Thread: burnt out fuses

Tweet

91' Chev S-10...brake lights work, tail light don't. Interior light is constantly on and the fuses just blow instantly after replacement. I understand it's probably crossed wires...a short somewhere, but where do I start? Any hints...thanks, in advance for all replies.

Believe it or not the blown fuse is causing your dome light to stay on. Gotta find out whats causing the fuse to pop, most likley culprit is the cigarette lighter, other common short is the wire at the sun visors that feed the vanity mirrors right at the visor pivot...

You say the interior light is always on so that is a good clue. The two problems are probably related somehow. Each door handle has a switch and also one at the door jam and the dash on the light switch and dimmer. Disconnect the wires from each of the switches till the light goes out to isolate the bad switch. One of these switches has probably shorted. I think that truck also has a light control module somewhere too. That could be bad too. Like HWORRELL says the cigarette lighter could also be on that circuit.

It's always nice to have a multimeter and a wiring diagram for these problems.

Another thought. Try removing the bulb for the domelight and see if the tailights come back on

Another common short is at trailer light harness's........

Probally won't find anything at the dome/door switches,the dome light is staying on because of feedback because of the blown fuse (trust me on this) heres the fuse panel grid as you can see a lot of stuff feeds off the taillamp fuse (they call it T/L ctsy) ... I'm on my way out the door till Monday hope this helps...

Which fuse is blowing? Was a radio installed recently? Is everything else working, parking lights, dash lights, courtesy lights etc?

I bought the truck about six months ago and installed a new radio immediately. Everything has been fine. This is a recent incident. The T/L ctsy is the blown fuse. The dash lights do not work, however the parking lights, hazards, courtesy lights all work fine.

hard to tell you whats wrong with it damon.english, but if you'll go down to the parts store and get you a circuit breaker and put in place of the fuse it will give you a chance of finding the problem quicker. it should kick off and on while you search for the short. helped me find shorts over the yrs.

http://www.napaonline.com/masterpage...ircuit+Breaker

I took out the interior light out and replaced the fuse with a new one. Now the dash lights and tail lights work. So what's the problem? Does this mean there is a short in the in the interior light? I know that's a silly question, what I mean is....could it be something else?

Originally posted by damon.english
I took out the interior light out and replaced the fuse with a new one. Now the dash lights and tail lights work. So what's the problem? Does this mean there is a short in the in the interior light? I know that's a silly question, what I mean is....could it be something else?

i dont know what kind of bulb you have, but its possible that it shorts out the hot wire when its in the socket. the bulb can be bad. take the light down and see if you can tell if the hot wire has been shorted out behind the light. if the short was below the light then taking the bulb out wouldn't do away with the short. it should be at the light.

You have a switch somewhere that is shorted. Its either in the door jams, the main healight switch, the dimmer or possibly in the door handles. Or as I said earlier there is a light control module that could be shorted. Also make sure that a dime or something didn't fall down into the cigarette lighter.

It's probably somewhere in the orange circuit. HWORRELL is right about the visors, I'd eliminate those first. Otherwise, it seems like what the taillights, dome light and dash lights have in common is that they all go through the headlight switch.
A friend of mine used to hook up a buzzer between the blown fuse's 'outgoing' terminal and ground. He'd disconnect one wire at a time till the buzzer would stop. Has anybody on this forum tried that, does that sound correct? I never tried it myself, I always used a test light.

i always put a circuit breaker in place of the fuse, he says if he takes the interior light out it stop blowning the fuse. if thats the case then if it was any of the other things (door sw. tails lights) he would still have the short. id be checking the light real good.

That's worth checking out.
When he said the dome light is 'always' on, I think he means with the doors shut and the light switch off. If that's the case, it seems like there shouldn't be any power going to the dome light. So it makes me wonder, where in that orange circuit is the voltage coming from? The moving parts would be the next thing to eliminate.
I love trying to figure this s*** out, it's fun!
But then again, I could be a seriously sick puppie.