Reverse lights always on after tranny swap??

[free5ty1e]

So, I'm cruising along last night enjoying my new 4.11 gears, and a cop pulls me over from out of nowhere. I knew I wasn't speeding, and I'd been obeying traffic laws and such, so I waited until he was finished checking my license and decided to tell me why he pulled me over.

My reverse lights were on while I was driving, and furthermore they were still on after I shut the key and lights off! Very strange. I haven't yet tried to put the car into reverse and see if the lights are still on or if they go off, but does the WRX tranny have an inverted reverse gear signal or something? Or did the mechanic hook the reverse signal up incorrectly? Anyone else experienced this?

[mikec]

The switch is the same. Sounds like the switch is in the neutral position switch spot.

[Legacy777]

The switch is the same. Sounds like the switch is in the neutral position switch spot.

Yeah....that sort of sounds like it's the issue, are they on when you're in gear or in neutral?

But they really shouldn't be on after the key is off, unless the mechanic did some weird shit with wiring.

The only thing I could think of is he was going to permanently wire the car so the ECU thinks it's in neutral, but accidently did the reverse.......or he just screwed up somewhere else.

[free5ty1e]

Correction: the only reason the reverse lights were on while the key was off last night when I got out to check with the cop, was because of my turbo timer. I had already shut off the car and turned off the timer, but then turned the key back to on to lower the window and then back off without powering off the timer.

So the reverse lights are always on when the key is on, no matter if the lights are on or off, or no matter what gear the car is in. So for now, I cut and taped the reverse light wires so I can drive the car without being pulled over. I'm going to call the mechanic and see what he says, but worst case I'll just wire the lights up to a damn switch.

Anyone know where the easiest place to intercept a single wire going back to the reverse lights is? I couldn't tell where the single wire was from the wiring diagram on page 41 of the FSM's Wiring Diagram And Troubleshooting section 6-3, so I just lifted the panels to the taillights and cut the brown/yellow wire on each side for now but I'll want a single wire for the switch.

[mikec]

From what I remember of my WRX tranny swap, we had the wires come up from the switches over and across the front of the tranny, and should connect by the dipstick for the tranny. If the connectors are right, you should be able to swap the plugs and see if that fixes the problem. There should be brown and grey plugs, both with 2 pins.

That'll also be the easiest place I can think of to find a wire that goes back to the lights. If I remember the wiring correctly, its just 12V through the switch back to the lights.

[free5ty1e]

Thanks. I just spoke to the mechanic about it, he immediately says one of the solenoids on the tranny is stuck and I should go pull the old ones from my original tranny and bring them to him, and we'll be able to figure out which one to replace.

Does this sound right to you guys? Any thoughts?

[mikec]

Yeah, that's possible. It wouldn't hurt to try a switch that you know works.

[free5ty1e]

Cool, thanks.