blowing #2 and #19 fuses?

bought this 93 xj and girl told me it was blowing a fuse and lost dash, radio lights etc.. took it home was missing about 5 fuses replaced them all got everything back been driving it for a month no problems then today a hit a bump heard a fuse blow lost everything again. got home and it was the #2 (radio,cigar lighter,dome lamp) and #19 (instrument panel lamps,radio lights) fuses replaced them a couple times but blows them as soon as i turn it on. cant find any shorts, is theres somewhere i should look for a short or something that could be causeing this? the jeep was smashed on the drivers side before but i cant see ant cut or bad wires up there.

You might check the dome lights themselves. The wiring to the door switches is ground, so that should simply turn the lights on if one of those shorts. But the dome lights have a supply that is always hot. I don't have a manual handy here (away from home), but one possibility might be to find the wire that supplies the dome lights and disconnect it. If the problem goes away, you have your culprit, and if not, you can look elsewhere. Among the other possibilities is if the radio is not a factory original, look for bad wiring there. The orange wire for the radio memory draws off the same fuse as the dome lights.

Actually,the more I think about this, if it's blowing both fuses, I'd seriously suspect the radio. Make sure all grounds are good, too.

the radio is stock but gonna take it out and check mayby someone had an aftermarket one in it at some point. where are the grounds located at? the dome light on the roof still works so must be run of a different fuse.

If your dome lights are working, but you're blowing the fuse for the dash lights, you should probably check the headlight switch. There's a rheostat for the dash lights there, and it can go bad.

The radio ground is in its harness, but it's not a very robust one. It might still be worthwhile unplugging the radio to see if it makes a difference.

i'm gonna tackle it tomorow its dark out now. but i just went up to the store and a guy who was behind me told me i have no tail lights my brake and signal lights worked but no lights while i was driving. they must be hooked into one of these fuses too.

It's beginning to look more like the light switch.

so i unhooked the radio today and seemed to solve my problem. i hooked it back up moved it around a bit blew the fuses,unhooked it good again. someone must have had another stereo in it before and put the stock back in all the wires are covered with electrical tape where they hooked it up. i cant see where any that are touching could the problem be the stereo itself ? or could it be futher in the wiring harness?

guess i was wrong just went back out and they blew without the radio hooked up.

93xjpos said:

guess i was wrong just went back out and they blew without the radio hooked up.

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I'd still look really carefully at that harness, and see if you can make it misbehave by flexing or manipulating it. Could be a concealed wiring fault yet.