Help!! The fuse that controls the horn, mirrors, dome lighting, and hatch release keeps blowing (its one of the 20s if it matters). First, it blew before I put it up for the winter. Then a month after I got it out. Then yesterday. Then Today. Then right when I put the new fuse in it sparked and blew it. So, I gave it a whirl again like an idiot, and none the less, the next new fuse was instantly blown. PLEASE HELP!!! Thank You SOO MUCH!!:hail:

 

You have a short somewhere, could be fun to find however. Sorry not much help!

 

alright, i am a complete beginner so dont laugh too hard, but how do i tell which is the short???

 

Get a wiring diagram for your car and a DVOM (Digital Volt Ohm Meter) and start chasing wires. It's fun, trust me.

~M~

 

Start unplugging one thing at a time. IF it stops blowing fuses you
have found your short. If it don't, then the fun has just begun.

Tracking shorts can be a real pain.

Did you add anything to the car before this started this.

If I had to guess, I would check the hatch release circuit. Unplug
the unlock solenoid and check each wire with with an ohm meter
to ground. I don't see it in the diagrams so it may be an add on
feature. If so, it will have a black wire and a white wire. The black
should be ground and the white should go hot when you push the
switch. If the white is grounded then you found the short.

 

just always remember that a fuse never *just* blows. If it blows once, its surely going to blow again at some point until the problem is corrected.

The only easy way to fix this is to either just take it to a shop...or get a wiring diagram for your car and trace the system, cleaning grounds and checking for shorts....

 

Alright, thanks for the help. To answer swapmaster, the only thing i've done is an aftermarket CD player and hooked the fans up to a manual switch. If it matters, in niether did I touch any fuses. And thats a good point RJR99ss.. hm, never occurded to me. Well, anyway.. any more advice would be great.

 

Take a good look at your CD player wiring. There is a battery feed to it that comes off of that same circuit, that keeps the memory alive when you shut the ignition off. If it's not that, then you probably have a chafed wire somewhere, which like everybody says is a real joy to find... you end up having to take out interior panels to trace harnesses, etc. Sorry, no shortcuts.

I would not bother taking it to a shop. They will futz around for a while, tell you they couldn't find anything wrong, and charge you for however many hours they worked on it. Then it will blow again on the way home from picking the car back up.

 

Check your cigarette lighter socket for a penny or a dime!

And go buy a cigarette lighter to fill the hole. This happened to my friend (penny in the lighter socket). I told him to buy a cig lighter for his car, he said he didn't smoke. 'Course, a few months later, another penny fell in! I tell him he should really get a cigarette lighter for the hole, he says why, I don't smoke! Uh...

 

RB83L69, you rule. Hit the nail right on the head. The wire came loose and was shorting out everything. Thanks a lot everyone. I dont know how much money you saved me since i didnt have to go to a shop. Thanks a ton!
:hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail:

 

Glad it was so easy!

 

That may be true on a Firebird, but the Camaro's lighter is in the dash, horizontally mounted. It would be real hard for a coin to fall in, unless the car was standing on it's nose.

 

Right on Anthology. Damn shorts!!!