?? cant turn off reverse lights, help

[donna]

Hi all, just bought my first 89 Festiva LX, 115k miles, have a few things to fix, first is, the reverse lights come on when car is started and stay on, i looked under the car and at the botton of 5 speed transmission is a two wired sensor looking thing that i believe to be the switch, i traced the two wires to a connector in engine bay and broke the connection, but the lights still stay on, whice tells me i have a short in wiring, i have no hand book yet and dont see a fuse marked backup light, is there a fuse for them? or any other suggestions for fixing the reverse lights.

[stefan]

Welcome to the site! Sounds like you scored, the LXs are kinda rare!

give me a minute and i will post the wiring diagram from the factory manual

[stefan]

[25Horseplay]

You could remove the bulbs till you find the problem. The switch for the lights might be stuck in the "on" position, might need to replace it.

[WBBulldogs]

Yeah it's better to just take out the bulbs instead of getting a ticket for it.

[stefan]

The switch for the lights might be stuck in the "on" position, might need to replace it.

he said he disconnected the switch and they still stayed on so that would rule out the switch i think

if you disconnected the switch and they still stayed on that would mean they are getting voltage after the switch... which seems weird if you look at the schematic. it would make sense if it used a ground switch system but not this way.

[freshtiva]

Are you sure you unplugged the back up light switch ? this isnt it

[Pu241]

[he said he disconnected the switch and they still stayed on so that would rule out the switch i think
if you disconnected the switch and they still stayed on that would mean they are getting voltage after the switch... which seems weird if you look at the schematic. it would make sense if it used a ground switch system but not this way.

Or the wrong switch was disconected! :wink:

[5.0zone]

Or the previous owner wired them to stay on all the time.
Its been a few years but few people used to do that around here.
I guess to keep tailgaters off their butt.

Donna,
Welcome to the site.

[donna]

Are you sure you unplugged the back up light switch ? this isnt it

my my, that is what i thought to be the switch, but its the only one i saw on tranny, where might i find the b/u lamp switch, and i did buy a haynes manual 88 thru 97 festiva/aspire, pretty much doesnt cover much at all the under 94 models, so i will be asking many questions here....thanks for the help so far.... ops:

[stefan]

^-- isnt there only one switch in the tranny? the back up switch... what else is there?

[freshtiva]

The fifth gear switch. Dont ask, ....its function is unknown.



See #10 & #20

[stefan]

wow.. interesting... learn something new everyday! im gonna have to look into that. if its shown on any of the electrical diagrams maybe we can figure out what it dose.

[freshtiva]

If you find out that it does something let me know, A wire has been off of mine for almost a year now. At least that's when I noticed it. Ive got a new switch but it seems like it is behind the cross member or something. I remembered thinking it wasn't worth changing ... since it doesn't do anything anyway. I think its been lefted over from festiva evolution.

[FestYboy]

that switch "locks out" the shift light function so that the ecm isn't telling you to shift to the next gear when you can't. this won't apply to most of us as the shift light most likely doesn't work anymore. it may also send a command via the ECM to change the spark profile for cruising speeds and activate the EGR valve. egr should only come on durring cruise situations, period.

BTW the reverse lights are shorted to power meaning that a wire has rubbed through or was bitten or pinched so that it's touching a switched power wire. only look for wires that are powered with the ignition switch.