7.5A ignition fuse keeps blowing

[Travis QX4]

Wife dropped me off with our Boy Scout Troop to go to summer camp, and drove my QX4 back home. When she went to start it later to move cars around in the driveway, it wouldn’t start. Did some online troubleshooting and proceeded to order both a new starter and pnp relay. When I got home I noticed heavy corrosion on positive battery terminal so decided to go get a new battery just to be sure (battery 4 years old). Replaced battery and pnp relay and still wouldn’t start so I started checking fuses, and found that the 7.5A ignition fused was blown. Replaced the fuse but it blows every time I turn the key, and now my power windows are no longer working despite the fact that all those fuses are fine.

Any ideas?

[VStar650CL]

Can you be a little more specific? The layouts for both of your fuseboxes are in the foldout on pages 3~4. Without knowing the fuse number that's blowing, it's hard to help you out.
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual ... oldout.pdf

[Travis QX4]

Can you be a little more specific? The layouts for both of your fuseboxes are in the foldout on pages 3~4. Without knowing the fuse number that's blowing, it's hard to help you out.
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual ... oldout.pdf

Interior fuse block, fuse #11

[VStar650CL]

That fuse feeds the Shift Lock solenoid in the shifter, it's possible (but not common) that a melted "dump diode" on the solenoid coil is causing the short. Disconnect the shifter to rule that out. It also provides ignition signal for the HVAC control head, radio/navi, and the seat controller. The seats and windows get power through the same circuit breaker under the lefthand dash, so I'd say your most likely culprit is something under the driver's seat, either a chafed wire or a burnt seat controller.

[Travis QX4]

That fuse feeds the Shift Lock solenoid in the shifter, it's possible (but not common) that a melted "dump diode" on the solenoid coil is causing the short. Disconnect the shifter to rule that out. It also provides ignition signal for the HVAC control head, radio/navi, and the seat controller. The seats and windows get power through the same circuit breaker under the lefthand dash, so I'd say your most likely culprit is something under the driver's seat, either a chafed wire or a burnt seat controller.

Chafed wire under driver seat sounds like a possibility since my wife had to move the seat, but I know the seat is still working since if bumped the controls a couple of times while moving in and out under the dashboard.

How do I disconnect the shifter?

[VStar650CL]

Pop the lid on the center console. IIRC the shifter is connected with a subharness coming in from the righthand Body Harness, so if it's hardwired at the shift mechanism I think you can find the connector to the Body Harness behind the passenger kick panel.

[Travis QX4]

Pop the lid on the center console. IIRC the shifter is connected with a subharness coming in from the righthand Body Harness, so if it's hardwired at the shift mechanism I think you can find the connector to the Body Harness behind the passenger kick panel.

I’ll try looking for that as well. One thing I did notice today is that the 80 amp fusible link appears to have some sort of oxidation or corrosion on it; found info that a bad fusible link could also cause these kinds of random electrical issues as well. New one will be arriving on Tuesday unless my local dealer has one in stock that I can pick up tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the info; hopefully it will help me not have to take it to a shop.

[VStar650CL]

Crummy links can definitely cause issues, but they're usually easy to diagnose with voltage drop. If the circuits supplied by the link show a substantially lower voltage than the battery when operating, there's a resistance issue. With wire-type links you can simply check Vdrop across the link. With plug-in types it's simplest just to replace the suspect link, if the voltage downstream doesn't come up to normal then you're looking at a different culprit.

[Travis QX4]

Crummy links can definitely cause issues, but they're usually easy to diagnose with voltage drop. If the circuits supplied by the link show a substantially lower voltage than the battery when operating, there's a resistance issue. With wire-type links you can simply check Vdrop across the link. With plug-in types it's simplest just to replace the suspect link, if the voltage downstream doesn't come up to normal then you're looking at a different culprit.

Interesting development. Put original N-P relay back in and the fuse did not blow. Could it be that I got a bad relay, or could it be that the new relay is exposing a separate issue?

[VStar650CL]

Sounds like maybe it's the wrong relay, or you bought one with a shorted coil.