Whoever owned my 94 GSR before me forgot to put in the tag light housing and I finally got pulled for it. I ran to autozone and grabbed a temp one till I can get to the junkyard. It rained the night before and my exposed lightbulb was just hanging there and I kept blowing the Tag/Cluster/Tail fuse. Well to get the hot lead for the temp tag light I (I know, I know ) aluminum foiled the fuse just long enough to get a lead. Needless to say things started smoking. Car still runs fine, but now all the lights in my cluster work EXCEPT for Tach, Speedo, Fuel, and Temp. My radio works, but theres no sound, and sometimes my car won't shut off when I pull the key, but after I do that, I'll shut the headlights off, and It'll shut off. I pulled the steering column shroud and its all good, but about 4 wires from my fuse box pins are melted. I tested a hot lead and a ground on either side of a cluster bulb and got the test light to light, but not the bulb itself. The radio, I have no idea why It'll display but no volume, I'm debating ripping the dash apart and getting another harness, Will a GS or SE integra harness work? since the GSR's are loaded like the GS's and SE's? or is there another soultion i'm overlooking here, I'm just glad I have a car to drive, albeit with no tunes or cluster lights. Any Ideas why the tag and rears would work but no tach or speedo? I seriously doubt it's the dimmer switch. Help is always appreciated

 

Sounds like you have voltage jumping circuits. Try starting the car and pulling the keys out so it is still running. Then pull fuses one at a time until the car shuts down, that will at least get you in the right direction for that problem. For the gauges, did you pull the bulbs out to see if they were blown? I would do a new harness, but you may have other problems as well.

 

Somewhere along that circuit the excess current heated up the wires and melted the insulation.. causing the wires to touch and allowing the symptoms you describe. Trace them out, find the melted insulation, pull the wires apart and inspect them. If the wire has been charred you may need to replace it (discolored copper) - if you're more fortunate you can tape them up or shrink wrap them and see if everything works first.

Start with those four at the fuse box.. if it damaged the box you can get pigtails at the auto parts store that are fuse holders with wires and rubber insulation and a cap to secure the fuse. You can bypass the damaged part, cut the wires off, and fuse them separately..

Do the best you can and you should recover without too much grief. Sorry man.

Seems like most of those solid metal fuse stories end badly.

Good luck

 

Sorry for your problems.

It reminds me of when I moved into my house and found short copper pipe sections for fuses in my AC unit. DOH!!

 

Yes, I pulled the bulbs and tried 6 random ones and none will light, I'm thinking about just ripping the wires out from behnd the cluster and splicing in from there to the 4 harness's at the fuse box, I know what you're talking about with the pigtails ad have further check the damage. The radio is just a P.O.S. and I got it to work, the mysterious "Pull key and car won't shut off until lights are out" problem seems to be gone, but now my cluster won't work at all, no operable speedo, nothing. Do the bulb housings need to be in to complete a circuit? Because I took them all out. Can I use a GS harness if I go that route?

 

your cluster should work as long as your vss is plugin.your light bulb should light if they dont burn out on the cluster.

 

Pull the dash and replace the dash harness.

It was a dumb mistake using tinfoil but probably not one you will make again.
Also consider yourself lucky, you could have burnt your car to the ground.

Once wiring in a harness has burnt,your best option is to replace the harness, the only other option is to pull the harness open it up and inspect it, replace any wiring that is burnt, I would only use that as a last option and only if I could not find a relacement harness. 94