I need electrical help!!!

[Subi1993]

I finally get my license today. My subaru was fine until i got home. I went and put it into park (its an autotragic), and a wire (hasn't been connected since i got the car) got onto the gearshifter and sparked. Then the light behind my MPH meter, RPM meter, Gas guage, and temp light wont turn on. And my tail lights are not lighting,

When i hit the brake, the brake lights light up no problem, including the 3rd brake light. But when i turn my lights on the tail lights wont illuminate...

It did it once before, and all i had to do was replace a fuse. I replaced the fuses (that looked bad) and replaced them all. But still no light... HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

[hammtheman]

i would check relays. you may have blown a relay and that will not operate correctly

[Subi1993]

^^^ ****... its too dark out... and i gotta remove my grill to release my hood

[hammtheman]

they may even be under your dash. i would take that wire and tape up the end and put it in a safe place where it cant happen again

[Subi1993]

^^^ I have thought of that... My biggest issue is trying to get the light working. haha i haven't found any under the dash... ill look again once i get outside

[RedWabbit]

personally I would figure out what the hell the wire is for. start taking things apart until you trace the wire back to a point where you can figure it out with a wiring diagram. I'm sure it has something to do with your illumination. I would even suspect it may have taken out the switch.

[Subi1993]

^^ That wire was once connected to the gear shifter for the "manual" function (personal shifting)

[RedWabbit]

^^ That wire was once connected to the gear shifter for the "manual" function (personal shifting)

lets step back and think logically about that. if the wire was connected to the "manual" shifting process of the transmission then it would be hooked up to a tcm not the illumination. why would all your lights go out? your brake lights are different then your parking lights as they operate by the brake switch on the pedal not the headlight switch. so I would think that wire is actually for the illumination of the gears on the shifter in the center console.

I'm not familiar with subys so I can't say anything for sure I can only think of logical answers and what I would do to find the problem.

unless that wire has nothing to do with your issue and things happened by chance.

[Subi1993]

Fixed it, all i did wa put a piece of electrical tape on the wire, and it worked. idk what happened, but its good to go now.


Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated!

[SovXietday]

Sounds like you've got more problems than you know with it.

[AutobahnRacer]

Electrical tape...? Please do yourself a favor, I am too ****ing tired and buzzed to read the whole topic. If the electrical tape is covering missing jacket put heat-shrink around it, it its holding two wires together solder it than heat shrink it. Dont be half assed with electrical.

[RedWabbit]

Sounds like you've got more problems than you know with it.

this. electrical tape on 1 wire shouldn't just fix a problem like this.


as a vw owner I have dealt with my far share of electrical issues, even one where I just scraped the whole car, you need to do a little more digging into this before more electrical problems arise.

[ein]

Get the diagram and chase the wire.

Once you know what its interconnected with you will know why and what gets blanked when it shorts. Then, repair it properly! Buy another switch and put it back where it was. If the car was a swap or butchered by a PO get used to doing this kinda thing because its not going to stop there.

[SovXietday]

Electrical tape...? Please do yourself a favor, I am too ****ing tired and buzzed to read the whole topic. If the electrical tape is covering missing jacket put heat-shrink around it, it its holding two wires together solder it than heat shrink it. Dont be half assed with electrical.

There is nothing wrong with electrical tape, heat shrink is a nicety, not a necessity.

[LTWon]

There is nothing wrong with electrical tape, heat shrink is a nicety, not a necessity.

Heat shrink lasts infinitely longer than tape would. And it really sounds like he sparked out the wire.. So a resplice is in order before that subie burns up.

[The Alchemist]

There is nothing wrong with electrical tape, heat shrink is a nicety, not a necessity.

Hahahhahahaha, electrical tape is crap.

Shrink and solder,only way to do things correctly.


PS. Some new type of electrical tape that you just apply to said wire and fixes all your problems.

Gimme some of that!

[DPancoast]

There is an electrical tape that you can heat up and it works just as good as heat shrink but it's cheaper in price.

Electrical tape works good as long as you know how to apply it

[The Alchemist]

There is an electrical tape that you can heat up and it works just as good as heat shrink but it's cheaper in price.

Electrical tape works good as long as you know how to apply it

Maybe, but no, ever unless its shrink wrap electrical tape. Which isnt electrical tape at all, its heat shrink tape, no matter how you call it.

Electrical tape is meant for insulation, not securing and open connection.

[Honduh]

^I agree.

I usually wrap my heat shrink in a bit of electrical tape for a bit of security.

[R33E8]

If you don't have to means to cut the wire, crimp it, then place heat shrink over it, you may as well just use electrical tape for now... Contrary to popular belief, soldering wires is not good in automotive applications unless you REALLY know what you are doing.. Even then, a proper crimp splice would still be better..

[JankyS13]

electrical tape works well in the bedroom when you need something to bind the GF up and gag her, duct tape is better, never found heat shrink big enough, but plastic wrap works well too.

[SovXietday]

Hahahhahahaha, electrical tape is crap.

Shrink and solder,only way to do things correctly.


Ey.

There is nothing wrong with electrical tape as long as you use decent stuff. Most notably, 3M Super 33+. In fact, there is so little wrong with it, that car manufacturers have been using it over their entire cars for years and years.

In the internet world, shrinkwrap is the only way to do things. In real life, electrical tape works just fine. I have use it for years on everything from interior harnesses to engine harnesses, according to you I should have all sorts of problems. Reality, never had an issue. Just like most car manufacturers 200,000 miles later.

Electrical tape is also more versatile, you can't shrink a splice.

If you don't have to means to cut the wire, crimp it, then place heat shrink over it, you may as well just use electrical tape for now... Contrary to popular belief, soldering wires is not good in automotive applications unless you REALLY know what you are doing.. Even then, a proper crimp splice would still be better..

And most people don't know why or when that applies. Soldering a WIRE to a PIN is BAD in automotive applications. This is because vibrations will break the solder loose over time. Under that same pretense, copper work hardens. As it is bent back and forth it hardens, which means enough of this it will get brittle and break. Soldered or crimped. Which means that regardless, you should always limit how much the wires are able to move up and down near joints/pins/etc.

Soldering a suspending wire to a suspended wire will not have an issue (as long as the solder job was done right in the first place). The suspended wire will absorb the vibrations. You can even electrical tape it if you'd like, do a good job and you'll never even have an issue.

That being said, again, manufacturers solder your ignition cylinder wires straight to the cylinder. The wires are secured in place so that they can't move much. Take correct steps in wiring your car and you can avoid all of the "issues" that come with wiring in automotive.

[The Alchemist]

Ey.

There is nothing wrong with electrical tape as long as you use decent stuff. Most notably, 3M Super 33+. In fact, there is so little wrong with it, that car manufacturers have been using it over their entire cars for years and years.

In the internet world, shrinkwrap is the only way to do things. In real life, electrical tape works just fine. I have use it for years on everything from interior harnesses to engine harnesses, according to you I should have all sorts of problems. Reality, never had an issue. Just like most car manufacturers 200,000 miles later.

Electrical tape is also more versatile, you can't shrink a splice.



And most people don't know why or when that applies. Soldering a WIRE to a PIN is BAD in automotive applications. This is because vibrations will break the solder loose over time. Under that same pretense, copper work hardens. As it is bent back and forth it hardens, which means enough of this it will get brittle and break. Soldered or crimped. Which means that regardless, you should always limit how much the wires are able to move up and down near joints/pins/etc.

Soldering a suspending wire to a suspended wire will not have an issue (as long as the solder job was done right in the first place). The suspended wire will absorb the vibrations. You can even electrical tape it if you'd like, do a good job and you'll never even have an issue.

That being said, again, manufacturers solder your ignition cylinder wires straight to the cylinder. The wires are secured in place so that they can't move much. Take correct steps in wiring your car and you can avoid all of the "issues" that come with wiring in automotive.

Obviously its a matter of preference. I build wiring harness all the times for customers, and even the good electrical tape I dont even bother with. Unless its an insulation.

Car manufactures are completly different than work by human hands. Their wires are spliced, crimped, and taped by machines on an assembly line.

Also using shrink vs electrical tape is no big deal. The main question here is how are you splicing the wires together. With a crimp, the 2 finger twist, the god awful wire nuts, or soldering?

Crimping is okay, as long as you have quality crimp parts, and the ones from auto zone or pep boys don't count as quality. They are made from a cheap metal that likes to over heat and burn out than rust away over time. Average life span for that type of job is 2-5 years. If its an OEM job done by machines with quality parts your looking at 20-30 years problem free.

Now the 2 finger twist....Haha, you hit a bump the wrong way and that just fails. Best use for that, is when your in a jam, or stealing a car.

Wire nuts.... Your not hard wiring your home, so dont do it.

Soldering, is IMO by far the best method out there. Not only because soldering fuses the application, but because it is a stronger bond than any of the other applications. Soldering and shrinking an application allows you to have that 20-30 year life span that comes along with OEM quailty. It is also a much more cost effective way to do things as well. A good soldering iron is 40 bucks, a roll of solder is like 4 bucks and some flux is the same. Shrink wrap does get pricey, but by shrinking the application over the solder, you now are sealing it away from other outside elements that can cause harm. Like moisture. Its been said that wires can flash rust this way. I have never seen this actually happen, so I cant vouch for that.

I guess when it comes down to it, you have the right to use whatever you want on your car. But when I sell a customer a 600 dollar wire harness I want to be certain that I wont see or hear from them again for another 20 years unless they want another one. Lol

[SovXietday]

I have nothing against shrink wrap, that would be silly. It's good stuff and if you have the ability to use it, use it. I'm just saying that it's not necessary to do a good job, but then again you can't just wrap the tape around once and leave it in a ball either.

I never really got into using shrink wrap. In the work I've done I mostly worked with doing remote starts and alarms in cars, where you really are tapping into wires more than actually building harnesses. Only way to do it is to use electrical tape. I usually double wrap things as well, put my first wrap over the solder job itself, and then wrap the whole thing in a combination of loom and tape. Never had issues either.

If I was charging someone $600 for a harness, yeah I'd go the extra mile for shrink wrap and some nice shrink loom as well. Honestly, the next harness I build will be built out of the military spec connectors just because I want to lol.

[DPancoast]

Of course solder is the best connection.

But it's not as easy as "oh hey I'm gonna learn to solder today"

Solder joints are only good of they are correct. Otherwise they are eventually useless connections that fall apart anyway.

[R33E8]

Well the problem with soldering wires together is the solder is sometimes wicked up under the insulation which makes the wire stiff.. Vibrations end up work hardening the copper and leads to it breaking... What is really needed is a strain relief which would be a piece of heat shrink.. The heat shrink would have to be long enough to support a good amount of insulation and stiff enough so the solder joint doesn't absorb much stress.. So either a piece of high shrink ratio heat shrink tubing near it's limit or some dual-wall/adhesive lined heat shrink..

If I MUST solder some wires together for what ever reason, I just use a solder sleeve.. It provides the solder and environmental sealing while providing it's own strain relief..

But of course, when I need to crimp something, I ONLY use non insulated crimps then cover it with heatshrink.. You also need a good crimper though.. Those plier style crimpers are no good.. I picked up a nice Greenlee racheting crimper for $17 on amazon a while ago.. I bought a few different dies for it and can reliably crimp a variety of different types of terminals.

Good crimp>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>good solder>>>>>>>>walmart/autozone crimp>>>>>>>bad solder...

FWIW, you would probably get fired on the spot if you tried to solder a harness on a racecar or fighter jet....

Oh and here is a short discussion regarding the two...
http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/125607348/m/53010954411/p/2

It's also not good to solder after crimping...

[The Alchemist]

Of course solder is the best connection.

But it's not as easy as "oh hey I'm gonna learn to solder today"

Solder joints are only good of they are correct. Otherwise they are eventually useless connections that fall apart anyway.

Obviously, if you dont know how to solder I wouldnt go do it.

[The Alchemist]

FWIW, you would probably get fired on the spot if you tried to solder a harness on a racecar or fighter jet....



I dont know about this. Ive never seen a solder connection break before.

Doesnt mean it doesnt.

I guess that if or when I build race cars and or fighter jets Ill get a 500 dollar crimp machine. Lol

When Honda went to nascar(I think thats what it was), they wanted me to do the whole harness. They didnt like my price, lol. Maybe I should fire myself. :banned: