[Carlos Silva]

Good afternoon HRV owners. Today I am posting about an on going issue I'm having but only a few days now with my aftermarket tail lights I bought on ebay. These tail lights have a harness already put together that plugs directly into the factory harness for the outer lights and if youd like the inner lights to light up you can use the existing cable they include to splice into a power source. The professional shop that installed them used the License plate lights as they were a solid and strong enough source to power the lights. Pictures included of the before and after. 1 day after installing them my car once i put into reverse had a warning on the screen to put the car in park. once i did that the car shut down. it will not start again and the gear shifter is locked.

I currently have the car with Honda without a diagnosis but they have only determined they will not do any further investigation without putting the factory lights back in. The owner of the shop is putting the lights back in as we speak and will update me once Honda has checked it over again to determine if that was the problem for sure.

My warning to you is this. If you have the same experience or any ideas of why this happened outside of "you installed aftermarket tail lights" or "dont buy ebay junk" then please keep the comments inside. I'm truly trying to help other owners or see if anyone else has had a similar issue.

I reached out to the seller but havent heard back just yet. My understanding is I'm not the first to purchase these lights but I haven't seen any pics or mention of them installed yet so I'm curious to know their outcome and any different wiring that may have had to do.

ALSO, My suspicion is that since the tail lights are changed that something in the computer is detecting a fault or there are no brake lights and its shutting it down. I had a friend with a Toyota who's car was stuck in park because he had a brake light out and until he replaced it he couldnt get it out of park. I guess its for safety but how safe is it to be stranded somewhere trying to put your car in reverse.

Here is the link
http://www.ebay.com/itm/371486391174?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[ddemetra]

Thanks for sharing.

Reminds me when I got in trouble messing around with the maintenance mode.
Slightly embarrassing, but better to warn others I agree!
http://www.hrvforum.com/forum/409-e...reen-while-driving-possible-7.html#post264306

 

[Selden]

Such problems are not unusual on vehicles with CAN bus wiring, so it's good to check for "CAN bus compatible."

For future reference: After installing an airhorn in a Fit 6 years ago (not CAN bus) without using a relay, the horn blew a fuse, which resulted in it being impossible to move the shifter out of Park. Fortunately, I was only a mile from home, and was able to hike back for a screwdriver. There is usually a slot near the shifter where you can override this by prying loose a cover and using a screwdriver. I'm not near the HR-V at the moment, so I can't confirm that it uses the same override system.

 

[cotonHRV]

..... Fortunately, I was only a mile from home, and was able to hike back for a screwdriver. There is usually a slot near the shifter where you can override this by prying loose a cover and using a screwdriver. I'm not near the HR-V at the moment, so I can't confirm that it uses the same override system.

Yeap, there is one. I used it few weeks ago, to place my HRV into Neutral while the car was Off.

 

[Selden]

Yeap, there is one. I used it few weeks ago, to place my HRV into Neutral while the car was Off.

Did you find anything in the owner's manual?

 

[Carlos Silva]

Well, after putting the stock tail lights back in Honda decided to ACTUALLY troubleshoot and BOOM, fuse "34" controls the brake lights and if that fuse blows the entire dash will go out and the car will warn you to put it in park and shut down. Instead of checking the fuses AFTER telling me they were blowing fuses and didnt know why it turns out my aftermarket tail lights were in fact the problem. exposed wire on the harness that comes with the tail lights shorted out the brake lights and blew the fuse.

Lesson learned. Keep spare fuses and check myself instead of thinking it was some piece of sophisticated ECU trying to protect me with some shut down protocol. it just didn't detect i had brake lights LOL

Ill have someone clean up the wires and reinstall and if they still blow fuses back to the seller for a replacement.


Thanks all hope I've helped someone with my self inflicted problems.

 

[sweptwing80]

Sorry to hear of your trouble Carlos. It is really scary how intelligent these vehicle systems are getting and much control the mfg gives them. Hope to hear of a satisfactory outcome.

 

[Snowball]

If you had exposed wires which shorted out the tail lights, this would be the fault of the shop you had do the installation. I would be looking at them for any charges you incurred during this problem.


As a side note, I'm glad it was just a blown fuse and not something worse. When I had my 2003 Civic Si, there was a problem when people would install some aftermarket electronics (radio, fog lights, etc) would cause a problem with the gauge cluster. Out of the blue, half the cluster would go out along with the AC controls. Come to find out, if you removed the cluster and looked at the board, you would see a broken trace with burn marks around it. There really is no easy fix for this except soldering a wire to re-complete the trace. This sometimes held, sometimes didn't.

 

[cotonHRV]

Did you find anything in the owner's manual?

Yes, Under "Handling the Unexpected" Section. Page Titled "Shift Lever Does Not Move". On my version of the Manual, page 448.

 

[mpmn04]

Yes, Under "Handling the Unexpected" Section. Page Titled "Shift Lever Does Not Move". On my version of the Manual, page 448.

page 102 of the "short manual".

 

[Selden]

Yes, Under "Handling the Unexpected" Section. Page Titled "Shift Lever Does Not Move". On my version of the Manual, page 448.

That explains it; I was searching for "park"

 

[blk_shadow]

thanks for the info, never knew that the HRV has that kind of feature.

 

[Carlos Silva]

I was hoping that after 6 hours and a solid diagnostic code they would have checked the fuse instead of going through all of that but at least now others know if their car shuts down and wont turn on check the fuse for the brake lights LOL

 

[SlowFosho]

I was hoping that after 6 hours and a solid diagnostic code they would have checked the fuse instead of going through all of that but at least now others know if their car shuts down and wont turn on check the fuse for the brake lights LOL

That's the very first thing I look at when something is wrong. I check all the fuses. When I was installing the HID's on my lights, I removed meant to remove the DRL fuse and accidentally removed an engine fuse and the car wouldn't turn on. I though the battery was dead but jump starting wasn't helping. I then double checked the fuses and that's when I realized that I pulled the wrong one.

Did the shop reinstall the tail lights?

 

[g0zigen]

Carlos,

I'm sorry to hear about your problem. I have the same exact tail lights as yours, and mine has been working for the last few days.

After reading your posts, I would say the tail lights are not at fault, but whoever installed your stuff didn't do their job correctly. If it's a professional shop then how could they exposed a live wire?

 

[Carlos Silva]

This weekend they are reinstalling. The shop owner is a great guy and after going out of his way to put it back to stock for Honda and offering to reinstall with no charge I am satisfied. I don't want the stock lights anymore after Installing them.

 

[g0zigen]

The guys at Ikon Motorsport was very helpful for me. They called me on Friday night at 11:00 p.m. regarding to the installation problem I had w/ the unknown red, black, and green wire. The instruction didn't show what to do w/ those wires. Aaron Kwan from Ikon was very helpful. I feel bad for them b/c this thread sounds like their product is at fault which was not.

On the another note my tail lights collected some moisture inside. I wasn't sure if rain got inside of the tail lights when I was installing or there was a leak. I did the leak test and didn't find any leakage. I drilled very small hole on top and bottom of each pieces (there are 4 pieces), and I haven't seen any moisture ever since. Maybe you might have to do that w/ yours.

 

[Carlos Silva]

On the another note my tail lights collected some moisture inside. I wasn't sure if rain got inside of the tail lights when I was installing or there was a leak. I did the leak test and didn't find any leakage. I drilled very small hole on top and bottom of each pieces (there are 4 pieces), and I haven't seen any moisture ever since. Maybe you might have to do that w/ yours.

Yea the shop said that may have been the cause and is inspecting them this weekend. I've been in contact with ikon and updating them on my circumstances. Hopefully no more blown fuses

 

[Moki Salem]

Carlos Silva,

Could you please tell me what wheels, size/ offest and tires size set up you have on you HR-V in the picture above? That set up looks amazing. How does it handle/gas mileage?

 

[Carlos Silva]

Carlos Silva,

Could you please tell me what wheels, size/ offest and tires size set up you have on you HR-V in the picture above? That set up looks amazing. How does it handle/gas mileage?

Since I am running 255 30 22's the speedo is off my about 5mph. it also shows a dip in about 5-7 miles less average fuel economy so relatively unchanged. Handles great in the snow since we been hit with a lot in MD lately, and traction control still handles well.