mikko79

Got my car back from the service and its working fine. Rust and corrosion had ruined the wheel hub. The sensor within the hub was in "short-circuit?" if that is the correct term, sorry my bad english . The corrosion had also ruined the brake pads. The inner pads were so rusted that they werent even moving. Only outer pads were moving.

Now i have new wheel hub, new pads, cleaned up calibers and a big smile on my face. What a relief that car is fine now!

i should use more brakes and less downshift/counter-steer/throttle driving in winter time :D

limpbozkit

iTrader: (1)

Wow I wonder what caused this initially, do you have any aftermarket alarm system or stereo components? Did the previous owner have an aftermarket alarm system or stereo components removed before selling? I wonder if this will start happening to multiple 8s in the near future. Unless you got a lemon and wires were messed up from the factory? Well at any rate thanks for the closure I was watching this thread hoping the answer would be revealed.

szym0n

I don't think the previous owner had alarm system, but I would never know. I bought the car Sep of 07 with about 38K miles...car was very smooth.

Only things Ive done are hardwired escort but I removed it along time ago, some LEDS in headlights/corners. Other than that no more electrical.

Well right now the car is running nice.

But I went through some nice troubleshooting trying to find it, removing the main rear light harness and narrowing it down. Than check the brake switch with a friends 8. The speed sensors...etc.

8pex

This just happened to me. Wiring going to trunk was damaged/chaffed. Fixed wiring and replaced stop fuse then canceled service apt.

Pitstop

After a 1000 $ damage accident due to abs brake disabled, i decided to repair that stop fuse

After following this thread i have found out the problem was with the trunk lid stop light wires, they had broken inside the plastic protector, near the trunk hinge, probably after four years of trunk openeing/closing.

Thanks for the amazing tips from rx8club

ASH8

No wonder you had melted wires everywhere, the 25A fuse is way too heavy for stop lights and the wiring used...I think a 15A is normal for stop lights.

rcolbeck

had same problem with stop/brake light fuse blowing and ABS light on.

Traced problem to broken and shorted wires in wiring to third (middle) brake light. Problem was in the corrugated plastic sleeve in outside wiring under trunk lid. wires were broken inside.

Roger

downshift

This is a great thread! I have been plagued with this 15A Stop light fuse blowing out for a long time. At first it was because of water in the driver's side tail lights. That has been fixed 8 months ago and I thought that's the end of that saga.

Early this week, the fuse blows again immediately when I step on the brake pedal. Two things changed a day before this: 1) I washed the car; 2) I swapped to winter wheels and I bumped one wheel against the brake disc assembly while mounting it.

Anyway, disconnecting the 3rd brake light harness seems to have prevented the blown fuse. The obvious defect I can see is the corrugated sleeve Roger mentioned has been punctured at two different spots.

For those who had the same problem (especially Roger), how do you verify for sure the cabling before replacing it? My car is out of warranty. I'd need to order the part and replace it myself but I want to be sure. If you replaced it yourself, do you by any chance have the instructions? I can't figure out at this time how to remove that exposed section (the part with all that sheathing). I'm also not sure how to remove that trunk lid 'inside handle' so that I can remove that piece of felt-cover to gain access to the 3rd brake light from the inside.

Note to self: don't try to clear the ice with a scraper in that area in the future.

Thanks in advance.

jdzoom8

I had a very similar problem - I bought and replaced my 3rd brake light wire to solve the problem (spliced wires in the middle of the sheathing came loose). If disconnecting the 3rd brake light harness solves the problem it is either the bulb, socket or wire. My bet is the wire looking at the pics (Water from washing your car got on the exposed wire and shorted it?) and others with similar problems. The wire is about $45 and takes about 20 minutes to replace yourself. The 3rd brake light wire you buy includes the sheathing and all of the clips - very straight forward install once you get the part in your hand (just be sure the wire is not twisted and stressed when you clip it into place). To remove the "trunk lid handle", pull it towards your face with the trunk open and pry up the side facing the front of the car with a screw driver. The handle just has ridged tab holding it in place - can't break the tab but if it gets worn the handle won't stay in the trunk (I had to replace mine).

Unknown_Driver

thanks to the last set of replies i was able to solve this issue that happend a couple of days a go

disconnected the harness replaced the fuse and found out the stop light bulb is not a 7443 bulb

new harness is on order and should be arriving soon hopefully

Unknown_Driver

This is the fix in most cases..ASH8.

mazda made a huge screw up with the trunk wire and is now on its 3rd revised part

the original part has a rubber moulding but not much to protect the wire during movement except some flappy tab, also the wiring used is a harder compound mostly found with products not designed for flexability




the new part has a molex plastic connector with rubber surrounding, notice how the wire is taped against the rubber tab and a big plus is a softer flexible rubber compound surrounded wire designed for lots of flex although this type of compound may dry out over time its still a lot better than the first generation trunk wire.






the new part number: the older part was a F151-67-06YA the new one being a letter C instead of A

Tigger

iTrader: (3)

This is a great thread. With 160k+ miles, it seems usually I find a lot of these issues before anyone else. In this case I was glad this thread was here. I must not use my trunk as often as others.

A few things I learned that might help others in addition to the rest of what has been written here...

First my symptoms: Started my car with the clutch and break both depressed. Felt a slight ABS pulse/kick in the brake pedal and shortly after both my Traction control lights came on (DSC and the squiggly tire tracks), my ABS light did not come on.

Next I turned the car off and back on without touching the brake pedal. This resulted in no warning lights and no ABS clunk that I could hear or feel (of course my foot was not on the brake). I than started to drive and found that if I lightly touched the brakes, nothing unusual occurred, but if I press them harder both lights came on and would not clear until I restarted my car without using the brake.

What I discovered after some investigation was that my "Stop Fuse" located in the engine bay fuse box had blown. Replacing the fuse only led to another blown fuse (at least initially).

So why were the traction control lights coming on and why only when I press the brake more than lightly? It turns out that all of the traction control systems are fed a 12V signal when the brake pedal is pressed. However, with the blown fuse, they were not receiving this 12V signal when I press on the brake pedal. It turns out that these systems also monitor things like the pressure within the hydraulic brake system. If I pressed lightly on the brakes I got a small amount of hydraulic pressure and light braking, however not enough pressure to concern the Traction control systems. With greater braking force, and greater hydraulic pressure, the traction control system suddenly got concerned that it was measuring high hydraulic pressure but it was not receiving a signal that the brake pedal was engaged. This intern throws the two warning lights everyone has seen. And this explains why some times they come on when you first start the car (with your foot on the brake) and why other times they don't come on till later (no foot on the brake and no lights till you start to stop later on).

How did I quickly jump to the conclusion that this was a brake light issue and not something with the traction control system? Well, when I was driving home last night after dark and when I parked in my garage, I noticed I had tail lights because my head lights where on, but no brake lights. This led me to check the fuse and it was of course blown. As has been already pointed out, the Traction control system has almost no way of blowing the "Stop Fuse". The brake system has its own circuit and it has no other systems on it (except the one 12V signal that is sent to the traction control modules).

This led to the search for what caused the fuse to go... a short somewhere? Dead bulb? Bad switch on the brake pedal? Thank you forum! I quickly tested the switch on the brake but in hindsight realized it would have been easier to start with the tail lights.

If you remove the trunk insulation on the driver’s side you will actually discover that there is a single large connector near the back strut tower. This will disconnect the entire rear wiring harness. Once that was done, I replaced the fuse and tried pressing the brake pedal (there is no need to start the car or even put the car in the Accessory position as the brake circuit does not interact with the ignition switch in anyway... it is always on... really it is a very simple isolated circuit). After playing with the brake pedal I was now unable to blow the fuse! Problem is clearly in the trunk.

Next I disconnected my rear left and right lights as well as the center light harness from where it connects next to the left tail light. I than reconnected the rear harness and tested the brakes... still no blown fuse. It is either one of the side tail lights (both had a history of filling with enough water to support a small gold fish) or the center light/harness.

I pulled out a multi-meter and tested the center harness to see if it was grounding to the body in anyway... I could not seem to find any issues with it, so I checked the two side lights. Both had a strong ground on one side (as expected) and a high resistance ground on the other! This it turns out, appears to be normal. I'm assuming it is related to power filter that actually sits between the brake switch and the rest of the braking system. Yet it caused me to spend a lot of time searching for a possible cause here. Finding no issues with the two side lights and surprisingly no corrosion I placed the side bulbs back in and tested the brakes. They worked and no blown fuse! It must be the center tail light... so I tested it again. Nothing was grounding out.

Then I tested the continuity of rear harness itself to see if it was intact and discovered it was completely open! No short... the harness was actually completely open. After removing the harness I discovered that one of the wires was down to a single strand and the other was completely broken... guess just opening and closing my trunk trying to find my short had caused the remaining strands of wire to completely give out. I repaired the harness and all is now good. (Need to go buy some more fuses though… currently using the one to horn…).

Tigger

iTrader: (3)

For anyone who thinks maybe they should be troubleshooting their sensors... please first check for a blown Stop fuse. If you find the fuse is blown... stop worrying about your sensors and start with the main harness disconnect in the trunk. This will help you quickly isolate the problem to the front/back of the car. And if you luck is like most of us... it will end up being your center brake light harness.

StGoy

Everything's pretty solved here I guess but just saying that I've just had the same problem.

STOP fuse kept frying, got tired of it, removed and inspected the bulbs/sockets and inspected the wiring I could reach, turns out the third light wires were exposed and touching where they bend just before entering the trunk cover.

Kilppa

Does anybody know if you can buy this F151-67-06YC spare harness from online somewhere? I am located in Finland and the local Stealership wants 100 euros ($140) for it.

ASH8

Yes here...
http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...&siteid=214264

Set up your account.

Tell Jason that I told you to contact him, he will look after you.

Kilppa

Thanks for the tip, I checked that site. I won't be going thru with it there, though... The price of $38 isn't TOO bad, but they charge so much for shipping that it ends up costing me over $100 in the end anyways...

Any more suggestions anybody? I noticed earlier in this thread a price tag of $25. If I'd get something near that plus reasonable shipping costs, I'd be extatic.

ASH8

As I said, email Him, and discuss shipping, he should do a better price.

ASH8

Depending on exact location Shipping cost is 45.00 - 60.00USD via DHL...from Montgomery's.

Kilppa

Yeah, mentioning your name to Him didn't change anything. $38 for the part, $40 for shipping. Ofcourse I'd have to pay for taxes at the customs too when the parts arrive. In the end it sums up to about $100 at my end, which is cheaper than what I was asked at the Stealership, but still not worth it.
Thanks for trying, though. I appreciate it.

Kilppa

I expected a piece of wiring to end up costing less.
I am sure it is. As an entrepreneur myself, I understand how business works, you cannot be shorting yourself every time somebody says they know somebody you do too.

Bloody Insecure Forum Warriors

Kilppa

Now that shows exactly how much you know about business.
Way to represent Australia and the company you linked to.

climacus

Thanks to everyone here for doing all the legworks. I unplugged the harness for the center tail lamp and no more blown fuse. It's a 2004 with 60k miles.

Tigger

iTrader: (3)

There is nothing that special about the wiring harness, just a wire with a connector at each end. I simply took a piece of vacuum cleaner power cord (designed to handle constantly being flexed and abused) and used it. I cut each end of the bad wire off leaving a few inches of wire on the connectors from each end and then soldered the connectors to the vacuum cleaner power cord section (and of course heat shrink rapped each wire and added a little electric tape around it for good measure. It worked perfectly and has been reliable so far. I even left the power cords outer rubber insulation in place and did not put the silly flexible accordian piece of plastic on that runs between the trunk and the trunk lid at the hinge. Simply wire tied the power cord with insulation to the same places. You would think it was stock.

Fix... one piece of an $8 dollar replacement vacuum cleaner power cord... 10 minutes of soldering a few cents worth of shrink tubing and tape. If you removed the old zip tie fastners carefully, they should be re-usable as well.

If for some reason my fuse blows... first thing I'll check is the 3rd light, but considering the abuse a vacuum cleaner power cord takes, especially when it is being used or is wrapped up inside the vacuum, I'm pretty sure it will not be the 3rd light next time!

Veal

I just picked up my 8 on Thursday, and drove it home with no problem. Friday, I was taking it to the car wash, and my ABS/traction control light were on after I applied the brakes after starting. Assuming it was driver error as I never drove a manual before, I ignored it until some guy on the road told me my brake lights were out. Then when on the highway, cruise control would light up that it was truned on, but green light saying it was set

Checked fuse, it was blown, replaced fuse, blew it immediately. Read the forum, found this thread, and after checking connections, it ended up being a little spot on the loom nearest to the 3rd brake light that was worn and bare wires grounding out on the trunk. Unclipped the harness, bought some more fuses to check because I ran out of 15amp fuses popping them diagnosing, and now I have at least 2 brake lights and cruise that works.

So, uh, yeah, Hi from WI