was driving downt he freeway a while back and i hit a bump. soon as i did my rear lights (break, signal, all of them) went out along with my dash light. ever since then my car has had a pretty serious power-draw where the battery will die if its not driven every three days. my shop thought they fixed it (got the rear lights back up, didnt notice that they didnt get the dash lights back up because they really only work in the daytime and its sunny here anyway). anyway i hit the normal bump getting back up my driveway and the rear lights are out again. they work with the emergency flashers so i know the bulbs are good, tried replacing the fuse, no luck.
is this a common problem for integras or has anyone else had this problem? just looking for ideas to bring to my shop to speed up repairing this issue.

 

Has the car been in an accident, if so, where was the damage?

Obviously there is a short in the tail light, [park lights] wiring, probably a pinched wire that does not short out until car is jarred, [you hit a bump].

Question, is it just the tail lights that go out or do the front park lights, [front side markers] also go out?

What is the MM&Y of your car, [year of your Acura Integra]? 94

 

has never been in an accident
front lights work fine, just the ligths in the dash cluster (all of the ones like the oil light, break light, etc work fine...just the ones that are supposed to light up when i turn on my headlights dont work)and the ones in the rear go out. im stumped on it because when i turn on the emergency flashers they work fine, just not for the break.
95 integra

 

I would trace it back with a probe light until you find the open circuit.

 

Check the wires, they could be and open circuit or the wire touching one another. One time there was a cut in my wires the wires touched and melted to one another and kept blowing out the lights. I had to manually separate the wires and retaped with electrical tape. It was a hassle.

 

thx will have to do that

 

So obviously you are not blowing fuse 19 - 10A, [tail lights, instrument lights and licence plate lights] or front park lights would not have worked.

You are going to need to check a couple of things and you will need a multimeter or at the least a 12V test light.

Pull the "Dash Lights Brightness Controller" and test the 3 leads going to it...
1- Red/black 12V+ when park/head lights are on.
2- Black Ground.
3- Red Adjustable ground output from "DLBC", [ground for
dash lights].

If there is 12V+ on the red/black, [when park/head lights are on] unplug the "DLBC" and use a jumper wire to connect the black and the red together.

Check those and let me know what you find. 94

 

is it hard to check wires? (im basically a newb at this..) but wanting to learn more about it... thanks

 

Checking wires isn't hard, but understanding which wires to check and what the readings mean on the multimeter eludes many people. Search about how to install a resistor box. That'll give you a relatively good idea of the principles - at least the concept of continuity.