A Honda Civic came in with complaints of some strange electrical problems. The first step after checking for diagnostic codes was to check for any aftermarket add-ons, because if poorly installed, they can mess with the systems on the car.

I quickly found that aftermarket ambient lighting had been added in the front footwells. They had wired it in with a very bad method. They wrapped the power wire around the leg of a fuse and shoved it in the fusebox.

This is really not a good way to wire in aftermarket items. If you want to do that, wire it to the battery and through it’s own fuse. Do not piggyback off another circuit like this. It can overload the rest of the circuit, and if done on the wrong side of the fuse can cause excess power to flow through the fuse. Once I removed this, the odd electrical problems stopped happening as well.

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-Dan