This 2007 Honda Accord is a perfect example of why one should read and understand the owner’s manual. Never put anything in place of a blown fuse except the factory rated fuse for that circuit. The complaint was that that stoplights and shifter interlock would not work sometimes. Other times the stoplights stayed on all of the time.
One of the first things that I noticed about this car was fresh paint, and secondly sloppy workmanship. My suspicion was that this vehicle had been repaired by a non professional body man. Boy oh boy was I right about that.
The main problem was quickly found in a melted trunk lid wiring harness. It is generally pretty bad when the outside loom has heat distortion.
Opening the loom found melted wiring. You may want to click on the next pictures to enlarge them.
I went towards the front of the car and found the same melted loom in the harness under the carpet at the driver’s door.
Opening the loom found a wire with the insulation burnt off of it.
The actual work of repairing this car was way too involved to document but I wanted to give you an idea of what had to be done to replace the burnt harnesses.
All of this and nearly $1700 to replace burnt harnesses and a fuse box. The original short was located in the trunk lid and would have only cost about $150 to locate and repair. The underhood fuse box where the stoplight fuse is located was not damaged. The wiring between that fuse box and the stoplight switch looked to be about 16 gauge and survived the overheating condition relatively well. I did note that someone before me had replaced the stoplight switch and about 18 inches of its harness. The wire where it left the interior fuse box was very small and on the outside of the harness bundle and therefore could not handle the heat from the short and a non factory rated fuse in the system.