Help, no taillamps!

[Dave-hid]

hey

when i turn my lights on my headlights come on but my parking lights and my tailamps dont. what can i do, i checked all fuses.

[A20A1]

all the fuses for just the lights or all, all, the fuses?

[RustyHo88]

make sure your running light relay is connected, its under the driver side steering panel. the same thing you're talking about happened to me when i was trying to get my retractor motors to work. make sure your combo switch is all good (the one to the left of the steering wheel, with the rear defroster ect) then make sure your main retractor control unit is hooked up (behind fuse box). there is a small possibility it could be your combination switch, but that isnt likely. do your brake lights turn on when you hit the brakes?

[Dave-hid]

yes, brake lights do work fine. thx for the info!

[89accordLXiAllAudio]

holy shit i was just about to post the same question. my situation is exactly the same. my lights in the back dont work, and my brake lights and tails do. so for those of us without much of a good knowledge of what you (rustyho) were talking about, how can i make sure my combo switch and main reactor control unit are all good

[88accord]

that happend to me to. but i had a short in the guage cluster where the main plug goes in. so i had to make it when i turn on the car the parking lights come on.

[BITESIZE]

Do your gauge lights inside work? Check all your fuses in both fuseboxes.

I would use a circuit tester with the little light and test each fuse to see if they are all working properly, and if one doesn't light up and the fuse is GOOD, bam there's your problem. You can start to follow that line to the problem.

[RustyHo88]

well, ive since found out that the main retractor unit will not solve the tailights problem, so dont worry about that. you can download the 'body electrical' section of the accord manual at

http://www.pauldesign.ru/honda/shopmanual.html.

then you can troubleshoot the problem with the instructions using the book and a multimeter and/or a voltage tester. im confused by what your problem is 89accordLXiAllAudio. your brake lights all work, but when you turn on your headlights, the rear lights dont come on? if thats the case, its probably your running light relay. its located under the steering column. when you download the 'body electrical' section of the manual, it will give you a more exact location. just about all your accord problems can be solved with that manual. hope this helps.

[POS carb]

check fuses, make sure the black box under your radio is still hooked up

[Spiderboy]

I've been having a similar prob. Recently my dash lights haven't been coming on, and when I checked the rest of my lights my front fog lights aren't coming on either.

This manual is amazing though, thanks for the link bro.

I was just about to go out and buy a similar manual tomorrow for 20 bucks, thanks again.

[RustyHo88]

hey, its no problem. but dont thank me, thank the guy who posted this thread.
http://www.3geez.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7283
or thank the guy who made the website. i certainly dont deserve any credit, i am forever indebted to that manual.

[Spiderboy]

Thanks to Paul. This manual rocks. :bow:

[89accordLXiAllAudio]

heheheheh i finally solved this illusive problem. for my car at least. my guess (because this is what happened to me) is that at some point you slapped a new head unit in there, maybe not, but this is what i did. and to do so, you had to unbolt this weird arm looking thing behind the stock head unit. you look at it and say, what the hell is this stupid ass bracket with a bunch of wires plugged into it. none of the wires connect to anything, its just a piece of metal with wires plugging into it. so after i put in my new head unit, i just left that bad boy, still plugged in, but not bolted into that metal prong sticking down. no big deal, its not wired to anything. turns out that this metal arm with all these black wire things happens to be the ground source for most of the cars electricity. so basically by unbolting it, you unground all of the cars electrical shit. so after driving for a month or so and wondering why the hell everything burned out so often, and why so damn many fuses kept blowing, i decided to look behind the head unit (one of my speakers was unplugged). im surprised i didnt electricute my foot everytime something tried to ground. ooops. after simply rebolting that badass everything is fine. might not be your problem, but that seemed to be mine,

[Dave-hid]

nope not mine. dont have a stereo at all.

[89accordLXiAllAudio]

damn. but did you check that black box behind where the stereo goes?

[Dave-hid]

yes

[gekko]

just wanna say somethin :werd: happened to me... i wast just finished with hokking up my power window and saw that the fuse was blown , and just took the fuse for the Horn and put that in ... and then brake lights would not work...... not the same prob but still kinda wierd that to ... or is it a known fact ....

[88LXi/87CRXSi]

Dave-hid, if you still haven't traced the problem yet, if you have a meter or test light, pull fuse 14 (underdash fusebox) and check for 12 volts at either of the contacts the fuse plugs into, with the park lights turned on. If there isn't 12 volts at either contact, your combo switch is bad.

[Mac]

Good idea 88LXi/87CRXSi. If that is the case, then his dash lights, cigarette lighter light and ash tray light might also be out.

[Mac]

If you do have voltage on both sides of fuse 14, try the same test on fuse 12. If there is no voltage on either side of fuse 12, check fuse 25 in the under hood fuse/ relay box.

[lightbulblxi]

i had the same problem as 89 accordlxiallaudio. I bought a cd player and the harnesses didnt match so i ghetto rigged it and every time i would turn on my lights the taillight fuses would blow.
:mad:

[lightbulblxi]

also make sure you have the right fuses in the right places, i made the mistake to use whatever i had and it fucked up my car. such as when i would honk the horn, it said my door was open, my brake lights didnt work, if i would turn my key 2 clicks, my8 parking lights would stay on, and i could put my lights up but not down :lol

[Oyvind Ryeng]

Old post, but I also have a problem with the lights. It's a 1987, with daytime running lights (no sidemarkers on cars over here). Could it be a busted lighting relay? Control box? The dimmer-switch (referred to as "Light Switch" was replaced, no effect. All fuses under hood and under dash were tested; none of them were/are blown. Description of the problem follows (Bold text indicates that there is a problem):

Ignition key "0/Off":
Light switch "Off": All lights are off. (No Problems)
Light switch "Park": Foreward white positioning/park lights are on, taillights are on (No Problems)
Light switch "On": No headlights (low beams). High beams works fine. Front positioning lights works, taillights works.

Ignition key "1":
Everythings the same as when the key is in "0/Off" position.

Ignition key "2", with the engine OFF:
Light switch "Off": Front lowbeams light up (daytime running lights), front park/positioning lights work, all turn signals works, taillights works, back-up-lights works (No Problems).
Light switch "Park": Front positioning/park lights on, taillights on, turnsignals works, back-up-lights works (No Problems).
Light switch "On": Lowbeams are on, front positioning/park-lights works, taillights are on, turnsignals works, back-up-lights works (No Problems).

Ignition key "2", with the engine RUNNING:
Light switch "Off": Front lowbeams works (daytime running lights), no front positioning/park-lights, taillights or gauge lights. Turnsignals, brakelights and back-up-light works fine.
Light switch "Park": Front positioning/park lights light up, same with the taillights, turnsignals, gauge lights and back-up-light works (No Problems).
Light switch "On": No lowbeams, but the highbeams works fine. Front positioning/park-lights, taillights, turnsignals, back-up-lights and gauge lights works fine.