fuses keep blowing

[themaleman]

what would cause randome fuses to blow?
since ive goten my car going it runs sweet, but keeps blowing fuses like lights, gauge cluster, electric windows.

its a turbo 4agze on factory computer,

i dont want to just use bigger fuses as im gussing it could cause more trouble. so want to get to the botom of the problem


any ideas people??

[Grrrrrrr!]

Check every earth on the motor/gearbox and computer. after that... good luck, electrical problems are always shite to find

[Trls250s]

If you are not running a factory fuel pump, check the lines going to it. Also higher flow pumps eat more power too and the EFI fuse may blow from the extra current draw (i had this problem with my AE85 when i converted it to efi)

[MAGN1T]

Check every earth on the motor/gearbox and computer. after that... good luck, electrical problems are always shite to find

The trick to finding blown fuses is to replace the fuse with a highish wattage 12V bulb.

The circuit will work normally until it gets a short, the bulb will then light, maybe only dimly though..you can then start removing things until the short is gone.
It's nearly always non factory add ons that are the cause.

A bad earth connection rarly if ever causes a fuse to blow.

Steve

[gepsk8]

does it blow once u turn on the radio? with lights on?

[themaleman]

If you are not running a factory fuel pump

facory pump

A bad earth connection rarly if ever causes a fuse to blow.

yea the engine is eatrhed well, batterys in the boot and has a huge earth atached to the gearbox

does it blow once u turn on the radio? with lights on?

car has no radio. i havnt had the lights on yet.

The trick to finding blown fuses is to replace the fuse with a highish wattage 12V bulb.

ill give this a go next weekend, cheers

any other thoughts?

[gepsk8]

check stero, wiring not short out then ,if no stero.

[Snaps]

Sorry to steal the thread a bit, but what if the fog light fuse keeps blowing? I've checked all the wires that I can get to without doing too much work, and nothing seems to be wrong?

Any ideas?

[blackmk3]

Faulty bulb? shorting power straight to the earth

What causes fuses to blow is when the power isnt being used, EG: you have a fuel pump power goes through it and out to the body of the car creates a electrical circuit the pump uses the power and goes

However if the pump has a short circuit in it where the power goes into the pump and instead of it using the power in the motor windings etc the power jumps straight through to the neutral side the car body side you then blow a fuse as the power wasn't used by the pump as you have full power going straight to the body

Or if your overloading the circuit, Got to many electrical items using to much power. using 13amps etc with a 10amp fuse.

Light bulbs usually cause fuses to blow as the power instead of going through the filiment wiring and lighting up. the fliliment wiring breaks and shorts the power side straight to the body side Neutral side, so check your bulbs on that circuit

Dont put a bigger fuse in all this does is overload the wiring. because the wiring can only take say 12amps it has a 10 amp fuse when you keep blowing the fuse and put a 20amp fuse in there the fuse wont blow the circuts drawing more that 12amps so you wiring starts heating up and melting, and that is much worse when you loom catches fire..

Same thing might happen with the bulb theory all its doing is removing the fuse and replacing with a bulb, if its the wiring's not up to the task it will burn, with the bulb adding more load and helping it burn

[Snaps]

Cheers, I've checked the bulbs, but they look fine, maybe I'll just have to fork out some money to try some new ones.

[johndoe1025]

generally check anything recently added or aftermarket on the car, usually whatever is related to the fuse thats blowing (eg cluster and windows-accessories fuse) to see if there is a fault there, use whats been previously said by putting a 12v bulb in place of the fuse, it takes the load off the circiut instead of your wires while your finding the fault. any aftermarket guages or anything in the car? alarm? towbar even? fog lights? or has something been removed and someone left the wires exposed. i know someone did that to my car, took out fog lights, left the wires exposed and shorted the fuse, had 2 take quite a bit of the front a apart to trace back the wires hahathey were hidden

[themaleman]

thers nothing new on the car, except its turbo now. ill check the sterio wires tomorow, but im sure ive taped the ends of the exposed wires

[themaleman]

taped up radio wires. so far no more fuses blowing. mint!!

[MAGN1T]

car has no radio. i havnt had the lights on yet.


cheers

any other thoughts?

[themaleman]

yes no radio, semi exposed live wires

[johndoe1025]

so they were possibly arcing?

[themaleman]

must have been, the radio fuse was blowen 2

[johndoe1025]

ahh ture cool, hope it sorts your problems then

[themaleman]

hahha me 2! thanks 4 the help people