Battery Keeps dying/ Ta9ilight stays on after pulling fuse

Maintenance/Repairs
1

My girlfriend has a 2001 civic. Battery has died twice this week. The first time I thought it was just an old batter (She leaves her lights on a lot also). Yesterday it died and I tested it and it read 0.6 volts. Well today I tried to jumpstart it and noticed the taillights came on immediately. Turned it off, started charging it again and the rear taillight came on again. I’m assuming there is a parasitic draw somewhere, but how can that be?

2

I do realize there is no 9 in taillights.

Does anyone not know if its fuse 2 under the hood?

3

Is the headlight switch off? You said she leaves them on frequently.

4

Just my story if it helps, Brake lights stayed on occasionally and killed the battery. ended up being a bad brake light switch. Look to see if you can figure out what is not turning off that should. Some other simple suspects are trunk light and glove box light.

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5

No that was the first thing I checked.

6

Well my taillights stayed on after I turned the car off.

7

If the tail lights are illuminated even after you have used the on-off switch to command them off, that means the switch supplying power is fused shut and/or the circuit is being powered when it is not supposed to be due to a wiring fault. To resolve an issue such as that, the circuit powering the lights has to be traced, starting with the devices that should indeed be “off” if commanded off (such as the light switch, relay, etc.). If the brake lights are not functioning, it is possible the filaments in both bulbs are burned out and that possibility should be ruled out first. If the bulbs are OK, the brake light switch and the rest of the circuit will have to be traced.

1 Like
8

Tail lights or brake lights?

If brake lights: there is a rubber pad on the brake pedal, where it rests on (and pushes in) the brake light switch. If that rubber pad is missing the switch doesn’t get pushed in and the brake lights stay on.

This happened on a friend’s old Civic. I found pieces of the pad on the floor mat and found a new one at an auto recycler.

1 Like
9

It’s the break light. Thanks

1 Like
10

Guess you did break the brakes! :wink:

3 Likes
11

My girlfriend did. She is a crazy driver.