I have a wiring problem that is just killing me, any input is good input at this point in time.
Driving a 90 civic DX

Lets start this all from the very top. Friday night,I got in my car to go home. Turned the key over, and nothing. Had power, heard fuel pump, all that good stuff. Figured out my starter just was not working. So I hot wired it. Ran it all through a toggle switch in the car. Turned on. Great, it worked. So I drove off home.
On the way home, I blew a fuse 3 times. Fuse powered my dash lights, and my my brake lights. After the first time, I noticed my sub was not hitting soo hard, and could smell something. I figured it was my amp over heating. So i turned down my amp, and kept volume down.
Well, yesterday, I tried to lgo somewhere. Noticed the inside of my car smelled really bad. Figured it was with the new amp and sub. Tried to turn on car, and would not turn on. Tried the toggle switch. Nothing.
So I opened the hood to see whats up, and the wires I wired up burned. ****. So I spent most of the day fixing the damage. Nothing major happened, Just had to fix a few wires that got burned. Easy fix.
By this time, it had gotten dark out, and I was going to head into town. Got car started, started to back up, and turned on the head lights. At this point, my music stopped playing. I turned my lights off, and my music continued. ... ****.... So I started chasing wires. I figured somewhere, a wire melted with another wire. I can find nothing wrong. Any clues? Any thoughts < other than stop jerry riggin stuff >, suggestions?

Also, I noticed that when the stereo is on, my brake lights are slightly on. Very dim, but on none the less.

 

My recommendation -- Remove the toggle wiring and go from there. If you plan to keep the toggle wiring, however, at least put an appropriate in line fuse into the circuit.

 

The toggle wires and toggle swich where promptly thrown far far away when i opened the hood and noticed the wiring had caught fire. lol.
I knew I should have put a fuse on it, but had none. Figuered having it on for the ride home would be OK.. then i would do it propperly the next day. Boy was I wrong.

 

I know a lot of stuff on a Honda is "negative trigger" instead of positive like most car makers do...double check everything. (its one reason why when I work on my car I try to allow myself 3x the normal time for wiring stuff...cuz I'll catch myself wiring something wrong and have to re-do it) Other then that all I can say is best of luck

 

OK you know to stop jerry rigging stuff. Check the switch on the clutch pedal (if manual) or shift lever (if automatic) that locks out the starter, this is usually why it won't start with the key though the starter is OK. Do you have an aftermarket security system? It could be wired to interrupt the starter.

Loose connections at the battery or the big ground wires under the hood cause a lot of fundamental electrical problems.

How is your sound system connected to the car? Anything jerry rigged there?

 

Wow, did not realize the car was negative triggered. I have the entire dash in pieces, and have even taken out the fuse box trying to follow wires. Never even thought to look at negatives that much.

I don't know what security system is in this car, but I know it has one, and its crap. I have had this car for over a year, and the thing has never worked. I want to rip it all out, but don't know what all needs to be done. I'm sure I could figure it out, but I work 16 hour shifts 6 days a week. No real time to play with it. But, I will make sure to check out that little switch. It sounds like that could be it.

All the connections under the hood are wonderful. All are connected, and firm as can be.

My sound system is propperly connected. i've been doing sound systems for years now, and can almost wire them in my sleep now. lol


Well I am going to head out to my damn car. Hopefully what you guys recomended helps. I am not able to work with the car down. =\

And if anyone knows where I can find a sweet wiring diagram, please tell me where to get it. The one in my Hanes book does not cover my car. What a rip off right?

 

K, I am trying to find the switch on the clutch. Not finding it.

And the securty system in this car is a clifford novell security sytem.

 

The switch is way up on the top of the pivot assembly for the clutch pedal under the dash. I think a '90 will have one. It's on my '91. In the '80s though they didn't have them, you could start the car without pressing the clutch down.

 

Found the sensor, and bypassed it. Car starts wonderfully now. Thank you very much for that piece of information. Dang thing was on the VERY top.

And, I did fix my problem. I get the DEEDEEDEE award of the day. When I wired up my Radio, I managed to get two wires backwards. I wired up the dimmer line to a speaker. Took me wayy too long to figure it out, but I figured it out.