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Maintenance & Repair Electronic Gremlins: Electrical Problems That Are Driving You Crazy
1085 messages, Last post on Oct 29, 2009 at 11:41 AM
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I have a 1986 Honda Accord with 257,000 miles on it. It has started to have intermittent electrical problems like: * Lights flicker when brakes are applied * Dashboard door open indicators activate randomly - no doors are open * Brake light failure indicator light comes on intermittently - all brake lights work fine The car has been very reliable, and I would like to fix this somehow. Any suggestions? Thanks!! |
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| 257,000 miles? Probably cardiovascular problems associated with old age. Seriously, the door-open indicator-lamp is likely to be associated with one of the door switches that's worn or out of adjustment. With the engine running, crack each door open very slightly and see if one door causes the light to come on just as the door begins to open. The flickering when the brakes are applied could possibly be associated with a short in the brake/tail light assemblies. When it is dark, have someone activate the brakes, turn signals, and tail-lights while you watch carefully to see that they work OK and that each bulb has the same light intensity as its counterpart on the other side. If there are any right-to-left differences, a corroded bulb-socket is likely to be the problem. These ideas may not help but they are easy to do and could lead you to the problem source. | |
| sour grounds are often a point of failure that affect multiple systems. unfortunately, the ground point for systems F, Q, X, Y, and AA7 are often some distance away from any logical point the circuits would go to. fixing them is pretty easy, remove the nut and associated spade lugs and lock/toothed washers, clean up any oxidation or corrosion or reterminate the wire involved and replace the hardware, coat all parts lightly with grease, and reassemble tightly. finding them is not easy without a manual -- even the Haynes/Chilton series will often have enough of an electrical diagram to find the most likely grounding point. I really marked up and dirtied the manuals for my Mopars, Buick, and Ranger. | |
| I have a 1988 Acura Integra LS. The brakes lights have shorted out or something and won't turn off. This is causing the battery to rundown very fast. I've the pulled the fuse and it uses less than 25ma so the brake light seems to be the only problem. Any ideas where I should go from here? | |
| Start by checking the brake light switch adjustment. It's usually on the brake pedal support bracket. The plunger should be fully depressed when the pedal's in the released position. | |
| Hey, that was the cause of the problem. There were some broken plastic-like pieces lying around under the brake pedal. There is also a hole in the brake pedal where it would have made contact with the plunger. Is this piece easily replaceable and does it need to be adjusted to the correct position? Thanks a lot everyone. | |
| My 98 GS Eclipse has a weird problem. The brake lights turn on when the temp gets cold. When the car warms up after a day of driving.. the light turns off. I brought it to the dealer and he said I needed new brake pads. I changed the pads, the problem went away for a month and came back. The brake fluid is fine, emergency brake is not on, new pads.. What is the problem? My friend has a 97 Eclipse Spyder and he has the same problem. So I know it's more than a coincidence. I hate the dealerships and my car is out of warranty. Any suggestions? | |
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You mean the brake warning light on the dash, or the brake lights themselves? If it's the light on the dash, I would suspect the little level indicator on top of the master cylinder reservoir. It sounds like it's getting stuck. Other than that, maybe some wear sensor is misreading. You might try disconnecting the level sensor and see if the light goes out. |
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I was trying to check my cigarette lighter with a cheap 'prod' tester when i accidently grounded it out. i heard a fuse snap (rather loud i thought). My radio,lights & horn went out, it would turn over but would not start. Some other electrics work ie. windshield wipers and interior lights, which i unfotunately left on over-night. now the battery is dead. i pulled most fuses for components that were not working, they checked-out ok. this is a '93 S-10 Blazer, 4X4,automatic. HELP!!! |
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Hmm....your truck may have a "fusible link" that runs in a circuit coming right off your positive terminal on your battery. It's been a while since I looked at an S-10 but maybe that's the problem. Also, there are sometimes additional in-line fuses on cars that don't run through the fuse box. Maybe one of the techs who drop in here can offer further suggestions.
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