This started last night. I'm driving down a bumpy lake road and I see a quick flash down by my left leg, and hear a pop and my guags went out! I put a new fuse in and it did it again a few seconds later. WTF? I figure it is a short somewhere, but where? Where should I look? Could it be over by the ECM somewhere? I had that panel off when I hooked up my amp, but I didn't mess with anything. I ran the power wire on the drivers side instead. Also, sometimes when I hit bumps, my radio shuts off for a second. It's an afterarket radio. Could it be related? Thanks for any info! Matt

 

There could be some frayed wires somewhere, the tic tac circuit board on the back of the gauge cluster could have some seperated contacts and a power is touching a ground or even your amp could be the culprit. Theres no telling until you go wire searching "most fun thing in the world" Good luck finding it, theres always someting that has rubbed onto the body of the car and is shorting it's self out. OR at least on my car, but all that is fixed now

 

its your amp, my car does it to, didnt do it till i put the amp in, did u run your amp power to the battery or to a open spot on the fuse box?

 

Check the wires, mine used to do this a lot. After like 5 times, it happened at night and I saw the flash. Two wires were rubbing together. I had to take out the cluster, cut the wires and solder in new pieces and tape em up. No problems since.

 

I did just put an amp in, but the amp was in for at least a week before this started happening. I have it hooked up directly to the battery. How could this cause my guage fuse to blow? I never had to mess with the fusebox. Thanks! Matt

 

thats exactly what mine does, i have no clue why, i just keep some fuses and put a new one in when it blows, i know a few people with camaros and the same thing happens to them

 

Nope! Not the amp. I figured it out. The wires on the EGR valve were shorting out. They didn't have that plastic harness around them. The wires were just plugged into the EGR. One popped out and was shorting out on the intake. EGR valve makes the guage fuse blow. Go figure. Matt

 

humm ill have to check that out, where is the egr valve at?

 

It's on the back side of the intake on the passenger side. On my car (350 TPI), it's on the same bracket that the ignition coil is mounted on. The plug plugs into the back of the EGR. It's down below the coil. Matt

 

wonder if its in the same place on mine, 2.8 MPFI

 

Probably not. I'll find out where it is and let you know. It's a black rectangular plastic thing with a couple vacum lines coming out of it, and a wiring harness plugged into it. Yours probably looks similar. I'll find out where it is. Matt

 

one thing i've seen short out a dash fuse is a coin falling into the cigarette lighter. my brother dumped change in that thing once, and it took me days to realize what was shorting, then hours to remove the melted penny...

 

Really? A penny? That sucks. I would have just replaced the cigarette lighter. They're like $7 and easy to fix! Or, I'd just disconnect it. I don't smoke, or use it for anything really. Matt

 

Yep, a penny is a thirdgen cig lighters worst enemy. I keep mine disconnected since I dont smoke or have no need for it.