96 Civic LX, Parking Lights, Buzzing

Hi all,

I'm installing a Crimeguard REC-11 Keyless entry system into my fiancee's 96 Honda Civic LX. All has gone well. I'm now working on getting the parking lights to flash.

The common knowledge is, there is a RED / black wire "at the fusebox"... I've been able to actually find four or five RED / black wires, some with painted silver "bands", some smaller, some larger gauge.

One tip I read here when searching was to hook into an exposed male spade on the top of the fusebox. This does indeed work. However, the problem is that the "Buzzer" for the "headlights reminder" also goes off every time the parking lights flash (only if the driver's door is open). This wouldn't be a big deal, except the behavior of this system is such that, when unlocking the doors, the parking lights flash and then stay on for around 30 seconds. This means the very loud, annoying buzzing sound will be on whenever you get into the car after unlocking the doors (for 30 seconds at least).

Two questions:

1. Will hooking into the proper mystery RED / black wire at the fusebox prevent the "headlight reminder buzzing" from going off when the parking lights flash?

2. Is there a better description of how to locate the exact RED / black wire? I've unbolted the fusebox and have tried pulling individual harness connectors to test each RED / black wire with a DMM looking for voltage when the parking light circuit is on. So far I've found with one harness removed the taillights will be out when the parking lights are on, and with another one removed, the front parking lights will be off when the parking light switch is on. As you can see, I'm kinda thick in the middle of this.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

Thank you,

--Mike

Thanks very much for the pointer.

I got into the driver's kickpanel, and was able to find a single thin RED / black wire.

I cut this, and the rear parking lights / tail lights are now out--good.

The issue is, the front parking lights still go on.

Is there another wire that needs to be cut? If so, because I have a single (+) voltage parking lights activiation wire, am I looking at having to use a diode (not a big deal, I just thought this would be simpler).

Shouldn't the RED / black wire control all the parking lights, not just the rear ones?

Correct--cutting just to test.

I just had a realization--I believe the RED / black wire is getting voltage AHEAD of where I cut it (towards the front of the car), and the front parking lamps are also driven in front of the cut. I basically cut power to the back parking lights in my test. However, the since the wire is connected ahead of the cut to the front parking lights, BobK, as you suggest, powering from the alarm (+) parking lights flash wire at the location where I cut will indeed power all the parking lights--front and rear.

Appreciate the pointer on the relay--the relay is built in to this unit (for this function), up to 10A, which is sufficient fur the current draw from the parking lights.

I will test this later on tonight (have to run out for a moment now).

Bobk, I really appreciate your help--very much. This is a fantastic site that I look forward to exploring more.

I will report back after hooking things up. With any luck, the annoying buzzer sound will also be gone!

--Mike

(Sigh)

Well, the RED / black wire was the correct wire insofar as it operates the parking lights correctly.

Unfortunately, I am still getting the horrible buzz. The effect is, the car is unlocked, the person opens the door to get in, and is greeted with an obnoxious buzz (high-pitched beep actually) and has no idea why... it doesn't end until the ignition is turned on. Horrible user experience.

At this point, I don't know what to do.

Powermyster, you are correct in that this is a programmable feature... I can disable the 30 seconds of the parking lights staying on upon unlocking. The problem is, this also disables the same for the interior dome light, which is a very important thing to have.

I'm really at a loss. I could disconnect the beeping, but that does serve a useful purpose to remind you that you've left your lights on!

A reasonable compromise would be to modify the wiring so that having the parking lights on doesn't make the beep/buzz sound, but that is probably going to be really difficult since even power applied to the parking light wire itself causes the beep to sound... Probably wired in to things very deeply at the relay level.

Any ideas? Surely this must be a common problem?

Thanks again to all for their help.

In the end, my fiancee said that she very much preferred the parking light flash at all over staying on for 30 secods (including the domelight). The compromise, as suggested above, was to program the keyless entry unit to NOT keep the lights on for 30 seconds after disarming. This way, there's really no "chime", except the occasional one when actually opening the door during the unlock flash cycle (about two seconds).

For what it's worth, there is a male spade terminal on the fusebox above the fuses which taps into the parking light circuit just the same as described above (also results in the chime). Had I knew then what I know now, I would have just hooked into that spade terminal instead of splicing the RED / black wire in the driver's kickpanel - a bit easier.

But it's all wrapped up now so it is what it is.

Thanks again to all.

--Mike