Hey fellas,
My number 11 fuse that powers the interior light, trunk light, cigarette lighter LHD, gear indicator, glove compartment light, buzzer contact - gong relay, clock, and diagnosis plug will always pop when I put a new one in.
I recentley installed a CD player, and my constant power wire accidentley hit one the speaker wires, and caused a spark. I removed the CD player to make sure that it wasn't the culprit. After removing the cd player from the car, and making sure no wires are rubbing together, I go to put a new 15amp fuse and it still pops. I even tried putting it in with the battery taken out, and when I try to put the battery back on, the negative cable makes a sizzling noise, and a little bit of smoke comes up, and the fuse pops. I really need this fuse to work, it powers my cell charger, and radar detector. Does anybody know where I can start looking? I think I have a short somewhere, how should I go about finding out where?
The lid suggests a 15 amp fuse, I don't want to try anything higher, due to that fire risk. Thanks for your hlep.

-Cyrus

 

Never touch any wiring (like changing the Radio) without disconnecting the ground cable off the battery.

That said, since this problem just came up, I'd dbl-check all your wiring for the radio you installed. Also check on the clock as you may have accidentally pulled something there that now shorts out to the body ground under the dash panel. Sounds like you have a short somewhere on that circuit in any case.

 

My vote is on the glove compartment light. There's metal behind the light switch inside and shorting it is easy. Remove the few screws holding the glove box compartment and make sure the light "plunger" is traveling freely. Some electrical tape may help too.

 

I did take out my glove compartment recentley..hmm..

 

Mine is doing the same thing, it's drivng me nuts.

 

Cyrus, I also had a short coming from the glove box, try disconnecting the switch and then install the fuse, if it doesn't pop then you know. Reno

 

Another vote for the glove box seeing how I just did the same thing putting in the RennBay A/F gauge where the digi clock was. The hot wire for the light is almost impossible to get in without contacting the steel frame. If it got bent back during reinstall it would be in constant contact with ground. Hope it works for you.

 

A circuit that continually blows the fuse is usually a short to ground (hot lead contacting the chassis).

I had a similar situation on my car. The overhead light between the sunvisors was the culprit. It had broken and the power wire was shorting and blowing the fuse.

To trouble shoot use a non-powered test light. Connect the two test light leads to the two legs that the fuse plugs into at the fuse box. The shorted circuit should turn on the test light. Then individually disconnect each load (overhead light, glove box light, etc) in the circuit. When you find the culprit (short to ground) the test light will turn off.

Good hunting.

 

I just remembered that my short was also caused by either the cigarette lighter or digital clock wires. It happened when I was changing the bulb in the digital clock. Nice job that is!

 

Cyrus951,

When you find the gremlin, we would appriciate it if you post the fix.

 

My vote goes for the glove compartment light. If you dont watch what you are doing, you can put the light back in backwards, which will cause that bare metal strip to always contact the metal frame there. How do I know? I did this...

 

I sure will, I'll be looking into the fix sometime this weekend.

 

Sorry about the delay, just yesterday I went about disconnecting parts.
I took out the cig. lighter, the overhead light (in between sunvisors), the clock, the glove compartment light and gong relay, but when I go to put the fuse in with all of those parts disconnected, it still pops. Any idea on wtf is going on with my car?

 

Well then i guess you ruled out those items as having shorts in them. Could the fuse still blow if bare wires are rubbing up against each other, even when the component (such as the lighter) is not hooked up? Maybe not since the circuit is interupted.

 

if for instance the sigeret lighter has its power wire bare and it grounds that would still compleat a circut. Even if the lighter itself is disconected. I think you should check every inch of wiring for a bare wire. Sounds like thats your problem. Hope you find it.

Tim