they blew as soon as you put them in. Not sure what to tell you, I'm only in basic electrical at school.
Bump for curiousity.

 

Well guys here is my thought process on this, if you can figure out anything from it, good, I can't really pinpoint this off the top of my head though....

Here goes:

Ok, the ebrake works like this: There is a spring loaded button that pops up while the ebrake handle is up, and it grounds a wire that causes the BRAKE light to come on up on the dashboard.

The tail lights are on the same circuit as all the dash lighting and all the parking lights, and so the tie I see between the two is of course the dash lights.

Now, the dash lights are always on in 4g Preludes, of course, but are they in 5gs? That I do not know for sure.

It still seems to me that it could be the dimmer switch trying to dim the lights down some, it may be bad or something in that circuit may be shorting, etc.

That could be the problem, but I just had one more thought. Do you have anything aftermarket at all hooked into that system anywhere, even if it wasn't put on recently? Indiglo gauges or anything like that? The reason I ask is that you could be pulling a lot of current with some device that is hooked into that circuit, and turning that ebrake light on may be the straw that is breaking the camel's back on that fuse.

I seriously doubt this though, 10A or whatever that fuse is is a TON of current for a circuit like that.

 

Dumb question Matt... but could putting a bigger fuse than what the circuit needs cause anything? I don't really remember what my instructor said about that. Just wondering that if that could do anything as far as it's concerned.

 

ive herd putting a bigger one will work but isnt good for the future. can anyone confirm this?

 

Just asked my instructor... Running a bigger fuse in a circuit that does not use that big of a fuse can melt the wiring harness down. Extra amperage is allowed to flow through, and since the fuse that is specified for it is supposed to protect it, the bigger fuse allows more current flow and therefore melting the harness down.

 

A bigger fuse will allow more current to flow in the circuit before blowing, of course.

This is not good though, Honda decides the fuse size based on what they think all of the circuit's components can handle, and if you go higher, you may fry stuff before the fuse pops.

Most of the systems, especially this one, are nowhere near their fused rating during normal operation. A lighting system like this, where the bulbs each probably have no more than 100 ohms of resistance, on a 12v circuit, say maybe 10-15 bulbs, current draw will be right around 1 amp, nowhere near the limit.

Normally, fuses blow because of shorts, it is quite rare for a fuse to blow simply because of current draw above the limit of the fuse, because when you design a circuit like this, you set the fuse to be a good bit higher than operation current draw, so that it is only there to catch shorts and not blow under normal conditions.