Constant Blowing of #15 Fuse (Tail lamps)

[Katapl]

I just replaced the fuse, as seen in zerothread/245442

It had been driving fine for about a year with absolutely no problems at all. Then one day, it blew the blue #15 tail lamps fuse. It wasn't illuminating my cluster, nor my tails when I had my headlamps turned on. I replaced that fuse and it worked fine. Then just now, I was driving out and got about 1 minute away from my house, and my cluster went dark. It blew the damn fuse again.

What's going on?

I'm guessing it's some type of bad ground, but I'm not wanting to tear my dash out and all. I have an odd setup I would like to keep intact. Anyone have an idea of the location of a bad ground and such? I'm hoping it's just another bad fuse, hah.. I wish.

[redtop91]

Nope. This seems to be common with the S13's I've encountered. What I surmise it to be is that the 15 fuse slot gets loose easily. Thus the fuse is loose and arcing. I went through quite a few 15's before it finally fused the fuse in that slot and I had to ruin the slot to get it out. I rewired the 15 to its own box which is what you'll probably have to do. STBY.

[Katapl]

Crap. Well, last I replaced that fuse, it was only able to wiggle a bit side-to-side more than the others. It wasn't completely loose or anything like that. I'm no electronics pro, but will just a tiny bit of slack like that cause it to arc? I mean, it seemed to be fit in there very well last time.

[amolao]

I had the exact problem in my ride, took a while to troubleshoot because I thought the problem was the fuse or somewhere else. Make sure the fuse slot is tight and the fuse is not arching. I took some small needle nose pliers, (MAKE SURE TO DISCONNECT THE BATTERY AND GO SLOW) and squeeze the fuse holders carefully. This will help to keep the fuse from moving.

[Katapl]

My father had the idea of just adding small strips of aluminum foil to the end of the fuse. I think I'll try your idea first, Amolao. Thanks much.

[redtop91]

Don't use aluminum foil. I did. It didn't turn out pretty.

[Katapl]

I added some solder onto the end of a fuse and put it in. Now it fits in there pretty snug. I'm hoping that's the last of my fuse problem.

[Katapl]

It blew again. I had my lights on and while I pulled up on my parking break, the interior lights flickered. I thought that was odd, so I pushed it down, pulled it up, and kept repeating. After I did that about 3 times, the fuse blew.

I suppose there's some kind of short, like some wires touching around the parking break. For what it's worth, I have a turbo timer installed with the parking break safety wire soldered together with the timer.