Fuses keeps on blowing.. NOoooooooooo!!

[Kienai]

Last night all the gauge cluster went out, today when I went to replace the fuse, I found out that all the fuses where fine, except the taillight one.. So I replaced that, tried turning on the lights to see if it worked, right as when I turned it on, the fuse blew.. So I didn't that about 123740239579014174 f-ing times.. Checked all the fuses, they were fine.. Just that ONE fuse keeps on blowing.. My friends are telling me maybe one of the wires are pinched... WHERE???? What else could it be.. I am no good at wiring stuff.. Help!!!!!...... What's going on with my car?

[Hijacker]

there's a short in the system. did you recently put in a head unit or mess with your speakers?

[bcar240]

mine did this too when I was replacing the odo. I noticed that there was some electrical tape from the factory on the back of my cluster that looked like it covered some bare copper points. Not sure why this was, but my tape was really crusty so I decided to replace it.

[Kienai]

tenkawa_akito- No, I didn't mess with anything at all. I hit a bump on the high way and it went out.. Donno.. All the wires that needs to be connected seems to be intact.. So I'm not sure what's going on.

bcar240- Hmm... Did you have to take your gauge cluster out? The part I don't get is why is the gauge and the tail lights are out, but with only the tail light fuse blow.

[Ubernoober]

If your car is really low, one of the primary paths for the wires runs along the top of the driver front fender well. If you are low enough, you could scrape that wiring with your tire on a nasty bump and shred it. It is supposed to be held tight, but with age, some of the plastic clamps may have broken, allowing the wire to hang down also.

[Kienai]

Awesome.. I will check that out, cuz that would make sense... My car is low enough where you won't see any wheel well space but my suspension is really hard, maybe that's the reason.. How do I get to the wiring though? Is it just above the inner fender?

[Ubernoober]

Should be. My inner fender is fine, and it would normally protect the wiring, but sometimes strange things happen. I will have to look again to make sure the wiring is there. I have owned more than a few cars and am pretty sure it was the 240 that had the wires there. If I am wrong, no harm done... I guess.

[bcar240]

ya, that is probably more likely. What I was refering too with the cluster would probably only happen if you were messing around with it, and you would have to take it out to check. Although I guess the tape could fall off if you hit a bump, but not very likely. And that doesn't explain the taillights. So I would check that other stuff first.

[brooklyn240]

the best way to start with shorting problems like these if you haven't done this already is to get yourself a multimeter and check the resistance between the two leads that are going into the tail light. if the resistance is around zero you have a short. from there you need to trace that line back and examine potential trouble areas such as wires running around door or hatch hinges.

[Kienai]

I also smell rubber burning from the driver side, I thought that was just my wheel occasionally rubbing against the wheel well, but everytime I check it out afterwards, the wheel well seems to be fine. Could the smell be from the wiring?