Mongo

Lights are back on again. It was the hatch switch that caused the fuse blow out. I also put tape on the roof and hatch above the dome lights to prevent grounding until the VW Jetta light update.

Mongo

And it is doing it again. The replacement hatch switch was not the cure

Mongo

Can I troubleshoot this using a voltmeter since I am not the best solderer for the bulb trick?

Seems to do it when the car is running and the door is opened.

Alan

I think the interior lights are still the first, second and third most likely causes. Check the roof light and the 2 hatch lights, the footwell lights are possible but far less likely candidates.

Alan

Landseer

Harness is likely compromised with random wiremelts causing shorts and crossfeeds from fusebox back to each lighting element.

UpFixenDerPorsche

Arrrggghhh geee ... not that dreaded Circuit 24 ... again !!!

Look for a cable damage/chafing earth fault underneath the handbrake lever.

Otherwise will drive you mad trying to correlate the mix of oddball symptoms.

HTH.

:-)

Upfixen.

Mongo

The wires by the handbrake are fine per my post #28. I pulled the dome lights again for the roof and hatch. The front roof one looks like it got a little hot. The back one looks fine. I think the front light may have grounded out on the body and blown the fuse. My electrical tape that was covering the area of contact is not there anymore and has fallen off.

I will do the VW Passat light conversion for the interior and see if that solves the problem of positive terminals touching body parts.

Donald Smith

I am a little late to the party, but it seems to just make sense, to take the offending switches, out of their respective spots, on the car, and let them hang loose, away from any ground source, see if they all work, then, disconnect the battery, and install one light at a time. Re- install the battery, see if it works, and if yes, do the next one, until you find the culprit. GL
Don
( Sorry about my avatar, it always shows upside down)

Landseer

From experience with three different 928 cars and shorted interior light circuit, take the time to inspect the entire harness. A melt on any wire is highly likely to have caused random melts along harness. Predictable as clockwork.

Mongo

I am going to shift priorities and work on my steering rack. Once that is done, I will return to chasing down this gremlin. My garage floor is in enough pain as it is with ATF all over the floor from the tie rod boots.

Alan

This should not happen unless someone puts in a much larger fuse than stock (never do this - it NEVER EVER solves the problem..).

It is still much more likely the fixtures - replace with the VW types - they are indeed much better. In the interim: removing them from the slots mostly eliminates the risk and can help confirm the diagnosis...

Alan

SeanR

Just for people searching things out.

I had a car that was doing this each time they hit a bump in the road. Long story short (pun) a stereo shop had put in some aftermarket speakers in the car and on the right rear 6.5 they had used a screw that was way longer than they needed to and caused a cut in the harness that runs up along that panel to the rear hatch. That was a pain to find.

Mongo

Sean, I put the speakers in myself on this car. That was one issue I wanted to avoid... longer screws cutting into wires. I am pretty sure it is the roof interior light that is the troublemaker here.

Alan - Since owning the car in 2001, I can attest that Fuse 24's socket has not had anything higher than the factory rated 7.5 amps. I threw a 5 amp in there when rebuilding the CE panel by mistake in 2009. I was surprised that it didn't blow out until this past fall.

The only other area I can think of where I might be having an issue is where the clock was disconnected when I dropped in my AFR gauge. Since it was basically an open terminal, I used a protected spade connector to cover the exposed contact. I then taped it up. If the tape or connector somehow fell off, I suppose that would cause a ground out if it came into contact with some exposed metal, blowing fuse 24.

I can always pull back the carpet covers to take a peak. It's easier to do that now with aftermarket seats.

Mongo

I am bumping this thread from two months ago. Fuse 24 went boom again yesterday when I was just warming my car up in the driveway. The interior lights were working fine when opening and closing the doors. I brought the car in the garage after closing the door, then turned the car off. No interior lights after turning the ignition off. The gear indicators were not working either (also wired to fuse 24).

For as long as I have owned this car, turning the ignition off has caused the interior lights to turn on. This may be related to the aftermarket alarm installed. I pulled all the lights out yesterday to look for hot spots. Only one looked hot, which was the roof light between the visors. I know for sure that this did not bump the roof panel above it.

If the lights aren't grounding out on the body panels, and the clock light wire which I am using to illuminate my AFR gauge isn't it either, is it the alarm????

Seems like this happens every now and then... more often now since I am not driving the car that much. Toddlers suck your life away, but all for the good.

Mongo

Okay, I did a little bit more troubleshooting and popped a new fuse in. I notice my door chime sounds a little funky with the key in the ignition still turned to position prior to starting the car. It acts like it wants to chime, then does not, then finally it is audible. Prior searches have shown that the door chime relay may be an issue. Could a failing door chime relay cause Fuse 24 to blow out? Why does it blow the fuse when I turn the car off only?