Just bought this car a month ago. recently I noticed that the reverse lights where unplugged and without bulbs, so i put in bulbs and hooked them up, but when I turned on the ignition, they stayed on in every gear. I checked the switch on the transmission but when i disconnect it the lights are still on. So the question is; has anyone else ever had this issue?

car is a 91 CRX DX with a Multi-port swap.

 

Shorted plug?

If you remove the reverse lights fuse, do they now turn off?

 

The circuit is probably a grounding circuit, and the wire might be grounding somewhere else. That would be the one reason.

It could also be the opposite, where it is missing a ground causing the light to stay one. That is less common of a wiring type on Hondas.

Probably a useless post, but in summary trace your wires.

 

Was the car also a manual trans swap?

Trans switch provides power.
If you remove fuse 1, lights SHOULD go out unless the wiring has been tampered with.
If they stay on with fuse 1 out, then maybe somebody spliced the reverse lights in with the wrong power circuit.

 

are your bulbs swapped? maybe those are your brake light bulbs?

 

no it's not a manual swap,but it is a multi port swap They stay on even when the fuse is pulled, and also, i traced the wiring from the switch and it goes directly to the ecu, at least it looks that way

 

Which fuse did you remove?

Unplug the other dash fuses one at a time to see whether removal of one turns the lights off.

If none is found, then do the same with the hood fuses.

 

I removed the back up lights fuse. But I tried removing other fuses like you suggested and when I pulled fuse #14 (alternator solenoid) they went out(also got a check engine, but i think that's normal)

 

When you remove fuse 1, do the turn signals stop working?

 

yea, they stop working. The beeper and the brake light in the cluster stop too.

 

It appears that somebody may have cut the Yel power wire (from fuse 1) for the reverse lights and spliced the reverse lights Yel wire with the Blk/Yel power wire from fuse 14. Look for this cut and splice.

 

I have not found the problem yet, but i think I'm getting close. when I disconnect the main harness on the drivers side, the lights go out.

 

does any one have the pinout for this connector? all the ones I've seen do not have the green/black wire listed.(Driver's side shock tower 14 pin)

 

Do the diagrams at the link below help?

https://honda-tech.com/forums/showpo...7&postcount=20

 

Yes, thank you, they do help. I found out that the GRN/BLK wire that goes to the cabin is connected directly the the BLK/yellow on the engine harness. it looks like the P.O. either re-pinned the connecter or used a different engine harness. Tomorrow I'll have to follow the sensor wires from the sensor to the connecter and see if they're connected correctly.

 

The BackUp light switch gets voltage from the Yel wire protected by 10A fuse 1. After the switch, the wire changes to a Grn/Blk wire, which runs to the BackUp lights.

 

so I traced my wiring to this connector (connector 402 in the helm manual)

Found the power wire and the switch wire on the same side of the connector( the 2 bright yellow wires on the left connector). I de-pinned the connectors, jumped them with a paper clip and made the reverse lights work the way they are supposed to.

the weird thing about it is that the left connector has all pins filled and the right connector has about half, leaving me wondering if the connector was re- arranged some how. if anyone currently has the dash out of their CRX, can they post pics of this connector? (it's clipped to the firewall up by the fuel lines in the left side of the dash)

 

Sounds like somebody swapped a harness from an auto.

 

any other way to tell if the harness was from an automatic?