So after 1300 miles of problem free driving, today I get in my car start it up and warm the engine for a few mins. I proceed to step on the brake and shift to D. The VSA indicator lights up and I can't shift. The more I step on the brake the heavier it starts to feel until I couldn't even get it to budge. Turned the engine off and try again, same thing. I knew at this point something is wrong with the car (brake area?) and that I shouldn't be driving it but I was supposed to pick up my sister in the streets and drive her home. Coincidently her cell battery is dead and there is no way of reaching her. So of course I thought about the emergency shift slot next to the shifter. Man, it took me 5 mins to pop that little cover off. I did not have anything small enough to fit in and lift it up and using my nails did not do it as it was tightly secured. Luckily I had my mini NYPD shield pin and finally removed that stupid little cover. Stuck a key into the slot and shifted out of P. So I'm driving out to the city and this car behind me is flashing me... He passes by and tells me none of my brake lights are working. I get to my sister and ask her to look at my brake lights and sure enough it's not working. Now I'm even more pissed cause I have to drive her all the way back to Staten Island and cops out there are so strict they pull you over for anything. I did not need a ticket for broken brake lights nor did I need someone to hit me from behind. Anyways, I dropped my sister off at home and driving home there is this bus driving 5 mph for like 4 - 5 blocks and taking up 2 lanes so I proceeded to honk at him but... nothing. Horn wasn't working either. Now I'm thinking it's a blown fuse or something.

Whatever it is, I'm very curious and bringing my car into the dealer first thing in the morning. But have any of you heard of such abnormal problems? At happening all at the same time? So weird...

That's all folks. We'll see what the service people say. Thanks.

 

Ok, I just checked the manual and it lists Horn, Stop as one fuse (#13, 20A). If I remembered correctly the same has happened on my Honda before. Where if the fuse for the brakes is blown it will not let you shift out of P. Hopefully this is the problem so I'll give it a try before I bring it in to Service.

 

same thing happened to me in my bmw. it wasn't the fuse tho, the brake switch which indicates that the brakes are being stepped on was defective(12 dollar part). scary part was when i was driving it broken i hit the resume stalk on the cruise and it started to accelerate like crazy. i hit the brakes to cancel the cruise but it did nothing, i fact it tried to accelerate harder. i was shocked at first but lucky i got my head straight and just hit the cancel on the cruise control stalk.

 

this morning, i looked in the fuse box under the hood and sure enough it was a blown fuse. replaced it with a spare and problem is gone.

so next time if anyone has the same problem shifting out of P and all brake lights are out, first thing you should do is honk the horn. if it's dead, chances are your fuse is blown.

 

yupp, happened to me in my accord.. but easy to change.

 

You might want the dealer to check it out. There had to be a reason for it to blow, and it's not unreasonable to expect it to happen again.

Good luck!

 

FYI - spoke to the service dept about this and they said one TL owner had this happened to him except his fuse (horn,stop) was blowing oftenly. they figured out that the owner used a club and parked on the 3rd level of an indoor garage. the club apparently was pressing down on the horn over night and blowing out the fuse. other than that he said i shouldn't have to worry about 1 blown fuse...

 

sometimes just a cheapo fuse.

 

damn, what are the chances of having more than one cheap fuse? i was going out to the city and the fuse was blown again. this time i bought new fuses from a gas station and replaced it. i'll have to see if it happens again. is it possible that acura put some defective fuses in?

 

What is this emergency thing you're talking about? I've seen the little panel thing but didn't know it was anything important. Sorry, missed that part in the manual.

 

NO the fuses are probably fine. Call your local stealer and get your car looked at ASAP. Electrical probalems suck but with time they will figure it out. More then likely something is casuing an increased load in the circuit.. with some TS they should get it fixed for you

 

it's the shift lock release. pg 185 in the manual.

 

As I was reading thru this thread, I was going to reply and tell you if you have that fuse blow a second time, I'd definitely take the car in for service. But, since that's already happened, you know what my recommendation is.

 

ok it turns out the coil spring inside the steering wheel is somehow shorting the fuse everytime i honk the horn. the service advisor said that the cause of this is from the use of the club and because of that it will not be covered under warranty. does this sound reasonable? i don't think so. she also mentioned something about a special club made for these type of steering wheels? i have never heard of that. i asked her where they sell these 'special' clubs and she said try going to a lock smith, regular auto shops such as strauss don't carry these. wtf?! i think she was on crack or something. anyways, what are your thoughts? should i contact the manager and see if he/she can work something out? the part was not in stock that day so they are supposed to get back to me with a quote on the part/labor. but haven't heard from them yet.

 

Sorry, but your service manager is full of BS. The club has nothing to do with your problem. Tell her she needs to fix this under warranty.

Which dealer is this by the way?

 

there was a misunderstanding between the service techs and the service advisor. they had replaced the horn and corrected the problem that day. but the service advisor told me different. i spoke to the service manager yesterday and explained the situation to her. she immediately got on the case and got back to me to let me know that it was already repaired and under warranty. i went home to honk my horn and sure enough it's working.

 

Sorry to bring this thread back to life after 6 years but i'm having this problem. What i wanted to ask you was if the fuse blew when you were pressing the horn or if it blew without pressing it. because the first two times mine blew i didn't use the horn, the third time i put in the fuse i press the horn just to make sure the horn wasn't causing a short. So did they change the horn or the coil spring in the steering wheel for the horn??