Hi, long time website visitor, first time poster.

I seem to be having a problem with my 1985 Camaro. The interior lights, cigarette lighter, clock radio, and the switch to unlock the trunk were working perfectly fine for about a month. Yesterday, I was looking to see if there was a fuse for the horn since it's not working, and I must have tripped something, but now, none of those mentioned do not want to work anymore.

The ACC fuse was burnt, but most likely burnt because it had a 15 fuse instead of a 20. Now, I went to go buy two 20 fuses, and replaced the ACC. All was working properly again. The problem now is that the fuses burn out within a couple of minutes. Today, I tried a 30 fuse, but it still burns out. I've tried two 20's and one 30, and they just keep burning out. What could be wrong with it?

And other question is if I have to have every fuse plugged into the box, because I noticed in the fuse block diagram, there are extra spaces that don't have fuses on them.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Sounds like you have a short somewhere. Cigarette lighters are notorious offenders but it could be anywhere. These things can be maddening to track down. There is only one way to find the short and that is to trace each wire from each accessory in the circuit.

And, No, you don't have to have a fuse in each slot.

 

Thanks for the help. As you thought, it was a short. The problem now is, how to fix that short? While I was checking the cables, I noticed 2 things.

One, on the fuse box, there are 2 slots for something called "BAT". There's a blue and a red wire connected to it, but the red wire was ripped. I've been trying to look for what this is exactly, but I couldn't find an explanation for what the wires are or "BAT" stands for.

The second, I've come to the conclusion that the horn relay is burning out my "ACC" fuses. I came to that conclusion when I was trying to test out a horn that I had with the door open, and the second I push the horn, the the door lights, cigarette lighter, clock, and trunk button stopped working. Turns out, my "ACC" fuse was burnt. I managed to disconnect the horn under the hood, and works fine now since the horn is it disconnected.

My question is, how difficult is it to fix the horn relay? What would I need? And, how long will it take? Although I may be wrong about the horn relay, I would still like to fix my horn just to have it running and whatnot.

 

Up in your first post, you said the fuse would last for a couple minutes. Is that after turning anything on? Or just plugging in a new fuse and waiting? I've got the GM electrical schematics so I could probably help you out. The horn relay I believe is just behind the dash, kind of off the right lower corner of the column if sitting in the car. If you pull the rectangular plastic trim off just below the column you should be able to see it or at least feel it off to the right of that panel.

 

the "BAT" stands for a battery connection, meaning it is hot all the time. These are typically used for hooking up accessories that you want to be hot all the time. For instance, your memory and clock for a stereo.

 

Do you believe the cigarette lighter to be the problem in most cases with the Z28 as well as the trans Am's?

 

I just had the cigarette lighter replaced as suggested by many and today during a ride the acc 20 fuse burnt out again and when trying to replace it burns out right away so I guess there's still a short circuit going on..
Any idea where to look next if it's not the cigarette lighter causing the problem?
And another strange this is, why when the mechanic replaced the cigarette lighter it worked all perfectly fine. Things always seem to happen when leaving the mechanic :-)

 

kinda late on the reply but my acc burns out sometimes when i use the lighter. i have even burned out a few covers from it not popping. out. i found the hook up behind the lighter to be the issue. i changed the wires and the metal housinmg in front of the switch. no more burned fuses.

 

THE ANSWER???

Had identical issue - ACC fuse would blow at random. Sometimes immediately upon installing, other times after a day or two. Maddening!

Traced issue to the cigarette lighter jack. I found that a coating on the back side of the metal used for the center contact (inside the socket) had delaminated. Seems a little piece of this metal (looked like foil) had peeled off the center contact and was contacting the outside shell of the lighter housing. Viola - dead short. I coaxed the little piece out from behind the contact and this resolved the issue.

Hope this helps someone because I spent a lot of time cutting wires and looking other places!

 

This is awesome info I have the exact same issue and was preparing myself for a long complicated process, but at least I have a starting point now. On another note how do you guys go about finding the short? Is there a way to find it with a volt ohm meter or do you just unhook things until you find the problem? Kind of a trial and error.

 

Tipped off by an earlier Thirdgen thread that the lighter jack might be the issue, my son and I began to play with the lighter a few weeks ago during a period that the circuit was functioning. The lighter worked fine / heated up initially, but then upon retry caused the fuse to immediately blow (aHA!).

We then unplugged and removed the lighter jack and drove car for a while with no issues with the ACC fuse.

Today we finally took the lighter jack apart and upon close inspection of the interior of the jack I noticed a small piece of metal behind the center contact. It was bareley visible and curled outward and very near / barely touching the outer housing of the lighter socket. I took a piece of solid wire and fished the metal fragment out from behind the center contact. It was still attached. I was able to dislodge the fragment enough to be able to use a needle nose and peel it off the rest of the way and remove it. The jack now works great (son uses to power iPod/FM adapter) (lighter works too).

I had used my electrical meter initially to see what the draw (AMPs) were on the lighter but it just spiked the meter due to the direct short. Today, after identifying the issue I tried to take an amp meter reading on the lighter (trying to educate my son and gain some more info for you others) but it appears the short fried my meter. The ACC circuit has a 20 amp fuse and I (layman) would guess the lighter draws perhaps 5 amps.

In conclusion (sorry this got so long but hopefully helps others) I'd advise folks to start by removing / unplugging the lighter socket. Because we'd done some hatch and driver's door work we spent several hours finding / cutting wires to isolate them, and tearing stuff apart - huge waste of time.

 

Very good advice. I guess this must be 1 of those things with this model. kinda like the trunk pull down motor

 

ive got a good question. my 89 iroc z28 has a very similar problem. the fuse on my acc is in perfect condition. the problem is that it isnt blown but my headlamps, radio, interior light, and my trunk switch still dont work. Any ideas?

 

Here are a couple general ideas - make sure you check the fuse with a meter or replace it - it may look good but be defective. Also make sure you have power to the fuse - could be an "electrical supply" issue.

Also I'll tell you that the wiring diagrams in my Chilton manual do not match my car exactly. Consider them as a starting point.

 

hey thanks for the suggestion. i was able to check my fuse box only to see that it was'nt recieving power so i used a thin wire and connected my radio fuse with with accessory fuse(radio fuse had power) and now my radio, headlamps, interior lights and trunk switch work. now that i have temporarely fixed the problem i just gotta find the power wire and replace it. thanks again my friend.

 

You're welcome! Mark

 

thanks guys great work!