So earlier tonight I got in my 99 prelude and turned the switch for the lights, but the only ones that came on were my headlights. The brake, parking, and back lights for my cluster stay off. My turn signals will still come one and brakes lights still work when I push down on the pedal. Pretty much everything that I need to drive in daylight works, but at night I cant see my speedometer and the people behind me wont notice me until I step on the brakes. I checked the fuses and they still look good.

What could it be? My turn signals for the front are not connected because a couple of the wires that lead to the bulb were torn when the bumper came off during an accident. Does that affect the rest of the lights?

 

I'm not sure what it can be because i have asked this questions many times on many different forums. Mine have been like this for 2 years now, i just rigged a switch with direct power to my rear taillight and everything worked after that. It annoying but after 2 years it becomes muscle memory. No one knows this answer, you are going to get a lot of people repetedly telling you to check the fuses over and over.. I think that is more annoying than the actual problem.. Ill let you know if i find n e thing out tho.

 

I couldn't figure out how to fix it, so I ghetto-rigged it, but it's easy than the your way. I used a 3-4" wire and just did a bypass from one of the headlight's power wire to the little parking light wire. Everything works! All I have to do is turn the headlights on and everything else comes on with it, like it normally would. It took me like 5 minutes.

 

The same thing happened in my 93 prelude. It was corrosion on the wire harness connectors near the driver side fusebox. I had to disconnect the plugs, clean them and put dielectric on them and it's been working fine since.

It may be similar on the 5th gen, where there is only the light switch, the fuse, and the harness that are used on the light circuit. If it's not the fuse or the switch, then the harness is at fault.

 

That is a really good idea, I just did mine to my rear lights and a switch so now i have to turn that on all the time and since the chime is connected to those and not my headlights i have left them on before. Im going to do that asap because that would fix all my problems thanks!