What's up guys. I've been gone for a while and during that time my 90 si hatch has been garaged and not ran; it's been 4 or 5 years. Anyway, I moved and I have a larger garage and I was hoping to continue/finish my project. To my delight, the car did start after a few cranks but I'm having an electrical problem. When I push in the brake, the seatbelt and door lights come on in the dash. I did find a little mouse nest in the engine bay, I'm wondering if the little guy chewed through a wire or two. I was able to drive the car to my new house despite whatever this problem is. Any ideas on how to diagnose this?

 

Mice and rats are known to chew wiring up. If you had a nest you had more than one mouse in there.

 

Yeah I don't doubt that. I suppose I'll just have to start digging in to the engine bay to see if I can find anything.

 

first thing I would do is charge the battery up real well or replace it if you have to

My CRX acts like crap on a weak battery but doesn't normally throw false lights.
It will however not supply enough spark .. it will run real good .. but the difference between a 100% and a 60% battery is pretty impressive..

I just had to replace a 7 year old battery that I gave up charging .. it won't go above 70% charge anymore.. might keep it for a solar project.

door jam switches also really suck .. probably sticking
mine do and if i leave my dome light on to auto so the lights will come on when I open the door it will discharge the battery .. hard to find.. built like crap .. expensive so I just turn the dome light on manually now.

 

I did replace the battery, which has always been a "thing" since I did the swap. I've had a handful of specialized batteries to fit in there and they are hard to keep charged when the car was in storage. I have a battery tender now, wish I just got one back then. My latest attempt is a Kinetik HC400, which is about half the size of a regular battery. Voltage readings are solid from it (I tested it with a multimeter at idle, under load, etc), but weirder things have happened.

I'll check on the switches, but this happens every time I press on the brakes, which makes me think it is something in the wiring.