fuse blown symptoms ... but it isn't

hey guys,
94 chero. its got a dual cd player in it (the CD part doesnt work, but the radio does. well, used to)

well, lately ive been having trouble with my "door locks, courtesy lights, cd player" fuse. (i thought the cigarette lighter went off that but i guess not cause its working)

it burnt a fuse about a week ago, but has been working since. then, yesterday the fuse burnt again. (so no courtesy lights, radio or door locks)
i replaced the fuse, and they are all off line again. so i went to change the fuse, so i could check where their may have been a loss of power.. and it was in tact. i changed it anyway, and nothing... so now i am stumped as to what it could be. a buddy of mine said it might be the light dimmer, that they sometimes go and cause shorts.

what do you guys think. im leaning towards that and/or my radio since its kind of beat up... although it worked until recently...

the main question i have is why the sudden loss of power to these sources while the fuse is still intact...?

Thanks,
Travis

bump, id really not like to have an electrical fire if there is any danger to that...

wow... lots of oem tech stuff being posted. nodbody has any info about what it could be. ill be testing more in depth tomorrow, but i dont want to just have to test EVERYTHING, if i could get some ideas...

the fuse would be intact if it has no power to blow it. Check all the circuits with an muti meter set for 12v dc. Then hook in the meter at the fuse box. Key on should read 12v dc then turn on each item and maybe shake the item a little if it goes blank you found your item. Good luck

Unfortunately, I think the only thing you can do is "test everything" until you find the problem. It could be a short somewhere, and perhaps it finally killed the wire instead of the fuse. A shorted interior light, perhaps? A bad wiring job on the radio, perhaps? Check the harness to the radio if it's an aftermarket job, because some installers do a really nasty job of wiring those things, and if it uses crimp-on splices, it's not that uncommon to have an exposed bit of wire show enough to short somewhere.

ugh. thanks thats NOT want i wanted to hear, but im glad i got an answer so im not flyingblind. im not big on the electrical part of cheros yet (i got the mechanical part down...but its a learning process.)

what would be involved if, say, i found that a wire was shorted, id have to replace the whole thing? or is there a dead spot i could find that i could cut out and splice?

rocklandxjer said:

ugh. thanks thats NOT want i wanted to hear, but im glad i got an answer so im not flyingblind. im not big on the electrical part of cheros yet (i got the mechanical part down...but its a learning process.)

what would be involved if, say, i found that a wire was shorted, id have to replace the whole thing? or is there a dead spot i could find that i could cut out and splice?

Click to expand...

I think if the circuit is dead, you'll probably find a broken, burned out or damaged wire. No reason to replace the whole thing if you are sure you've found the fault. I'd just splice. Whenever possible, I prefer to solder in splices and use heat shrink tubing, but any safe and sound splice will work. If you aren't in a position to solder, and if the problem is in the interior where corrosion isn't an issue, you can do a twisted splice with little wire nuts. Just make sure that you tape them completely over.

I'd look closely at the interior lights themselves. Sometimes they get hot enough to melt and cause a short. All the door switches are on the ground side of the interior light circuit, though, so a short in one of these will simply turn the light on, and won't blow any fuses.

If you have a test light or meter, the first thing you should do is to find out if the fuse in question is getting power at the fuse box. If the fuse is not blown, then the first thing you need to do is to find out which side of the fuse the fault lies. There may be a fusible link leading to the fuse, and that might have gone. You may have to find that first, and then still track down the short that is causing the problem in the first place.

Good luck. It can be very easy or very frustrating, depending on where the fault is.

Very good advice also check the fuse with an ohm meter to make sure the fuse is good. I have had bad fuses from the factory. To me it is so much easier to replace the wire in question if you find the culprit espeasially in a wire loom rather than trying to take apart the loom to see which one is shorted. In a loom they can go from brown to brown with a stripe and you will miss the stripe part and you end up frustrated till you figure it out

thanks guys, will do.

i didnt get a chance today, the light goes away quick these days, and i put 2" on the rear of my DD project..