Whenever I put the brakes on with my headlights on, the brake/turn signal fuse blows immediately. If I have the headlights off, it takes about 3 minutes of driving before the same fuse blows.

Where do I start? How do I trouble shoot this? This sucks....it is my everday car. Today I will be driving it with no brake lights and turn signals.

QUOTE (86motoman @ May 5 2005, 05:14 AM)

Whenever I put the brakes on with my headlights on, the brake/turn signal fuse blows immediately. If I have the headlights off, it takes about 3 minutes of driving before the same fuse blows. Where do I start? How do I trouble shoot this? This sucks....it is my everday car. Today I will be driving it with no brake lights and turn signals.

You have a short somewhere. The best chance is a wire has come adrift and a hot wire is grounding, or an assembly has come loose and is allowing something to move and ground a hot wire. Pull out a wiring diagram and start following all of the wires that come off that fuse. It's also possible there's a problem in the turn signal switch itself, but check the connectors on all of the relevant wires first.

Other things to check - are you using the right size fuse? Should be 16 amps on the headlights and 8 amps on the turn signals. Also, it's possible for the filaments in the lamps (light bulbs) to go bad from vibration and they draw too much current. Check or replace the lamps in the taillight. Disconnect the black wires with white/green stripes at the taillights and see if the problem goes away.

Check the bulbs. Those dual filament bulbs sometimes burn out and let a piece of filiment dangle & short. Also, might check tag lights- I think they are considered problem areas-

if by "tag lights" you mean the license plate lights, that could be a def possibility. whether chaffing where the wire passes though the body, or the teeny, tiny wire conections. i chased that one for 2 days. i figured it out when i thought "what was the last thing i did?". i had taken the rear bumper off and on. everytime i tried to high-low it went. what # fuse is going away? are there any additional circuits add to that fuse? eg stereo, power amp?

k

I think the rear trunk (luggage) light in on that circuit, at least on some model years.

QUOTE (SGB @ May 5 2005, 09:47 AM)

Check the bulbs. Those dual filament bulbs sometimes burn out and let a piece of filiment dangle & short. Also, might check tag lights- I think they are considered problem areas-

also make sure the right bulbs were used in the turn signal... I popped a fuse on my old '72 because I didn't realize the connection at the bottom of the bulb was slightly different...

......well I put a fuse in it and drove it to school (20 minutes on the highway). It did not blow the fuse, but the headlights were off.

I have been in school all day and am very busy, which makes this even more stressfull...but...

I do have headlight problems. They flick on and off sometimes, but that confuses me because the very first time it blew the headlights were off.

I need some more fuses before I do anything...hopefully I can find some of these wierd fuses around town somewhere.

what ever you do, pass up the tempation to "improvise" for a fuse...BTDT with my 5.0 Mustang years ago...thought I was cool until the dash wiring caught on fire while cruising thru the local mall parking lot with the stereo cranked up....I thought the aluminum foil would act as a good fuse...apperantly not

When I had a similar problem in a Alfa a few years ago, I found a 10 amp push-button circuit breaker at an electronics shop and wired it to replace the 8 amp fuse. It would pop every few days, and I'd reset it, and I'd half-heartedly look for the mystery short. Said short also took out my brake lights, as well as the dash clock, and the stereo.

After a few weeks of this, I found the short buried in a rat's nest of wiring near the aftermarket stereo. Fixed that, and replaced the circuit breaker with a new fuse. Saved myself about a dozen fuses that way.

Right on guys...thanks for your help.

First I banged each headlight. hehe
Then I thought about what I did last before it started happening, which was get in the trunk. I looked at all the trunk connections, and one of the wires going to the license plate through the body was against the metal body hole. This is probably the cause although it could have been banging on the headlights as well.

It has stopped blowing fuses and I will insulate that wire better when I get home.

Thanks again That takes a lot of pressure off of me.