Lude Generation

ive been over this with Nath just in case im missing something obvious, but we can't think of anything.

in a nutshell, earlier this week my wipers wouldnt turn on at all on the way to work, but half way there they suddenly worked. on the way home my left indicator did the same.

two days later i had no wipers at all, just refused to work so looked at wiper fuse, then run a test on the wiper motor in case that had gone but no power was going to it through the plug. I then checked all the earths and one was damaged so ive repaired it (convinced this was the cause) but it made no difference. ive checked the wiring to the stalks under the dash and all seems ok.

next day, i had no lights at all apart from my right indicator. the hazards go on ok which makes me think both the stalks are on the blink but seems a little too convenient for them both to start failing at the same time.

my next step is to replace both stalks but if anyone can think of something im missing to check let me know.

Is the ground ok on the right side of the engine bay next to the air intake?

It does sound like a ground or dirty connector issue.

Or possibly a/some relay/s?

I can't remember if they run off relays

RattyMcClelland wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 03, 2021 9:16 am

Is the ground ok on the right side of the engine bay next to the air intake?

Vtecmec wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 03, 2021 9:18 am

It does sound like a ground or dirty connector issue.

ive checked the ground by the cam gears, under the starter, under the vtec solenoid and by the battery but i shall indeed re-check and clean them up further - worth a go!

ek9sid wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:08 am

Or possibly a/some relay/s?

I can't remember if they run off relays

as far as i can tell from the manual there are relays for the intermittent wiper section, but also a relay behind the inner fuse box i think

so it's not the stalks, had a set of replacement ones (i'd ordered jdm without realizing but the connections were pretty much the same) but when i plugged them in i had exactly the same - not wipers and only indicators and sidelights on the other stalk, no headlights or main beam.

relays and wiring check next...

If the fault is intermittent (or was intermittent) you might be able to track it down by wiggling various parts whilst the wipers are on.

If you had no voltage at the plug on the wipers (Assuming you used the battery negative as the earth point and not the plugs supposed earth), then its probably not a problem with earthing, but with the positive feed. If thats the case - my bet would be on the fusebox or loom coming out of the fusebox. Check for coroded fuses, or sometimes hard to see cracked fuse elements. I have seen earth cables 'crack' , but not on a honda. Enough connection to show continuity to earth, but not enough to pass any serious current (same as the cracked fuses/fusible links). Normally the gearbox earth is braided sufficiently, but the one to the slam panel is pretty stiff as a prime candidate for cracking.

I can't quite remember, but do wiper and headlight signals pass through the multiplexer command units?

I know these can go bad and I had an issue where the dome light wouldnt turn on when the doors opened - due to a faulty multiplexer

I had some wierd headlight issues and replaced the section of the loom that goes across the front of the car between the headlights, I isolated the issue down to that section with continuity tests on various sections to the fusebox. I also had wiper issues but mine was down the bushes having left the building.

cheers for all the suggestions people

i spend a lot of Saturday just looking at the wiring under the dash which is a rats nest of old stereo wires etc which really doesn't help
after repairing a couple of the wires from the loom section that plugs into the bottom of the inner fuse box (this is where several aftermarket immobilizer wires were plumbed in), it made no difference so i checked various other wires to do with the headlights and wipers to no affect.

i did find during this though that the headlights (not full beams) WILL come on.....if you turn the wipers onto full wipe mode... the wipers still wont work at all though. as well as confusing me, it annoyed me that i couldn't find the issue and was starting to convince myself it's a wiring issue under the bonnet again. so i put the plastic covers back onto the steering column, plus the cover back over the inner fuse box that surrounds it (as well as the fuse cover itself), went to open the bonnet and found everything bloody worked again....

there must be a wire/s in one of these locations that is loose, frayed, exposed touching another (ooer!) wire etc. in one of these areas. i cant bloody find it but i took the lude to work this morning and it seemed all fine....for now.