Hello. I have a 93 EG hatch with a d16z6 in it. My main problem is that the cigarette lighter doesn’t work but it may be related to an old problem I had ( https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/im-definitely-going-need-somebody-good-electricity-3308569/ ). After I fixed that problem years ago, the radio would flash off and reset if I had something plugged into the cigarette lighter and went from like 2000rpm into neutral. It seemed to do it sometimes with nothing in the lighter either, and I thought it had to do with my horn (I custom set up 2 horns stupidly without a relay) so I disconnected the horns also. So I just left the cigarette lighter alone and then there were no electrical problems for years. Well now I need the cigarette lighter and I tried it and it immediately made the radio flash off and reset. So I inspected the cigarette lighter and it was super corroded and rusted and I thought that was the problem. I replaced it with a brand new Genuine Honda cigarette lighter and when I went to plug in the radar detector into the lighter, the radio just turned off and the radar detector wouldn’t go on either. When I unplugged the radar detector, the radio went back on. I tried it a few times stupidly and then the radio wouldn’t even go back on until I turned the car off and started it again. I thought I broke the radio lol.
So at the cigarette lighter plug, there’s 14v between ground and cigarette lighter, but 0v between ground and ash tray bulb (just in case that’s relevant). When there’s nothing in the cigarette lighter, the radio is fine. It’s measured at 14v. But when I plug in the cigarette lighter. The voltage of the radio drops to 1-2v and stays there until I take something out of the cigarette lighter. Then it goes up to 12v (not 14v even though the car is still running), and sometimes 6-8v (even though it’s loaded with the alternator). I haven’t measured the voltage of the cigarette lighter on the inside because I don’t know which 2 to touch and I don’t want to keep plugging something in it to drop the voltage low. It’s obviously a drain on it. I’ve followed the wires (kinda, haven’t opened the stock tape/rubber) and I don’t think that circuit specifically has been messed with ever.

I need help locating the short. Please

Here’s some side information that may or may not matter:
- One time recently, I noticed the interior light above didn’t work at all; I don’t remember if it was before I replaced the cigarette lighter and tried a few times or not. Then one day I opened the door to get out and it turned on. Now it works on ON setting and DOOR setting.
- The red skinny wire with 2 silver dots that goes into the plug for the rear defroster, has a 2nd red wire without silver dots coming from the same harness that combines into it. It looks custom and I haven’t peeled the tape to see if the metal wires are just wrapped around each other. I don’t know where the 2nd red wire comes from but it doesn’t have a black line so I don’t think it’s the one on the cigarette lighter plug for the ash tray bulb.
- The black coaxial antenna cable for the radio has been unplugged for as long as I can remember having this car (2014/2015) and I just discovered the pin that plugs into the radio was stuck in the radio with the thin wire just hanging around. But this cigarette lighter problem happens with the radio disconnected and I’m measuring the radio voltage (black vs yellow/red) drop to 1-2v from the plug, not with the radio even plugged in.
- The backlight for the rear defroster button sometimes lights up and sometimes doesn’t. Not the power button signifying that it’s defrosting, the backlight. The power button light turns on and off but I’m in Florida so I will never know if it’s actually heating up the rear window.
- I custom tapped into the horn circuit somehow and I don’t remember if I made it happen or not, but a blue/green wire is just hanging around under the steering wheel. I made sure it’s not touching any metal.
- On the interior fuse box, there’s no fuse for fuse 11. My diagram doesn’t have a fuse for that, but I saw somewhere on this forum someone said that the back-up 7.5A fuse is in slot 11 but also said fuse 47 “in engine bay fuse box”. The backup fuse on the engine bay box is there and fine. None of the fuses at all are blown, in fact.


Please guide me to finding this short. I can take pictures or whatever if people need that for more information.

 

It may be an issue with a faulty ground wire going to the cigarette lighter. Since it is inexpensive and relatively easy to do, I would just get a spare wire with a spade connector to re-route a new ground wire to the cigarette lighter to see if it fixes the issue.

 

Thank you tech8. So if it works that it doesn’t short and mess up the radio circuit when I do that, would that be considered a permanent fix? It kind of is right? Since it’s out of sight and assumably organized and neat and safe. I’ll probably find time to try it tomorrow or this weekend

 

Yes, it would be a permanent fix.

 

Bump. I have used a thick (probably 10 awg) wire to ground the cigarette lighter to the body as an extra ground and the cigarette lighter still isn’t working.
Does that mean there has to be a short in the white/blue hot wire of the cigarette lighter? Where does it go? Into the fuse box?

 

Again, I am not the best with electical. Continuity means there’s basically 0 resistance between, right? Like 1 or 2 ohms from a wire would be continuity? Because I measured 1.3 ohms, so basically continuity, from the positive of the cigarette lighter to the pin on the plug that goes into the fuse box. Does that mean there is not a short? Or there still could be a short between those 2 points?

Also, is there any more wire for the cigarette lighter? Or is it batter power to fuse box, fuse box to ground/hot of cigarette lighter? And why would plugging the cigarette lighter in mess up the radio circuit and nothing else?

 

check your wiring. Did you even bother soldering the connections and covering it with heatshrink and/or good electrical tape??

 

First of all, I’m pretty sure I already put in this thread that the wiring from the cigarette lighter to the fuse box is stock and in the conduit. So I already did that. Second of all, yes I used good electrical tape and crimped the ends for a spade connector that was bolted to ground. It didn’t work.
But what did work, at least for now, was simply taking the fuse box apart and putting it together. It was a bitch to open up but I simply wanted see if there was corrosion or if I could spot where something is touching that shouldn’t be. I’m going to try to upload the videos I took but they’re not really wires inside the fuse box. It’s layers of routed metal strips, so they’re not going to move around and touch something they shouldn’t be. It must have been the pins that were starting to make bad connections or something, but my cigarette lighter works now, even with the stereo on and even without the custom ground I made.
What sucks is the part, 38200-sr3-a11, for the fuse box, is nowhere on the internet or at Honda dealerships. New at least. So any old junkyard fuse box from an EG could start giving troubles just like the one in our current Honda’s.