Calling all electrical gurus, Short somewhere..... Options

[keske968]

I was driving my teener last night as a last resort as it was raining really good. I know I need to replace my weatherstripping and some water was getting into the car.

My headlights and headlight motors were working fine all night until I got home when the lights shut off but the motors would not engage. I have the updated fuse box and noticed that the headlight motor fuse (15 amp) was blown. I waited all day for the car to dry out some and tried to replace the fuse and it blew instantly.

I have looked for a short in the wire and the only thing that I have found is the wires that power the headlights almost look like they are melted in one section. However, these wires are not connected to the motors at all.

Any ideas on what would casue this short would be greatly appreicatied... I will take pics tomorrow when I get a chance.

[scotty]

Check the power wire (fuse to headlight motor) to see if it has an unintentional ground? that would eliminate one wire...unless both motors are shorting out.

Is it possible that the relay itself is shorting? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

-OR-

You could try one of these fuses to see if you can generate more smoke at the location of the actual short:

(IMG:http://www.mez.co.uk/fusereplacement.jpg)

Sorry.

[keske968]

well i checked both relays but I am unsure what I should be getting on an ohm meter. They bith test out the same. The 87a (i think) pin shows a short when tested against the single pin at the top of the relay. Other than that they both show an open circuit.

[Spoke]

If the only thing that happened is the car got soaked with water, there is a good chance that water is trapped somewhere where these connections reside and until the water completely evaporates or you find this area and dry it, you may have this issue.

Try disconnecting headlights or other items to see if the resistance changes to try to isolate the issue.

For example about water hiding, a friend and I just dropped the motor out of his 911. The PO put in a custom fuel injection system and used a heater hose to run wires in from the chassis to the engine. The car hadn't seen rain in about 2 weeks. When we undid the tape and pulled the wires out of the heater hose, about an ounce of water came out the hose. After 2 weeks!

[Dave_Darling]

You have a short, huh? Where's Clay when you need him?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Hey, I meant that he's one of our best electrical troubleshooters--what did you think I meant?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

--DD