ECU, Wiring, Sensors
By pyang004
#361069 Hi Beam = Works
Lo Beams = Dead
Dash Lights / HVAC Controls = Dead
Tail Lights = Dead
Brake Lights = Works
Signal Lights = Works
Hazard Lights = Works
Dome Light = Works

At the Headlights
New Bulbs - Tested and working in another car
Plug on both headlights - Looking at it straight on
Left - Hi Beam 12v on the Hi Beam setting / 0v on the Lo Beam setting
Top - Low Beam 0v on the Lo Beam setting / 0v on the High Beam setting
Right - Ground 0v / -12v

Fuses under the Hood
All show 12v on both sides of the fuses when the ignition is on the "on" position and the headlight switch is on the Lo Beam setting.

Fuses under the Steering Wheel
Hi Beam Left - Both sides of the fuse show 12v on the Hi Beam setting
Hi Beam Right - Both sides of the fuse show 12v on the Hi Beam setting
Lo Beam Left - Both sides of the fuse show 0v on the Lo Beam setting
Lo Beam Right - Both sides of the fuse show 0v on the Lo Beam setting
Dash / Tail Lights - Both sides of the fuse show 0v on the Lo or Hi Beam setting

At the Light Switch on the Steering Column
Large Plug
Red / White Stripe - 12v on Lo / 0v on Hi / 0v on off
Red / Green Stripe - 12v on Lo / 12v on Hi / 0v on off
Blue / Red Stripe - 12v on Hi / 0v on Lo / 0v on off
White on clip side - 12v on any position
White on non clip side - 12v on any position

Small Plug
Green / Orange Stripe / Silver Ring - 12v on any position
Green / Blue Stripe / Silver Ring - 0v on off / 9v Fluctuate on Left Turn Signal
Green / Yellow Stripe / Silver Ring - 0v on off / 9v Fluctuate on Right Turn Signal

Dimmer Switch
Top - Red / Black Stripe / Silver Ring
Middle - Black / Silver Ring
Bottom - Red / Double Silver Ring
All show 0v in the off or Lo Beam setting
All show -12v when using power from another source and testing for Ground. So all 3 wires worked as a ground.
*Dimmer Switch tested on another Civic - Middle Black wire is ground. Top Red / Black wire is 12v when in Lo position. Bottom Red / Double Silver Ring is Dimmer output = 1v to 7v from end to end on dimmer knob.


There is the data I gather up top. So there is no power at the head light for the Lo Beam. There is power to the Switch on the steering column and there is power coming out of the Switch as well. The Dimmer show no power. The Fuse Box in the engine bay show power. The Fuse Box under the steering wheel show No Power for the Lo Beams, Interior Lights, and Tail Lights on both sides of the fuse. The Hi Beam shows Power.

So somewhere between the Switch to the Fuse Box / Dimmer Switch the power signal is lost.

Is there anything in between the Switch, Fuse Box, and Dimmer Switch? Other than wires. A relay or circuit board?

I'm going to change out the heater core soon, so that will give me plenty of room to trace the wires for shorts and rewire anything I need to. I just want to know if there is anything I should be looking for that may cause this issue.

*Aftermarket wiring*
The Lo Beam went dead with no recent modification to any wiring. Last time wiring was modified was at least a year before the Lo Beams died. The Viper alarm system was removed and the Kenwood stereo head unit was removed.

The interior lights and tail lights went dead yesterday when I changed out the Light Switch on the steering column. All I did was change out the switch for another used switch. Both switch show the same readings with the multi-meter. Really annoying that when I try to fix the Lo Beams that it got worst by killing the interior lights and taillights. The left Hi Beam went dead while checking all of this too. Which pissed me off more, but luckily I found out that the plug at the Head Light is loose.


Let me know your guys thought on what is causing the issue. This will give me some idea of what I'm looking for when I remove the dash.

Thanks.
Last edited by pyang004 on Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By EconoBox
#361073 There is a ground behind the gauge cluster. A single wire that goes up to a spade connector onto the metal frame that holds the steering column. But in all honesty is sounds like you have a bad light switch or hazard switch. Other than a connector being unhooked somewhere having all of those fail at the same time is very unusual.
User avatar
By Driv-it-hard
#361078
EconoBox wrote:There is a ground behind the gauge cluster. A single wire that goes up to a spade connector onto the metal frame that holds the steering column. But in all honesty is sounds like you have a bad light switch or hazard switch. Other than a connector being unhooked somewhere having all of those fail at the same time is very unusual.



Sounds like a similar problem that I had. Turn out to be the Hazard button that when bad. Check you power at the hazard button and go from there .
Let us know.
By pyang004
#361094 The Hazard Light switch and lights work.

The Headlight switch works as well. It gets power in and power out. Power out to the Fuse Box somewhere is having an issue. The power is not getting from the Headlight switch to the Fuse Box.

Hazard Light Switch
White / Green Stripe / Double Silver Rings - 12v constant in the on/off position

Green / White Stripe / Double Silver Rings - Flashes between 11v and 12v when Hazard Light is on

Green / Yellow Stripe / Silver Ring
Green / Orange Stripe / Silver Ring
Green / Silver Ring
- All 3 of these wires flashes between 1v and 9v when Hazard Light is on.

Yellow / Silver Ring - 12v when key is in the "ON" position

Red / Double Silver Rings - Ground / -12v

*Red / Black Stripe / Silver Ring - This wire gave me no readings with key in any position, light switch in any position, and hazard lights in any position. No ground found on this wire either. I'm not sure what this wire is for or when it's suppose to have power.
User avatar
By EconoBox
#361096 Here is a link to test the hazard switch. Really simple to do with the switch out and sitting on the table you just need a test light to check continuity on each circuit with the switch in each position.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1bL7UZuMjSgMGhmZldFaTZVTzA
By pyang004
#361097 The Quick Fix - ReWiring

I haven't had time to pull the dash out yet, so for now I needed a quick fix. Since the Headlight switch is getting power and sending power out, I can use this as a switch. I was going to buy a few cheap AutoZone switches, but realized that I could still use the stock switch.

I ran the Red / White wire (Lo Beam) from the Headlight switch to the Fuse Box. Removed the 2 fuses for the Left and Right Lo Beam. I used a battery to run power into the Lo Beam wire from the plug at the Headlights. This sent the power to the Fuse Box. I tested both sides of the fuse socket to find out which side receives the power from the Headlight plug. For both Left and Right Lo Beams, it was the top socket. I left the bottom socket empty, which gets power from the Headlight switch, normally. The Red / White wire (Lo Beam) from the Headlight switch is extended with new wire down to the Fuse Box. You can use a inline fuse since we are not using the fuse in the fuse box anymore. I didn't want to buy inline fuses, so I used 2 female spade connectors to run a 10 amp fuse between the Headlight switch and Fuse Box. Then right before the Fuse Box I split the wire into 2 wires. 1 wire to the Left Headlight and 1 to the Right Headlight. I used a blue male spade connector to plug the wire into the top fuse socket for both headlights.

So here is a short run down of what I did.
Headlight Switch > Blue Crimp Connector > New Wire > Blue Female Crimp Connector > 10 amp Fuse > Blue Female Crimp Connector > New Wire > Yellow Crimp Connector > 2 New wires > Blue Male Crimp Connectors on each of the New Wires > 1 end to the Right Lo Beam fuse socket (Top Socket) / 1 end to the Left Lo Beam fuse socket (Top Socket)

*Again, the fuses are removed from the Left and Right Lo Beam sockets on the Fuse Box. I am not using the bottom side of the fuse socket. Just the top side, which goes to the Headlights.


Interior Lights / Tail Lights
Both of these use 1 10 amp fuse. They are wired together, so if 1 thing goes out they both go out. Same as before I needed to find which side of the fuse in the fuse box leads out to the Tail Lights. At the Tail Lights, I had to figure out which 1 of the 4 wires is for the Tail Lights. The other 3 wires would be brake, signal, and ground. Using a spare battery, I connected the negative side of the battery to the chassis as ground. Then I checked the positive side of the battery to each of the wire to find out which ones connects to negative/ground. If one shows 12v/power, then that one completes the circuit and can be considered as ground. *But for some reason all 4 wires showed power... So my next step was to guess the black wire was ground and use that as a ground while to check the other 3 wires. I had someone step on the brakes and checked to see if the black wire was ground and at the same time find out which wire was the brake wire. I don't have the exact colors of the wires at the moment, but ground was at 1 end of the plug and brake lights was at the other end. So that leaves me with the 2 middle wires. Inside the tail light bulb, there is 2 filaments. The short one is the brake lights and the taller one is the tail lights. To test the 2 inner wires I then turned on the hazard lights and tested each wire. The wire next to the brake light wire showed flashing power and is the signal wire. That leaves the inner wire next to the ground as the tail light wire.

Here is a quick look at what I found. Plug in wire order 1 2 3 4. 1 is Brake Lights. 2 is Signal Lights. 3 is Tail Lights. 4 is Ground.

I then go ahead and hook up the spare battery. The negative side to the car chassis. The positive side to the (3) Tail Lights. This will now send power up to the Fuse Box and let me know which side of the fuse sockets sends power to the Tail Lights. Again it turned out to be the top socket. I left the bottom socket unplugged. Then I just wired this up the same as I did the Lo Beams. The Red / Green wire (Interior Light / Tail Light) from the Headlight switch to a 10 amp fuse then to the top socket of the Interior Light / Tail Light fuse socket in the Fuse Box.

Tested everything and it looks good so far. Gotta wait until dark to test it again. Then see how it holds up when running for a long time.