Technical Car/Motor Issues > Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Robbie34 Replies: 10

 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - Robbie34
My car went in for its annual service and MOT earlier this work. It failed the MOT as the rear fog light was not working. The dealer blamed the fault on the tow bar electrics, which I doubted. Took it in yesterday to see a specialist who connected up his light board that showed the wiring to the socket was fine. He immediately diagnosed the fault as being in the wiring in the tailgate - probably a broken connection.

This will be the third time that I have had wiring problems in the tailgate. The first time was when the car was only a few months old and the horn stopped working on a number of occasions due to a fuse blowing. Went back to the dealer a few times who couldn't find the fault. Eventually I took it back and they found the wiring in the tailgate had not been routed properly and had chafed causing a short circuit. The next occasion was a few years ago when I lost my side and headlights, again due to wiring in the loom. Now I have this problem. I hope they don't spend too long tracing the fault as it could work out very exlensive at their hourly rate.
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - movilogo
Is it electric tailgate? I have heard problems about Accord Tourer's electric tailgate.
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - Duncan
Shouldn't this be in Technical?

yes
Last edited by: Webmaster on Fri 24 Feb 12 at 13:43
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - rtj70
If the original fault was due to incorrectly routed wiring loom - did they reroute it? Sounds like they patched it up and it keeps failing due to the original problem.

I think Robbie has put this here because he wanted a discussion - he knows what the problem is. Wiring loom in the tailgate.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 24 Feb 12 at 10:44
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - WillDeBeest
It surprises me a little that problems with tailgate wiring aren't more common. You could argue that it's asking for trouble to route fragile conductors through a joint that's subject to repeated movement. Yet it generally seems to work OK; what's different about the Accord?
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - Robbie34
>> Shouldn't this be in Technical?
>>
>> yes
>>

Not really. I'm not asking a technical question, merely reporting a reliability issue with my car.

I know the answer, and I'm not seeking a technical solution. The problem is a break in the wiring in the tailgate.
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - Robbie34
>> Is it electric tailgate? I have heard problems about Accord Tourer's electric tailgate.

It is an electric tailgate, but that is not the problem, it's the wiring within the tailgate.
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - RichardW
You'd be better off getting a mobile auto-sparks to come and look at it rather than paying through the nose for the dealers... may even say "Seen it before, it's here" and then fix it in 10 minutes.
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - Bromptonaut
Tailhatch wiring is an ongoing niggle with my Xantia estate.

As well as hrw, wiper, lock motor and number plate lights the boot lid also hosts auxiliary tail lamps and reversing lights. Feed and return cables are in flexible conduits routed alongside both hinges. Cables have insufficient 'flex' and conductors break and items fail randomly. ATM the HRW is out.

So far the indy has simply repaired or spliced the cables but sooner or later I'm going to have to strip out boot trim and replace one or two if the more critical runs. Ideally I'd replace the entire loom sections on both sides back to the junctions in rear wing but that's just too much stripping.
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - PeterS
Never had this problem with any hatch/estate I've owned, but it does remind me that my first car, a Fiat Uno, didn't have wiring running through the hatch. Rather, it had contacts on the rear boot cill and on the bottom of the inner tailgate. When closed contact was made and the circuits completed so things worked, When open they didn't. Seemed like an eminently sensible solution, though I guess EU regs require lights to work when boot is open nowadays...
 Honda Accord Tourer - Failed MOT - Rear Fog Light Not Working - TeeCee
An ageing Talbot Alpine I once owned had the same arrangement. It had a set of sprung brass pins sticking out of the tailgate which made contact with a set of contact pads on the frame when closed. Never gave any trouble.

The only problem I ever had with electrics at that end of the car[1] was that the boot light didn't work when I got it. Obviously the switch, but could I find the thing? Turned out that what looked like a little blanking plate on the side of the tailgate was actually a mercury tilt switch, which the contacts had "gone" on.

[1] The other end was a rather different story......
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