HELP! Brake pedal keeps blowing fuse (HORRIBLE UPDATE)

Maintenance/Repairs
21

Thanks for the comments, guys. I have an update:

So I got to the quarter back panel and took it all apart, and unplugged this weird circuit-y thing with no cover.

NOW, my fuse stops blowing (YAY!) and my third brake light works (YAY!) but my main brake lights still do not work.

Here is the part I removed. Should I plug it back in? What does it control? My back windows and wiper still seems to work.

The other side has a spot where a bunch of wires plugged in with a plastic clip. I was hoping this was the remnants of a trailer hitch part, but after looking online, it doesnā€™t look like one at all. Whoops.

The other side also says ā€œQF18.ā€

22

ANother update: Lights are working, fuse isnā€™t blowing, but my rear van window was being sluggish and I noticed that yellowish oil is dripping down the plastic clip that clips into the window motor. The electric tape is really oily a few inches away. Whatā€™s going on? I thought I had read something a month or so ago about oil coming up if you park on an incline regularly. My memory could be failing me. But, in case itā€™s related, I DO park on a very. very steep hill everyday.

23

I canā€™t think of a relationship between the brake light problem and this apparently new rear window problem. It may just be that the motor is giving up the ghost and needs to be replaced. Or something in the mechanism between the motor and the window is slipping. Ask your mechanic to check for those two. Maybe the oil is dripping on something and the insides just need some cleaning.

When I encounter electrical problems like you are reporting first thing I do is inspect the associated electrical connectors, and clean out any I find dirt/gunk on them. A cleaning with a q-tip dipped in some alcohol can sometimes help. If itā€™s the connector type which plugs onto a flange of a mini-circuit board (i.e. a PCB edge connector), Iā€™ll use a pencil eraser to clean off the copper contacts on the circuit board flange.

Edit: One thing I was thinking of when I first read your OP is the brake/shift lever interlock. You know, how you have to press on the brake pedal in order to shift out of Park? If it is controlled by an electrical sensor, that pathway could also short out when you press on the brake pedal.

24

As I look at this circuit board I see what could be a short right on the board. Look at the three big solder joints on the left side . The bottom and middle one look like a bit of solder may be bridging them. If so, just scrape it off with a metal pick.

25

I ended up using blow-off on that circuit board thing and I plugged it back in, and that might have been the thing that fixed everything!

Thanks so much, guys. Not sure what the oil is coming into the plastic clip of the window motorā€¦could be a separate issue.

26

This video might help with the rear window motor:

27

A seal in the gear reduction may be leaking itā€™s lube thru a bad seal.

Yosemite

28

THat could be some kind of tracking device. Ever know anybody with the KGB.

Who have you been hangin with!!!

29

That module is probably the ā€˜brake light outā€™ sensor. When one of the brake light filaments breaks and the total current does not match the specifications, the ā€˜brakeā€™ warning light is lite and sends you on a search, i.e. brake fluid level, brake lights, cyclops middle brake lamps, dual system failure, etc.

30

I agree with researcher if you found this in one of the rear taillight assemblies or attached to it. When one of the filaments burns out, it lights up a bar at the back of your door ajar icon on the dashboard.

31

HORRIBLE UPDATE:

So the car was working fine, so I went ahead and took it on the 6-hour (one way) trip I was planning with my family. It worked great all the way down. The next day, I left a restaurant and the fuse blew again. I went to the back, wiggled a few wires around, put a new fuse in, and it worked!

Got back to the hotel and it happened again. Wiggled, changed fuse, and ta-da! It sat overnight and was not working again, and I had some daylight, so I hunkered down to try to fix it. And that was the start of all Hell breaking loose.

I undid some electrical tape that I hadnā€™t undone before to look inside, and it all looked fine. I left the tape off because I figured it might have to come off again at some point when I got it fixed. My husband removed that electrical circuit-looking thing (photo a few posts back) because the third light worked without it plugged in (could have been a complete coincidence), and it didnā€™t ā€œseemā€ to serve a purpose. I thought my husband plugged it back in, but he didnā€™t. We were out of fuses so he ā€œborrowedā€ one from another spot, which was the accessories fuse. That one blew, too.

We drove to the gas station and I scolded him for blowing a fuse that operated other things, so he bought some fuses at the gas station. They were unmarked, so the gas station attendant said ā€œname a price.ā€ They were in plastic baggies, stapled shut, 2 in a pack, and said ā€œQUALITY AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTSā€ SFE-20 amp. Made in china on the back. The logo was a piece of paper stapled on. We put them in the accessories slot and the ā€œSTOPā€ slot, which was the slot that kept blowing our fuses and controlled our brake lights.

While we driving away, maybe 50 feet, I started to smell smoke! The wires back there were ALL smoking. It was awful. We pulled over and everything was melted and smoking (no fire, canā€™t believe it.) It looks awful. We popped the hood and saw that the STOP fuse that we had been regularly replacing had MELTED. We were able to pull out some of it, but not all. Itā€™s totally ruined.

We drove it back to the hotel and the car was going HAYWIRE. Every light flashed on and off, every gauge flicked and jumped. The lights were all on and were dim. Every engine light came on. The vehicle thought that every door was open. Our sliding doors didnā€™t work. The battery seemed like it was dying and the car was just chugging along. Iā€™m surprised we made it to the hotel.

WHAT HAPPENED?! Was it a bad, cheap fuse? Was this just what was going to happen to the car eventually with that short? Was it unplugging that circuity thing? Was it removing any electrical tape? (The wires seemed totally in tact, no punctures or anything.)

Thanks, guys. It looks like my car repair just got 10,000X more expensive. And Iā€™m stranded with two preschoolers 6 hours away in another state.

What do I even begin to tell a mechanic what is wrong with my car? Is it something a non-Honda dealer can do?

(P.S.: If any of you win the lottery and feel like being philanthropicā€¦ :wink: )

32

If the 20 amp gas station fuses have a higher rating than the prior existing blown fuses then that is likely what caused the problem; not an inferior fuse.

What would concern me now would be the smoking wiring in the back and the underhood fuse being melted. That could mean a lot of expensive wire harness replacement.

At this point pray the burnt wiring is confined to the area in the rear (at least you know where the problem is nowā€¦) and that no more underhood damage exists other than a melted fuse and possibly fuse/relay box.

The best thing to do with the shop is be honest and tell them the entire, and condensed, story.
Any repairs could be done by a non-Honda dealer shop as long as they have someone knowledgeable with electrical problems.

At least the smoke in the back shows where the short was located so maybe some wire splicing and (knock on wood) no underhood or main harness damage exists.

33

A few years ago I ran across a broadcast email from an AC Delco service representative. It seems that there were a number of electrical problems and fires caused by fuses that did not blow when they should have, causing an overload and the resulting melted/burned wiring. I still have the text here somewhereā€¦

The following is from a broadcast e-mail that was sent out
by my AC Delco rep:

Steve We have now had two vehicles come into our department
with extensive wiring harness damage. Both of these vehicles
had a replacement 15 amp fuse instead of the GM fuse. The
fuse does NOT pop causing the wiring harness to catch fire.
The fuse has a clear, hard plastic blue body with the
amperage stamped into the top there is no white paint on the
fuse. There are no identifying marks on the fuse to tell who
is making it. The fuse is distributed by Harbor Freight, I
attached a picture of the box of fuses. Your dealers should
look out to make sure that suspect wiring problems are not
caused by these defective aftermarket fuses. The 15 amp fuse
on this particular truck did not pop even at 50 amps. The
fuse in the second picture still tests good even after a
direct short across the battery. We tested six of these
fuses and none of them pop.

I assume your fuse did not pop either. From reading your previous posts I have to assume that your problem all along was the ā€œbrake light out warning module.ā€

At this point I would take your car to the nearest Honda dealer. Youā€™re out of town and unless you can find an independent shop that has the capability and experience to repair electrical problems the dealer may be the best bet in the long run. They will have guys experienced with your car.

34

Fuses of unknown quality, known electrical problems, and now this. I agree, the malfuctioning fuse did not pop and destroyed the wire harness. Due to the damage, probably damaged other circuits within the harness, which is causing all of the other problems throughout the van. This will be expensive.

35

great now I have to check the box of fuses in my garageā€¦

thanks Jen, you may have saved me trouble at least.

sorry about your situation, you either need to go to the dealer or a very good independent shop. if the shop does not seem confident in their ability to fix this, go elsewhere. this needs a thorough repair and inspection.

36

I doubt leaving the thing unplugged caused this. it was probably the clearly inferior fuse not blowing as it should and possibly the untaped connection.

I really wanted to blame your husband for this since you had done so well so far, but I can t.

I really thought that that piece of solder bridging the two terminals on the board was the problem. did you remove that little pc of solder when you blew it off?

maybe you ll get lucky and just wires will be damaged, good luck

37

Thanks, guys. It sounds like the fuse was what did it in. Wish I had a better grasp of where the fuses came from, so I could make sure that they werenā€™t sold.

Taking it to the Honda dealership at noon. Iā€™ll update you all for the sake of a complete thread and a happy ending!

Think itā€™s okay to drive 2 miles to the dealership with the hazard lights on? Could anything happen within the car, or is the damage already done? I pulled out one of the prongs in the melted fuse (the rest is staying in there) so is the circuit not complete, meaning itā€™s okay thatā€™s itā€™s all melted in there?

38

wesw, I really wanted to blame that part, too! I did scrape it between those two terminals and cleaned it up, and it seemed to fix my problem (which was probably fixed by us lifting and re-situating the shorted wire(s.)) Nope, he canā€™t be blamed ā€“ heā€™s been scouring online forums and experimenting, too.

Itā€™s my fault for suggesting we stop and get fuses. Itā€™s killing me, actually.

39

ā€œItā€™s my fault for suggesting we stop and get fuses. Itā€™s killing me, actually.ā€

Please stop beating yourself up over that detail.
If you suggested that you and your husband go out to dinner and he wound up with food poisoning, would it be your fault?
No, it would be the fault of the restaurantā€™s proprietor and/or chef!

In this case, defective Made-in-China parts did the damage, and you had no way of knowing that the fuse would be defective. In fact, I think that you had a reasonable expectation that the fuse would function as it was supposed to.

40

So you know, or anyone else coming along to read this after the fact, when you have problems like this you can avoid having to buy a gross of fuses (and wearing them in a bandolero for easy access) by buying a circuit breaker instead. The circuit breakers come in a variety of sizes meant to plug right into the fuse socket. They are sold right next to the fuses and donā€™t cost all that much more than a sleeve of fuses.

Iā€™ve used them a few times when tracking down persistent but highly intermittent electrical problems. I was a bit skeptical of their quality at first but after testing a few, I found them to be very good.

When the trip current is exceeded, they open up for a period of time and then automatically reset. After you fix the problem, you can swap in a rated fuse if it makes you sleep better at night.

Too bad on this one, that circuit board had a defect since day one but took years to degrade to the point of failureā€¦