let there be light?

okay, im totally lost and have no diea where to start. i brought my 96 eclipse RS 2.0 then got hit in it 3 days later. my interior lights did not work when i bought it, nor did my reverse lamps. after i got hit they worked for about 3 days. now they have stopped working again. it sounds to me like a short in the wire but i dont even know where to begin tracing it. does anyone have any ideas?:sly:

try the fuses. if they are blown, replace them, if they blow after you replace them there might be a short in the elec. system but check your fuses first.
also i had a problem like this in my truck before i bought my car and it turned out to be a penny in the cig. lighter hole shorting the system out.

checked the fuses, nothing blown. dont understand at all please help

did you check the cig lighter for foriegn metal objects??

out side of that i would guess its a short

Is there an aftermarket radio hooked up to the default radio position? If so, that can be doing it. Also, remote starts, alarms, could also be doing this..

there wasnt anything in the cigarette lighter, but the car does hav an aftermarket head unit in it. it was in it when i bought it and i had planned to replace it soon, is there a certain wire i need to check while i ahev it out?

i'd check all the wires make sure none of them are crossing or grounding out

Most DSMs cant have the radio hooked up to the default wires. Not sure why. I see this at Circuit City all the time. Most have to get their initial power from some other source (ie battery). The inside lights and tail lights go out. Dont know why. Dont know about the accident niether, but the radio is what I know.

my interior lights used to only work when i opened my passenger side door, so try checking those little rubber objects sticking out on the body when you open your doors. the problem with mine were that they were screwed in too tight and held the sensor down. but that was just me, give it a try anyway

you need to check the brake light relay fuse under the hood. my guess is that one of the turn signal lamp wires has chaffed and is blowing out the fuse. that happened to me.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=185908&highlight=blowing

yea did you check you fuses under the hood and under the dashboard

it cat be a fuse if it was a fuse they would of stayed not working ,i bet 95% its probally a bare wire somewhere or a wire is getting grounded

if you know anything about electrical wiring i would start from the power source and check if you have power. go to the fuse box and find the wire that goes to the taillights and interior lights and use a wire tester (screwdriver thingy that lights up when you touch it to a power source while grounding the other end - forget the name of it). if you don't have power behind the fuse box then i would go right to the main harness and see if you have power right at the main harness. depending on where you have power and where you don't have power that will help you narrow down the bad spot and fix the problem.

what area on your car was damaged when you got hit. when you got hit it could of exposed a wire not normally exposed and now its grounding out against the body, another wire, etc. check around the area on your car you were hit for anything like that.

i actually never got hit in the accident. i took the ditch to avoid killing my car. the bumpers were alittle cracked up and i had dent in the muffler, but other than that it was just a bumpy ride through the ditch. i didnt install this head unit myself so im not exactly sure how the previous ownber hooked it up, but ive been messing with my stereo's for the last 3 years or so. im hoping its just a bad connection or there is a bare piece of wire somewhere in there. i ahvent really had a chance to figure out how to pull this dash appart and remove the cd player yet, so if anyone knows, please tell me. ill check the rubber stoppers as well, but i doubt they would cause the reverse lights to malfuntion aas well. if anyone else has any ideas please post them. thanks for the suggestions everyone!

vfaq has a guide for how to take out the stereo in a 2g. it looks like a pain in the ass you have to pull the whole center console

pretty much. it is a pain in the ass. i've done it countless times installing stereos for friends who have dsm's.

im having a bit of a hard time finding the page of VFAQ.com about the radio. if anyone has any links to this site or any other site telling how to remove the radio please let me know. thanks

carstereoremoval,com has it but it'll cost you 4 bucks. if i find anything i'll edit the post

alright, new development... while bored out of my mind sitting in my girlfriends driveway i started playing with the little panels on the inside of the car. most of them were jsut the place where buttons would be on the GS model. however, while fiddling around i ended up pulling a little panel off the back of the stearing wheel and when i touched a few wires by accident my dome light came on (door was open). now, thats great, i figure theres a short somewhere... but i dont have cruise control and the only wires i cant think of that should be running into the steering wheel is the airbag and horn. so, im not sure why it would affect my dome lights. i think i haev major electrical problems somewhere which kind of scares me.:banghead: im playing on taking out that aftermarket cd player tomarrow to see if it solves the problem, but im not sure why it would affect all these different things. if anyone can help in the least bit, please let me know. even if its something your not even sure about, let me know. thanks!