Mongo

Hey Bill that would be great, lets talk over PM to schedule a time when you are free!

Mongo

SOLVED

After tearing the side access panels out as well as removing the shifter plate and center console surround, I came across a brown wire that tagged a metal surface with an exposed connector. It was the clock's connector! I must have forgotten about taping it up and zip-tying it out of the way when installing my AFR gauge. Man what was I thinking

Lights work, but now there is another problem. The hatch continuously runs! I had to disconnect the rear hatch motor to fix it!

BAH! One thing after another tonight!

Alan

Pull the 1A fuse #26 instead & the parking circuit won't run but it will still release from the hatch pull. You may have to futz with the parking position a bit but at least it will work AND stay quiet.

Alan

Mongo

Alan I think it may be related to that hatch release switch I replaced. It was a used switch.

Mongo

UPDATE - NOT SOLVED

Apologies as this diagnosis keeps dragging on. After checking the wiring in all doors, the roof and hatch, the fuse for the interior lights is still blowing out. I cannot locate any exposed wires under the console that remain from the removal of the clock.

I have tried diagnosing for two days out of every month I can, and I am stumped. Completely and utterly stumped. It's dark in the car, and I have seriously given up on this wild goose chase.

supercedar

Just for the hell of it I have to ask as I had a problem like this. When I would let the interior light above the windshield hang by the wires I had no issues. When I pushed it back up the fuse would blow. I fiddled with it and It has been fine for a couple years.

Mongo

Definitely not it. Tried it before driving while it is hanging. The fuse blows whenever the car is shifted from Park to Drive.

Koenig-Specials 928

As someone else suggested for a similar shorting problem, install a 50 amp fuse and see where the smoke is coming from

Kevin in Atlanta

Hmmm. Park to Drive only and Park to Reverse? Pod wiring? Disconnect the connector for the pod lights behind the instrument pod and try to move from park to drive.

mskar

stab in the dark but is the ridged plastic plate under the shifter hooking on a hot wire and pulling it to ground? Isn't the shifter plate backlit on some cars?

Ninespub

^^^^^ what he said! I was thinking the same thing.

Mongo

The shifter plate is not backlit on S4-on cars since they have the gear indicator integrated into the tachometer.

mskar

IIRC, I read a thread some time ago that said you could backdate a shift cover and that the wiring still supported backlighting. Admittedly I may have misunderstood the thread, I read it a while ago.

The reason I even mention it is that I had some trouble with my shifter plate hitting the wiring for my window/sunroof switches after doing some console work. If the problem persists, it may be worth pulling the shifter boot and cover off to see if the problem might be related to the mechanical motion of the shifter.

I sympathize, tracing down electrical gremlins sucks.

Mongo

I actually backdated the center console surround. I am very suspicious still that I may have still missed a capping off a wire to the back of the clock. I don't have the clock in front of me right now, but I assume it's only two wires that hook up to it? One of them is brown, which I found and tied free, covered, away from anything metal. I need to get back in there to make sure the positive side of that clock harness is properly capped off and moved to a metal free location as well. I assume the positive side wire for the clock is red?

Mongo

I have some updates related to my interior lights fuse today. However, the issue is still not resolved.

I removed the console access panels and found no additional loose wires. I replaced the 1A fuse in Fuse 26 for the hatch release. Plugging in a new fuse in slot 24 would trigger the hatch motor to continuously run until the 1A was replaced.

After replacing Fuse 24, I moved the gear shift through all ranges and confirm no wires are hanging and touching. This is good news.

The bad is that when backing the car out of the driveway, then putting it in drive the fuse went bang again. Something else is causing it to ground out. I looked at the wiring of my AFR gauge but everything looks good. For power, I am using an add-a-socket from the AC fuse slot, but control the lighting through the wire that illuminates the clock.

Could the wire that illuminates the clock, which illuminates my AFR gauge be the issue? Nothing is broken or grounding though.

Could the interior light relay be faulty or failing that may cause this too?

I also have an aftermarket Viper alarm that controls lighting when arming and disarming.