There are several benefits of having your fog lights in good working condition. If not for anything else, they improve your visibility at night and in bad weather. What happens when your Honda Civic’s fog lights are not working?
We will discuss the most common reasons why your fog lights are not working. Also, we will show you how to fix the fog lights by yourself. Before that, let’s show you how these lights work.
How do fog lights work?
You are probably wondering what you need fog lights for when you have regular headlights. If only you knew how important fog lights are. Normal headlights are positioned in such a way that they end up reflecting light to the driver. Of course, this doesn’t happen all the time except in bad weather conditions.
This is where fog lights come in handy. The position and quality of lights here ensure that the fog lights don’t blind you while driving. What this means is that fog lights don’t reflect glare. One of the good things about fog lights is that they hardly get spoilt. This is why it may be quite puzzling when these lights are not working.
Honda Civic Fog Lights not working: Causes & How to Fix The Problem
If you have asked this question severally, you are not alone. We will provide you with the most common reasons in this section. Usually, when you switch on your fog lights, they draw power from the car battery through a relay. This circuit also has an electrical fuse that helps to break the circuit when there is a power surge. By so doing, the fuse protects the fog lights from damage.
From this, you can tell the possible reasons why your fog lights are not working. Here are some of them below:
Blown fuse
The importance of fuses to the electrical circuits in your Civic cannot be overemphasized. Without fuses, every electrical component in your car is at risk of damage. Like we said earlier, the fuses get blown while protecting an electrical component from a power surge.
This is why the first thing that you should check when your fog lights stop working is the associated fuse. Sometimes, the fuse is not bad, it is just dislodged or out of place. To locate the fuse, open the fuse box and go through the fuse map.
Check if it is out of place first. If it is, simply put it back into position and the lights should be back on. On the other hand, if the wire on the fuse is broken, it means that you need to change the fuse. Fuses aren’t so costly so you can quickly get another one.
Burned out bulbs
There is an easy way to know if your problem is a bulb issue. Check both fog lights. If one comes on and the other doesn’t, you likely have a bulb issue.
Why would the bulbs burn out? Well, they go through a lot of wear and tear amongst several other reasons. Once you discover the bulb that isn’t working, get it out by removing it from the housing. To do this, turn the bulb in a counter-clockwise direction then pull it out from the retainer.
Now, disconnect the connector from the fog light. This helps you to pull the bulb from the connecting plug. After doing this, you can install the new bulb and plug the connector back into the retainer and housing. You can now test to see if the bulb is working.
If it is, then you can fix the screws back in place. Ensure that you also reinstall every other thing that you took out before removing the old bulb.
Bad switch
This is another reason why your Honda Civic fog lights may stop working. As we mentioned above, these lights come on when you switch them on. This means that you control the electrical system of the fog lights with a switch.
What if the switch gets bad? This rarely happens, but if it does, the fog lights will not come one. To fix the switch, you have to take the following steps:
- Open the instrument panel surrounding the switch.
- Ensure that you disassemble the panel by taking out all the retaining screws. This will help you to dislodge the switch.
- Now, keep pulling on the wiring until you get the connector out. Check the state of the connector and the wiring.
- Remove the switch from the connector.
- Put in a new switch.
- Use the new switch to put on the fog lights.
If the problem was the switch, then the lights should come on. You can now reassemble the area and enjoy your new switch.
Faulty relay
Remember we told you earlier that the relay helps the fog lights get power from the car battery. This means that if they are faulty, your fog lights wouldn’t get any power. How do you know that your Civic’s relay is bad? There are a few pointers. Check them out below:
- You will hear a clicking sound emanating from the relay. Of course, relays always make a clicking sound but it is hardly audible. However, when they become faulty, the sound becomes louder.
- The fog lights remain on regardless of the condition.
- The fog lights are not coming on.
There are several reasons why the relay may get bad. It could be that it is not properly grounded. Another reason could be wear and tear. Once you notice that the cause of the problem is a bad relay, you should speak to your mechanic. It is safer to allow your mechanic to solve the problem instead of solving it by yourself.
Conclusion
You may not use your Honda Civic fog lights every time. However, they are very important in bad weather conditions. We have explained how these lights work and the possible reasons why yours have stopped working. You have also learned how to fix the problem when it arises.
