Opens and Shorts
WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2011 Honda Insight and 2010 Honda Insight. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.
Open and short are common electrical terms. An open is a break in a wire or at a connection. A short is an accidental connection of a wire to ground or to another wire. In simple electronics, this usually means something won't work at all. With complex electronics such as the MCM, this can mean something works, but not the way it's supposed to.