Back-up lights on in all gears but not reverse.

[weelliott]

I did some troubleshooting this past weekend and fixed a shorted wire
between the back up lihgt plug and the back up lights themselves. I
tested it out and it worked fine... Or so I thought. I tested it in
reveerse and they lit up. In neutral with the car on there are not
lights, and with the ignition off the lights are off regarless of
where the stick is. The only thing I didn't test was with the ignition
on and in other gears. Well, my wife just took it for inspection and
called me with bad news. The inspector found that when the car is in
first through fourth the lights are on. I don't know if he just didn't
test fifth, or if the lights don't go on in fifth. Regardless, does
this sound like a bad switch, or is some linkage messed up somewhere?
I thought that when switches failed they just didn't pass current any
more.

This is a 98 legacy obviously with the MT and AWD. It's a 2.2 if that
matters.

Ideas? Experience with this?

Bill

 

[weelliott]

I just realized that it is possible that when I thought I was wiring
into the backup light switch, I might have been wiring into a neutral
switch plug. Is there a neutral switch on the manual transmission? I
know autos have this for the neutral safety starting circuit. I've
never known a manual transmission to have one. Perhaps it has one for
cruise control? If this is the case and I've tapped into the wrong
plug, it raises the question of where is the correct plug?

Thank you for any help,
Bill

 

[.._..]

Neutral switch might be used for the ignition state (has to be in neutral to
turn the key), so it makes sense there would be one.

 

[weelliott]

Neutral switch might be used for the ignition state (has to be in neutralto
turn the key), so it makes sense there would be one.

Actually, I think I've figured it out. I did a little searching on
here and found that there is a neutral switch on the manual
transmission. It is not for the start circuit though like on an auto.
The car can be started in gear. It simply needs to have the clutch
depressed. The neutral switch on the manual transmission is for the
cruise control. If the car is in neutral it won't engage the cruise
control. It also shuts off the cruise if the car is knocked out of
gear without using the clutch.

When I ran new wire to the lights, I tapped into a brown plug by the
throttle body on the passenger side (North American car) of the car. I
think that that is the neutral switch. According to the pictures of
the backup light switch on rockauto, the plug should be grey. I don't
know if that is the actual picture of the exact part though. I'm going
to muck around under the car when I get home and see if I can find
another switch under there, and see where the plug is for it.

Anyone know where the plug for the backup light switch should be?

Thank you for the help,
Bill

 

[Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B]

I did some troubleshooting this past weekend and fixed a shorted wire
between the back up lihgt plug and the back up lights themselves. I
tested it out and it worked fine... Or so I thought. I tested it in
reveerse and they lit up. In neutral with the car on there are not
lights, and with the ignition off the lights are off regarless of
where the stick is. The only thing I didn't test was with the ignition
on and in other gears. Well, my wife just took it for inspection and
called me with bad news. The inspector found that when the car is in
first through fourth the lights are on. I don't know if he just didn't
test fifth, or if the lights don't go on in fifth. Regardless, does
this sound like a bad switch, or is some linkage messed up somewhere?
I thought that when switches failed they just didn't pass current any
more.

This is a 98 legacy obviously with the MT and AWD. It's a 2.2 if that
matters.

Ideas? Experience with this?

Bill

I had this happen on a Toyota, a Mazda and a Nissan.

Seems the Japanese have some kind of switch that is used for 5th gear. I
wasn't able to get a lot of info on it, but it has something to do with
the emissions system when the car is in 5th gear.

It sounds like the switch is stuck, although that doesn't explain why you
have no lights in reverse. At any rate I would look for another connector
(or, perhaps whatever feature this is it is unused in the US) and
reconnect the connection you have to the proper connector so the reverse
lights come on when they're supposed to!

Your local Subaru dealer may be helpful. Mine is 32 miles away, but the
parts guy and the service manager happily let me pick their brains,
because they know I'll be back for parts...

 

[weelliott]

I had this happen on a Toyota, a Mazda and a Nissan.

Seems the Japanese have some kind of switch that is used for 5th gear. I
wasn't able to get a lot of info on it, but it has something to do with
the emissions system when the car is in 5th gear.

It sounds like the switch is stuck, although that doesn't explain why you
have no lights in reverse. At any rate I would look for another connector
(or, perhaps whatever feature this is it is unused in the US) and
reconnect the connection you have to the proper connector so the reverse
lights come on when they're supposed to!

Your local Subaru dealer may be helpful. Mine is 32 miles away, but the
parts guy and the service manager happily let me pick their brains,
because they know I'll be back for parts...- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well, I know I put out lots of info, and at different points certain
things were wokring, then not, or vice-versa, but it started out that
the backup lights weren't working, then Once I 'fixed' them, the
backup lights came on in all gears, but not neutral.

I found the cause. It was my own stupidity. Not really, but perhaps
carelessness. I had tapped into the neutral switch instead of the
backuplight switch. When I went to look for the plug I had unplugged
both, then checked for continuity. One plug didn't have continuity in
reverse or neutral. The other had continuity in reverse, but not
neutral. I determined that the first must be the speedometer sensor
and the second was the backuplight plug, and that the fault must lie
somewhere else in teh wiring. That was a bad bad diagnosis.

I repeat, the last sentence above was wrong.

The truth is that neither was the speedometer. The first was for the
backup lights, and the second is the neutral switch, which is used to
tell the cruise control system if you are in gear. It has continuity
in any gear, and not in neutral.

So since I had chosen the wrong switch to work with of course I didn't
have continuity between the back up lights and either pin of the plug
on the wiring harness that the backup light switch plugged into. So I
replaced that wire. Then I found that I didn't have continuity between
the fuse box and either pin on that plug. This seemed too odd, but I
was almost there, so I just ran new wire there. Actuially I ran wire
off the battery to a relay I had lying around, then activated that
relay with a line under the dash that gets 12V when the ignition is
on.

Voila! they worked. They even shut off when I turn the ignition off
and put it ini neutral. Unfortunately they didn't shut off when I put
it in gear.

So once I figured out I had the wrong switch, I went back and tested
all three wired things coming off the transmission, determined which
was actually which by confirming that unplugging the speedometer
sensor actually killed the speedometer, and found that the backup
light switch was bad. Go figure. I guess I should have just replaced
that in the first place. The piece of info that would have saved me
all this trouble(well, most of it.) is that the backup light switch is
about half way up(heightwise) the drivers side of the transmission and
has two red wires. The plug for it is grey. The neutral switch is near
the top of the drivers side of the transmission. The plug for it is
brown.

Hopefully someone other than me will learn from my mistake,a md when
they go to diagnose their backup light switch they will be looking at
the right switch.

Have a good one,
Bill