No tail lights or the such - wiring problem

Suby Roo · Post by **Suby Roo** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:49 pm

is there any easy way to check the wiring in my car without pulling it apart? cause a couple of days ago my fuse blew that runs the dash lights, tail lights and number plate lights and every time i replace it, the fuse blows straight away when i turn the park lights on. when i use the switch on the top of the steering column, smoke comes out from all the air vents in the dash.

ive checked the areas of the wiring that is easy to get to and checked the globes and all seems ok??

any ideas?

cheers, Jarrod.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:47 pm

Pull off the cover around the steering wheel. Look for black or melted wires.
Put a new fuse in, (try one of less value to protect cables better) and look for where the smoke comes from.

Only test for short periods of time, as soon as u see smoke, switch it off.

OR...

Go see an Auto Electrician before you do more damage

Its up to you, depends on your electrical confidence

Suby Roo · Post by **Suby Roo** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:23 pm

ive blown about 10 fuses looking for the problem and ive had the dash all pulled out and cant see it so i think the auto electrician can fix it for me.

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:42 pm

Check around the switch in the steering column for a pinched wire or anwhere you have recently been in. If you are getting smoke out of the vents then check to see no wire has been pinched near a vent. Wiring for lights goes along the drivers side fo the car.

Point · Post by **Point** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:29 pm

haven't installed a stereo recently have you?

Suby Roo · Post by **Suby Roo** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 3:22 pm

Yeah i have recently installed a stereo. Have an idea do you point?

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 4:51 pm

There will be a wire behind the radio that comes on with the parker lights.
Maybe you have connected it wrong, or it is simply shorted out somewhere in there.

Point · Post by **Point** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:36 pm

yeah...what he said...

sometimes it can be easy to confuse the ground wire and the illumination wire when testing with a multimeter. You should always ground a new headunit directly to chassis.

ChPLAT · Post by **ChPLAT** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:42 pm

and make sure any unused wires are wrapped up securely it may just be hanging there and grounding with the lights coming on.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:59 am

If you were testing with a multimeter and your lights were off. You would have read a low ohms reading on the light wire to ground through the globes.

You will have to test with the park switch on (on top of steering colum) or with the headlights on and the ignition on.

Black will be ground
There are 3 positive wires, Red, yellow and blue and will be either Batt, Acc or Light. But i cant tell you what is what as ive owned 2 l series and they were different. Hell, the colours codes at the clock are different to the ones at the radio.

Use your multimeter and double check every test

Suby Roo · Post by **Suby Roo** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:02 pm

Thanks everyone for the help. Have pulled everything apart and taped up bare wired and still hasnt fixed the problem. Took it to an auto electrician and they cant find the problem either. Getting it checked throughly again the end of the week.