Taillights and dash lights not working - Small Lights Fuse keeps blowing
 

Hi -
I am really out of my league here, but I'm trying to fix this problem on my own. I bought a car off Craigslist, and I knew that the interior wiring was all messed up. The taillights and the interior lights don't work, but the headlights and turn signals do. I removed the dash panel and the stereo, and there's all sorts of crazy wiring going on there, A lot of electrical tape and terminal caps and butt connectors. I can definitely see exposed wires, but I don't know what does what. There was an aftermarket radio that wasn't working, so a lot of those wires that come from the plug that goes to the radio aren't hooked up and are bare and exposed. There's also a bundle of wires with a lot of tape around it. Which wires do I need to look for to find the short? What exactly needs to happen to it? Does it need to be taped off, or connected to something else? This is my first time doing anything like this. Please help!

It's a 1995 Honda Accord. I took pictures of the wiring if that helps. I just don't know what wires need to go to what. I found a wiring diagram for the stereo, but it doesn't list any other wires that get connected back there.

Go to Online Manuals post in DIY forum and download the 94-97 Accord manual. This has wiring diagram which will enable repair,... w/ great effort.

You will be a detective sluthing to find matching wires and resplice them w/ crimp connectors. Expect to spend some time at this job!

I hope you don't need this car soon.

good luck

you can get the schematics here also:
https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...ematics-46363/

it will take time. you will need to repair every wire. i recommend solder and heat shrink.

Thank you for your help! What I did so far was rip all the old stereo equipment out, because it was not working right anyway, and I just wanted to start fresh. There was no wiring harness, the wires were just electrical taped together, and many of them were unattached. So I pulled all of that out and tried to just start fresh. I found the 12V lines and the ground and terminated all of them properly, and then bundled the speaker stuff and taped them off, and then I replaced the small lights fuse. Now I have headlights and interior lights again (although no stereo). It's freezing in the northeast and I dont' have a garage, so I wanted to get the car driveable and that worked!

One question I have here is about the wire to the left, the one with the red connector and the silver wire. If I jiggle it, it seems to cause problems. I can't tell where it goes. What is it?

(This picture was taken before I did anything)

https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...ine=1359733390

If the connector is a RCA male end connector, it's probably the radio antenna feed. Hard to tell from this small image.

good luck

aparently this is a common problem from what I hear. when you go to put the new radio back in, make sure you use crimp caps on all unused wire. I had a friend with an accord doing the same thing. one of the radio wires was apparently grounding out and causing a short through the tail light fuse.