Michael Benno

Now that havemy car back on the road, I noticed my interior lights stopped working, so did my clock. I checked the corresponding fuse #24 and it was blown. I replaced it and it immediately tripped. Clearly I had a short somewhere. I did a little online searching and soon discovered this is a very common problem that is caused by many different scenarios because of the number of accessories this little fuse. I decided the best course of action was to inventory all the accessories and remove them all, inspect see if I could identify the issue.

Here is a list of all the accessories linked to the fuse:

• Engine compartment light
• 5 interior lights and Glove box light
• 2 electric tailgate release switches
• Cigar/Cigarette lighter (not light though)
• Clock (not light though)

Engine Compartment Light: I eliminated this as source of the problem by disconnecting the light completely and sealing off the harness under the cowl.



Interior lights: These are problematic in general because they have a lot of unshielded connections and the hot side can often come in contact with the chassis. I removed them all and added heat shrink to all the unshielded connections. I noticed the trunk light was problematic. The bulb had fallen out and that made me think the bulb could have been causing the short if it got wedged better the hot wire and the chassis. Furthermore the light had lost it's ability to stay in the of or the on position. So I left it disconnected and capped off the connectors.



Tailgate Release Switches: The passenger side has some exposed wire near the connector, I suppose in certain situations it could have grounded out. So I decided to add heat-shrink insulation to each wire on both sides, four wires in total.



Lighter: The connections looked good but the lighter seemed to be connected incorrectly. The ground line was connected to the center electrode and the power was connected to the chassis. This seemed backward to me and would definitely cause a short. What is not clear is why all of a sudden. I installed that lighter several months ago and only now am I seeing a problem. I decided to add some insulation to the unshielded ground wire while I was in there.



Clock and glove box light: The connections looked solid but I disconnected it so I could make sure I had all all the accessories removed.

Trouble shooting: I had all the above mention items disconnected, the next step was to see if the problem resided someplace in the wiring between the accessories. To do this you need to test to see if there is still a short in the system. You can do this by using fuses ( lot of fuses), or a re-setting fuse of the same 7.5amps, or a by using a test light prob across the terminals of the fuse. The fuses have metal poking through the back so you can do just that. I had a helper hold down the door pin to ensure I would not trigger the courtesy delay. If the circuit is ok, the light will not illuminate. If there is a short then the it will light.



Good news, the circuit was good, the problem must have been one of the accessories I disconnected. So I added back one accessory at a time and re-tested before moving on. I was able to add them all back in without issue. So the problem must have been one of the things I resolved as I was inspecting them. I am betting it was the lighter and it did not trigger until I pressed the plunger down, which I must have done at some point without realizing it.

It took me all day to resolve it but in the end I have improved the system by adding insulation to all the open connections and identified at least one failed part.

Michael Benno

Oh yeah , I also discovered this mess at the front right ground point. THIS scares the heck out of me. I need to think a bit before opening that one up. Anyone have a pic of what a good one looks like?

Mongo

I am still dealing with my Fuse 24 issue. Once I reconnect my battery, I will probably start troubleshooting (yet again) thanks to your inspiring thread.

Michael Benno

It was all pretty straight forward. Just commit to removing everything and do the inspect and protect stuff and then test with everything out. You will get it resolved.

Chalkboss

Nice work Michael. This is helping me as the interior lights were flickering on while driving. Adjusted hatch switch. Also rear hatch light switch was miswired, the hot was on the switch side. Everything good so far.