So the most interesting/odd thing started happening today... An odd assortment of interior and exterior lights started blinking randomly - whether the car is off or on. Here's what I'm noticing:

WHAT BLINKS?
- the little amber lights above the headlights, as well as the corresponding green indicator lights on the dashboard. Unless the headlights are turned on, in which case these little ambers stay lit as well
- all lighting for the dashboard, unless the headlights are on or the ignition is on, in which case the dash stays lit.
- all backlighting for the radio and heater/air cluster. The LED for the radio will stay lit if the headlights are on or the ignition is on, but the button backlights will continue to flash.
- all the rear-red taillights (running lights and brake lights, but not the center brake light bar). Brake lights will stay lit if brakes are depressed.
- If the door is open, a single bell tone, very sharp, rings once per second. It is unlike the tones that ring when you accidentally leave the headlights on or leave the keys in the ignition. It may be the same as the tone you get when you drive without a seatbelt. I need to test that.

HOW DO THEY BLINK?
- they blink for precisely 30 on-off intervals
- each interval lasts 1 second (half-second on, half-second off)
- so the whole series lasts 30 seconds. Then everything goes back to normal.
- Everything blinks in unison - the radio, the gauges, the headlights, the taillights.
- In rhythm with the blinking, there is a loud clicking sound coming from within the dash - louder than the turn indicator or emergency light relays.
- They do not blink synchronously with the turn signals or the emergency blinkers. Those have a different interval.
- Once they start, nothing seems to stop them from blinking the full 30 seconds. For example, I can take the keys out and exit the car, and all the lights will still be blinking until the 30 seconds is up.

WHAT TRIGGERS THE BLINKING?
- Depressing the brakes (if brakes stay depressed for the whole 30 second cycle, it will go away for 2 beats then start again)
- Opening the door (if the door stays open for the whole 30 second cycle, the cycle will stop for 2 beats then start again).
- Locking the door
- Unlocking the door
- Removing keys from the ignition

WHAT DOES *NOT* TRIGGER THE BLINKING?
- Windshield wipers
- Turn signals
- Emergency blinkers
- Turning on headlights (though it affects behavior if subsequently triggered, see above)
- Toying with the radio or heater/air-conditioning


As far as I can tell, once the 30 seconds of flashing runs its course, it stops for good until re-triggered. At least I hope so. I want the battery to be fresh in the morning.

Any ideas? A fuse? A relay? I'm hoping it's something simple (and cheap).

 

Unfortunately I am not familiar with the Fit's electrical diagram at all, but by the symptoms it seems some sort of main dash illumination relay has failed. There's some guys on here that are good at pulling diagrams so maybe someone will post one up.

 

Sounds like the multiplexed integrated control unit (MICU) has lost its mind. I'm pretty sure these are all controlled through that. Reboot (disconnect the battery is the easiest way).

Either that or the overthruster is wonky.

 

^

And you were the one I was counting on to post the diagram.

 

Whoa! Your Fit is in Christmas mode! Sorry couldn't resist. But yeah, disconnect/reconnect battery would definitely be a a reset. On a different car, my brake lights stayed on and the battery disconnect/reconnect did the job... damn rogue trons floating around. Good luck OP!

 

Well, I accidentally tested the theory that disconnecting the battery would resolve the problem. Accidentally left the headlights on. You see, every time I open the door, the car beeps and pings for no reason. On one occasion, the beeps were legit - my headlights were on, but I tuned it out. Several hours later - the car was dead to the world.

I got a jump, and had to reset the radio with the security code (confirming loss of electricity to the car's electronics), but no change on the blinking issues.

 

Anybody think my issue could be related to a malfunctioning brake light bulb? Read this and it seems relevant: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...er-lights.html

 

In the other thread you mentioned you changed your brake light bulbs... unless I missed it I didn't see it mentioned here.


It might be possible as the other person who changed to LED's, that there isn't enough resistance, and voltage is leaking to other parts of the circuit?
If you did change to full LED (dual-voltage/filament) as your main braking light it might be a possibility, if so this thread ---> https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...ail-light.html might be a bit of help to you. What I find weird, is that when I was running my JDM (pre-mmc) LED tails with the bottom section modified (like Alpina's post) using a regular LED (in the bottom section), there was no leaking to other parts. I've taken them off to change out to a dual-voltage LED, and will probably follow Alpina's thread to not leak to the brake... I wonder if it's only an issue with the dual-voltage LED's?




If you just swapped to regular bulbs, and there's still this problem, I'd take it in for service. Sounds like some electrical gremlins.

 

Yeah, just regular bulbs. I'm just wondering if a defective bulb could do this. I don't *recall* the issue starting right after I changed bulbs, but maybe it did and I didn't make the connection.

 

I've learned from experience to avoid saying most anything is impossible, so I'll just say that it seems very, very unlikely to me that your (quite strange) problems are caused by defective bulbs. I think Steve244 is correct; if disconnecting the battery doesn't help, probably replacing this or some related computer thingy will be needed.

(Note that disconnecting the battery isn't quite the same as having let it run most all of the way down. Even when practically dead it still produces some voltage, and that may be enough to keep the computer from resetting itself—even if the radio's computer does reset itself. Disconnecting the battery is perhaps a bit of a long shot, but it's easy and very inexpensive and so worth trying.)

 

Thanks DrewE. Good point re: disconnecting the battery. I have since fully disconnected the battery but still no luck. I guess it's time to take it to the shop.

 

Do you have like some custom alarm system on it?

 

I [EDIT: bought] the car used. I myself haven't installed anything. But I had a chance to dig around under the dash earlier today, and made some headway. I isolated the source of the clicking noise, unplugged the largest of the many cables running to/from it, and pulled it down out of the dash. Turns out the car has a Audiovox PRO9775T alarm system.



After unplugging the main cable, all the blinking stopped. When I plugged it back in, the blinking returned. So I unplugged it again.

As far as I can tell, the car runs just fine with the box unplugged. Everything seems to work. Oddly, the alarm features I briefly tested seem to work as well - panic button, door lock. Anybody have knowledge of this particular alarm system.

 

Thanks for following up. Kudos to ikuto for a good question answered.

(it could have been the overthruster)

 

Good investigative work gpd209. Hindsight - yup that would do it too. Tough when you don't know the history. Google it, see what pops up. Good luck!

 

I believe it is a old alarm, only happens when door is opened, can turn lights on, dautorive drive a sec. doors will relock and seems to reset, from south but not dukes of hazard, need to open door without waking neighbors, where is this security alarm? Please

 

Probably too late to be useful... I found my alarm by listening for the clicking noise it made. Mine was under the dash, just to the left of the steering column. I had to lay down on my back in the floorboard and look up under the dash. Not easy for me, as a 6'4", 270 pound guy, lol.

 

Thank you for your help, gdp209! We had this same flashing problem in the used Honda Pilot we bought and your solution worked!!

 

Thank you so much for your help, gdp209! We had the same problem with flashing/blinking lights in our Honda Pilot that we had bought used. We were at a loss as to what was causing it. We took it to 2 mechanics and neither of them could figure what was going on. Your solution worked for us! Thank you again!!!!!!!