Got screwed up!

schauhan · Nov 9th, 2004, 05:38 AM

Ok guys, I am screwed up, my tail light fuse (10A) burns as soon as I turns the light on. Also, cluster lights are gone.

This is what I did:
I am on to installing the new AMP. I installed the 100A fulse box at the extreme driver side (extreme top) in the engine compartment. i drilled four holes to mount the fuse holder in.

Also, this happened:
When I was installing the fuse, I did not disconnect the negative terminal of battery (Stupid me), and while tightening the screw to install the fuse, the wrench touched the positive terminal of battery and there was a big, really big spark, it heated the screw I was tightening to mount the amp fuse box on the upper side of firewall.

Now the tail light fuse burns immedialtey as soon as I turn the lights on. Blinkers come on with the hazard switch, but they do not come on with the turn signals.

Where do i start to find the fault?

Thanks,

NOS_PSR_NOS · Nov 9th, 2004, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schauhan

Ok guys, I am screwed up, my tail light fuse (10A) burns as soon as I turns the light on. Also, cluster lights are gone.

This is what I did:
I am on to installing the new AMP. I installed the 100A fulse box at the extreme driver side (extreme top) in the engine compartment. i drilled four holes to mount the fuse holder in.

Also, this happened:
When I was installing the fuse, I did not disconnect the negative terminal of battery (Stupid me), and while tightening the screw to install the fuse, the wrench touched the positive terminal of battery and there was a big, really big spark, it heated the screw I was tightening to mount the amp fuse box on the upper side of firewall.

Now the tail light fuse burns immedialtey as soon as I turn the lights on. Blinkers come on with the hazard switch, but they do not come on with the turn signals. I am hosed.

Please show me some hope. Where do i start to find the fault? You pros I am putting you to test.

Thanks,

did you also put in a new head unit, because i know that putting in the head unit incorrectly stuff like that can happen, my only advice would be to start over. disconnect everything that you change so your car works again then start hooking everything back up. i did have the same problem as you but i dont know how i fixed it i just started over and made sure everything worked correctly

oh yeah check and make sure all of your other fuses are in working order also

schauhan · Nov 9th, 2004, 01:35 PM

May sound like dumb, but what exactly is the head unit.

All other fuses are okay, funny thing is that the turn signals worked fine untill one day after the amp fuse install. then were gone the next day.

I checked the fueses in the engine compartment as well, they are fine.

BikerFry · Nov 9th, 2004, 07:18 PM

The head unit is the stereo, i.e. the CD player. I'm not sure if that's what you were doing, I'm really not sure what you were doing. Probably some kind of stereo fuse stuff I'm not familiar with. Either way doesn't matter.

Are you familiar with reading wiring diagrams? If not you're about to face a very steep learning curve because that's what you're going to have to do. Get a repair manual, find where in the wiring diagrams you touched, and start following the wires. One side you have to follow is the positive side of the battery. See where it goes. Find the wire you touched to the positive side of the battery and see where it goes and what it connects to. It seems as though your turn signal switch is shot, since the flashers turn on with the hazard switch but not the turn signal switch.

You shot a whole lot of current through something(s) so now you've gotta start tracing wires and figure out what you killed. This makes me shiver, because it reminds me of the time I accidentally sparked 2 wires while I was installing my tach and then my engine wouldn't shut off. 900 dollars at the stealership later I had a new ECU...

Good luck, I hope you have better luck than I did...

schauhan · Nov 9th, 2004, 10:39 PM

Thanks for the insight. I did not install the new head unit, head unit was already installed and the CD player was running at the time I shorted the circuit, music stopped for a second or so and then came back.

Luckily, my car runs fine, engine etc are okay. But these are dead:

1) Tail Light
2) Turn Indicators
3) Daytime Lights/Parking light.
4) Instrument cluster Illumination
5) Marker or clearence lights (On the side of bumpers)

I have the Haynes repair manual and tried to study the wiring diagrams and they really do not pose a problem, as i get them fast. Now the next thing is to trace the fault, that will be quite a pain in the a$$, I believe.

BikerFry · Nov 9th, 2004, 11:42 PM

Good luck. I'd start by finding what wire in the diagram touched the positive terminal and follow it to everything it's directly connected to and start checking components. It's PROBABLY not the positive side of the battery since that runs to the alternator I believe, and it's probably nothing screwy like a wire melting to ground randomly somewhere, so I'd save those possibilities for last. Just trace the wire that touched positive, keeping on the lookout for anything that all of those components that don't function right have in common.

BikerFry · Nov 9th, 2004, 11:53 PM

Do your BRAKE lights come on? I don't mean to your tail lights come on when you turn the lights on. I mean, if you step on the brake pedal with no blown fuses do the brake lights come on?

If they do I am going to guess that your lighting switch is toasted (on the steering column, the thing you use to turn on everything that you stated doesn't turn on.)

schauhan · Nov 10th, 2004, 12:24 AM

Yes Brake lights come on when I press the brake padel. Also, Blinkers run well on the hazard switch.

I tried swapping the switches assembly, I luckily had one with some mechanical issues, and that did not make a difference, then I put the original one back, put the steering wheel back, and to my surprise, it did not burn the 10A fuse like it was doing earlier and also the instrument lights came on just fine.

Turn signals are still dead.

My theory is that there is a fault in the line which just shifted and temporarily removed the short circuit in instrument panel wiring while I worked around the wires and this monster will come back again, so rather I find it and kill it asap.