We are retired High School teachers with some handy man skills trying to stretch our dollars.
After having read on this forum about peoples' positive experiences installing their own light kits, my wife and I ran Blue Ox 4 wire light kit to diy hole in lamps.
As per instructions, we used self tapping screws and connected white wires on light sockets to the white wire on harness.
Then each side was connected to self tapped holes to car body in area of lamps. Instructions said to connect to frame but this car has unibody so thought this would work?
Then, at the end of the day, we had to put the lamps on and move the car to our condo parking area for security.
The add-on harness is not connected to any power source.
The add-on harness is not connected to any power source.
PROBLEM: now the Honda brake lights do not work.
How would connecting two screws to body, both white wires on the light sockets and to the white on the harness cause this? Have double checked OEM connectors.
Also, when the headlights are turned on there are very weak running lights.
Turn signals are separate bulbs on Honda and work fine. The brake light on the hatchback window works fine. But the big R L brake lights do not work. Guess will need to unhook the grounds. Then what?
Help, please!? Thanks!
2001 F 250 Superduty offroad diesel with Roamer Truck Camper
Honda CR V Tow (we hope!)
2001 F 250 Lariat Super Duty Ext Cab Diesel V8 4x4 Off Road and Camper packages, AutoZone HD off road shocks, Timbrens; 1996 Roamer RV Fiberglass Camper; 1998 Honda CRV dingy
What year CRV you have? I have a 04 but I installed dioids. I added two extra on the amber lights so they now work when towing as brake and turn. It makes me wonder because you have the brake light in the center and it works? I thought the houseings were plastic? Doesn't the pigtails have two wires? CharWan Boy I hope you guys can live without the spell checker. Mine doesn't work
Thanks, CharWan! Appreaciate your quick response!
Yes the housing is plastic, drilled it and "rigged it" as had read others have done. We are NOT hooking into the Honda electrical system therefore no need for diodes? Are grounding to tow places on the Honda body....
This isthe Blue Ox kit that allows you to run separate wires acting as extensions of the towing vehicle wiring. Not using the amber or the middle brake light on the hatch back glass of the Honda, nor the lower light.
Matter of fact, did wire in series the brown wires. Instructions called for twisting the R and L browns and the harness brown together. We used the blue squeeze splice clips and wired them in a series R brown wire clipped above L brown wire onto the four way harness wire. Thought that was nifty, guess we were wrong.
On the white ground, we again uses the blue squeeze on clips, forgot what they are called, Left side wire onto the harness wire and grounded to body in the lamp area. On the right side we did as we thought instructed and grounded the wire in the lamp area. Again, instructions call for grounding to frame, but this is unibody?
At any rate, would guess that Blue Ox help desk is closed on weekend. Thanks for that suggestion and review of their helpfulness!
What makes no sense to us, admittedly with no training in wiring, is that there is no power hooked to
You got me here. I don't understand why you are tying into the wires in the CRV. If you tie into the wires on the CRV you need dioids. Arent you installing new bulbs for the stop and marker lights? You cannot use the bulbs that are already there and tie them into your truck. As I said before doesn't the kit have new bulbs for the CRV?
I have wired the 3 CRVs I have owned. I used the light kit with separate bulbs and I assume that is what you are using. There is no need to disturb any wires on the CRV. You are wiring from the trailer connector on your RV directly to the bulbs you installed on the CRV. Yellow wire goes to the left turn light, Green wire to the right turn light and the Brown wire goes to the tail light by splitting and going to both bulbs. The white wire (ground) should also split and go to the white wire of both bulbs.
LK23 is right in that there should be no connection of any kind between the new light harness and any part of the original harness of the CR-V. You are using separate bulbs to avoid any connection between the two systems.
An add on to LK33 post would be, try not grounding to the body at all, instead carry the white wire all the way back to the plug and continue to the motorhome thru your connecter cable, trying to ground a tow vehicle or trailer thru the hitch can often lead to ground problems, i.e. dim lights, etc. Make sure you did not disturb any of the vehicle wiring including the ground, and check those screws to be sure they didn't hit a wire by mistake.
charwan -- Sorry I did not communicate better, we have NOT tied into anything on the CRV save selftapping ground screws into the body.
Thanks for your input! We checked at AutoZone and they did not have diodes. Will check at Pep Boys in morning becaus the UTB 1000 brake controller apparently requires a diode and one did not come with the new towing vehicle harness we ordered from them. (We have all the other parts to UTB-1000 that we bought used off Craigslist.)
LK23 and Kirk -- We are I am doing what you say! Thanks so much for responding!
HDC Gone Riding-- Will do. Will disconnect the grounds and tape over. When we finish, as you say, "instead carry the white wire all the way back to the plug and continue to the motorhome thru your connecter cable" we will see what happens.
To all of you kind responders--
Today, we replaced the burnt out Honda bulbs and ran the following tests
1. undid the left and right ground screws/wires and tried the brakes on the honda in accessory, where we must run it since it is an automatic.
2. tested in the ignition position
In both instances, the Honda CRV lights now work fine. They have not shorted out. We drove it two times to autoparts etc. Who knows though, now maybe the new add on bulbs we installed burned out. Will wait to check them when we actually connect with our towing vehicle truck.
Again, only thing invasive we did was ground to the body. There is still no power to our add on stop tail lights. But now, with new bulbs, the CRV lights work fine.
So, again, what is the reason that we might have shorted out the bulbs? We really are almost 100% positive that we did not screw into a wire.
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