Taillights on 2004 Honda Pilot

I haven't had the problem for many years, and never owned a Honda Pilot, but you should be able to fix it the usual way.

Make sure all the wiring connectors are sound. Check the bulbs are OK. Find a point in the circuit close to the taillights and apply 12v there via a flying lead. If they work then, do it again further up the wiring till you find a point where they don't work. The break in the wire is between there and the lights.

As a last resort, if the break is in the loom somewhere and you can't locate it, you might have to run a parallel wire. Presumably the front sidelights are OK, and the taillights are fed from the same circuit, so you can take a supply from there.

Codey

Begin at the speedometer and confirm that there is indeed power at that point before looking to the tail lights. If there is power , verify the brake switch which is often on the pedal, sometimes its in the hydraulic system though. Enjoy, Woody

I am assuming no taillights means no parking lights for the rear. How about the front and side parking lights? Do the turn signals work? Do the backup lights work? Plate lamp?

Normally the lights are wired in series from one side to the other. Newer plastic enclosures must also have a separate ground wire since the lens cannot be effectively grounded to the body.

Make sure that absolutely every other light in the vehicle works as intended, including the dimmer for the dash lights. If the dash light power also feeds the rear parking lamps then the fuse for the dash lights serves that purpose as well. If the dimmer function works (assuming the power for the taillights comes from there as you said) then the tap for the power from the dash lights may be faulty, or the light switch altogether.

Update with more info please.

Ask the owner if anyone else has been working on it, and if so, what did they take apart and where. I also seem to remember from wiring trailer lights that the Pilot has a ground connecting system, where the wires are always hot, and the switch makes the ground connection. I'll see if I can find the schematic. What year is it? Things change, you know. Did you check any Honda forums? http://www.piloteers.org/forums/14-problems/26905-no-trailer-tail-lights.html

These guys are talking about a hidden fuse block in the rear compartment.

Are you saying that the last person that touched it screwed it up?

One question I like to ask is " What has changed since it last worked correctly?"

Also don't ignore the globes - A friend of mine replaced a blown globe only to find that everything stopped working - the new globe he had bought was a dead short internally!

I have a 2005 Honda Pilot and the tailights went out during towing. I found on http://www.piloteers.org/forums/ that the 05 pilot has a fuse panel in the passenger footwell near the door. The fuse for the tailights is the "small light" fuse, also links to the speedo lights. If this doesn't help the piloteers.org site is a great help.

Many thanks to all who helped resolve this. Stangrag had the right answer with the "small lights" fuse that was in the passenger side interior fuse block. It was a blown 15A fuse that doesn't appear on any schematic. Good answer-I wasn't looking forward to chasing down a break in the wiring harnesses.