my interior lights don't work, and every time I turn on the headlights, a 20A fuse blows, but the headlights still work

 

Which 20 amp fuse are you blowing??? You model year has 4 of them. Helps to troubleshoot if we know what circuit we are lookinr for.

Also, which interior lights are not working. The dash insturment lights (one circuit) or the dome and courtsey lights, the cir lighter, etc. (another circuit)?

Both circuits are fed from different 20 amp fuses. So a little more detail will be helpful.

Look here, on the body wiring for your model year to see the fuse block, with the fuse names.....

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm

Dave

 

well according to the chart for my car, the fuse is suppose to be 25A, and its the heater\AC. and its my dash and center console lights that don't work.

 

Well I have no idea why you would be blowing the Heat/AC fuse when you turn on your headlights. Based on your first post, I thought you were blowing the TAIL Fuse. Anyway, take a look at the attached wiring diagram. It shows the circuit for the insturment lamps. Check the 5A INST Fuse and make sure it is OK.

If the INST fuse is OK then you will need to confirm that it is receving +12v when the headlight switch is in the Park or On position. Then trace the wiring and condirm voltage and/or continunity to the lights.

As for the Heater/AC fuse blwoing, I would remove the fuse block and make sure there are no shorts on the back side. Then check the Heater/AC wiring for a short past the fuse.


Dave

 

soo, I tryed the 25A fuse and it still blew up, just as an update, heres the following problems:

dash, Hvac, and shift lights dont work
deffor works when the car is not running, but when the cars running, it only blows out all the other vents.


also the 5A fuse is not blowen

 

bumps help me please!

 

If you are blowing the A/C HEAT fuse (25A) that means you have a short circuit some where in the circuit past the fuse. You are going to have to trace the wiring to find and fix the short. One way to do it is to remove the both the A/C HEAT fuse and the 10A GAGES fuse, disconnect all the connectors in the A/C, Heat and blower circuits and then trace them with an ohmmeter. Connect on side of the ohmeter to a connector in the circuit and the other side to ground. When you find a wire that read "0" ohms you have found the wire with the short in it. Now you will have to physically trace the wire to find where it is contacting ground and fix it. You will need to test each wire in a connector seperatley. Note that if the fuse blows with all the A/C and blower switches in the OFF position the short is most likley in the BROWN wire from the A/C HEAT fuse to the A/C Control Head switch. (The A/C control head is the A/C control in your console with the blower switch, the hot/cold slide switch, and the Off, Max AC, Normal AC, Bi-Level, Vent, Defrost and Heat slider switch)

"defor works when the car is not running" I am not sure what this means. The air flow switchs for the A/C Heat system are vacuum switches. When the car is not running there is no vaccum and the switches default to the defrost postion. Additionaly the blower motor will only work with the ignition key in the RUN position. With the engine off, there is no water flow from the radiatior system so no heat or defrost (with hot air) are available. I suggest you try posting in the COOLING board with a better problem description, as this does not seem to clearly state your problem. Most likey you have a vacuum switch problem.

Now for your dash lights. There are several things that could casue this problem. First, is your TAIL fuse (20A) ok??? Might as well pull your A/C Heat fuse so you don't blow it while you are testing the insturment light circuits. Second, is your dimmer control in the off position????? With the lights on, rotate it through its entire range of movement. Does this fix the problem? If not the dimmer control could be shot and require replacement of the dimmer and/or headlight switch. On a number of model years the dimmer control is part of the headlight switch. You will need a voltmeter and ohmmeter for these next steps. You also might want to print out teh wiring diagram attached to my response above, so you can refer to it while you are under the dash.

Next, pull the 5A Insturment light fuse. Turn the headlights on and verify that your park and front side lamps are on. This will confirm that the headlight switch and dimmer control are getting 12 volts. If the exterior light are not on then there is a problem with the ORANGE wire from the TAIL fuse to the headlight switch. If the exterio rlight are on, check an dsee if you have 12 volts at the INST 5A fuse position in the fuse block. You will have to test both sides, as I don't know which side shouid be hot (connected to the dimmer control by the DR GRN wire) If you do not have 12 volts on one side of the fuse socket, either the DR GRN wire has come loose between the fuse block and the dimmer control or the dimmer control/headlight switch is bad.

If you do have 12 volts at the INST 5A fuse, then you are going to have to find where the gray wire is broken or disconnectd from the circuit. With reference to the circuit diagram in my psot above look for S207 on the diagram. This is a splice point in the wire harness located behind the dash, just to the left of the steering wheel. You will need to pull the harness apart and verify that the splice is still connected on both sides. The splice will be wrapped in tape or heat shrink tubbing. If it is, with it bare, verify that you are getting 12 volts to that point with the headlight switch on. If you are not getting 12 volts there then there is a problem with the gray wire from there back to the fuse block. If you are getting 12 volts there, then you may have a problem with one or move of the connections at the insturment panel.

So your insturment light problem most likley is between the 20A Gages Fuse and splice point S207.

There is one other item you can check. Apparently some model years had a power transistor in the Insturment lighting circuit. Seach the ELECTRONICS board with the key words power+transistor and read the psots that come up. You will see that there is some confusion as to teh location of the transistor and what model years it was installed in. But there is a picture of the transistor in the thread. You might want to read the thread and while you are under the dash checking the wiring, see if the transistor is there. If so replace it as suggested in the above thread.

Now let the search begin. I am sorry but unless a fuse is blown, there is no easy 5 minute fix for this problem. You are going to have to spend a few hours finding and fixing the problem. Take it one step at a time, so you can identify what the problem is and where it is. Let us know how you are progressing in fixing these problems.


Dave

 

Did you perhaps hook up a new stereo?

on the original stereo there is a wire connection clipped on the back which is part of your dash lighting system.. if the brown one is confused to be a permanent ground, it turns to a positive lead when the lights are turned on ... it if is grounded out it will blow your fuse, and screw up your headlight switch like it did to me when i was hooking up my new radio.


good luck hope this helps.

 

My ground IS hooked up to a brown wire O_o
ok, so im going to find a new ground, but what do i do with the brown wire? do i ground it? cap it? or connect it to constant or ignition controlled postive?

 

the brown wire just gets taped off so it doesn't touch ground, it is a power wire

 

CarterCarbureto

To make things interesting there are TWO brown wires in the center console. One goes from the dimmer switch to the stock radio and dims the radio dial light when the headlight or parking lights are on. This could be causing a problem with you rdash lights but I don't think so. Since this wire is grounded, it should blow the TAIL fuse when you turn your lights on. You have not said anything about blowing that fuse.

The second brown wire provides power to the AC HEAT control unit. If it is grounded it will blow you AC/Heat fuse, which you have stated is blowing.

So have you traced this wire back to the fuse block to see which one it is????

That probably would be a good first step, so you dont miss connect it again and cause more problems. Disconnect the BROWN wire from the BLACK wire and pull the AC/HEAT fuse. Use an ohmmeter to check for a short between the end of the BROWN wire and the use terminal. That will tell you if it is the power source for the AC/Heat controls. You can also try tracing the wire in the harness behind the dash, but that will be quite a project in itself.

When I read your response lat night, I assume the BROWN wire was for the AC/Heat controls. If that is the case, it needs to be connected to terminal 5 of the A/C Selector Switch plug. See the attached partical wiring diagram. I am also attaching a diagram of the back of the AC Control unit. The item referred to as the "Rotary Switch" in that diagram is the A/C Selector Switch in the wiring diagram.

thexyzaxis has the correct idea if the wire is meant to be connected to the radio.

Dave

 

ok, so I snipped the wire that was connected to the back of my stereo, and everything works like it should now, all my int. lights work like they should. Well except my stereo..I need to find a new ground.