running taillights @ nite not working

[jgauspohl]

yeah I'm an owner of a s14.5 ...bought the wrecked 96' for 1500 bucks it was an se w/ 80k on the ka... spent 900 on the body work to fix...150 on the rad/ support (s15) 820 on the silver s15's 420 on the cf hood and 580 on the wide cf vented fenders...haven't picked out a cf front I like really yet...anyway to get to the point ...you know the fuseblock under the left dash....the 4th down fuse in the right hand column which is a 10 blows every time I turn the car on which controls the display lighting up @ nite and the running taillights @ nite...it didn't used to do this in fact a 10 would last about 30 minutes usually ...then it would blow...so I threw in a 15 which would last about an hour and a half...then I went to a 20 which would last about 2 and a half hours...you know stepping it up hoping one would hold . Anyway it doesn't hold any of them now and I still can't figure it out ... I know it's probably a short or maybe a bad ground ..but I don't know where and it could be the switch someone told me too...but I don't understand one part of a switch being bad. Anyway if someone could help me that would be awesome...otherwise I'm going to have to pay the nissan people 75 an hour to d!ck around for 3 hours and then finally get serious. :help

[s13sr20chris]

yeah, it could be a lot of places. i have seen one guy drill through the floor of the car installing underbody neons. he blew them like crazy. your going to need a fsm and some time. trace every part of the circuit and start unplugging stuff. if your lucky it may be a component. otherwise you have a harness fault to track down.

[NISTECH]

Lmao ...Chris do you d!ck around with cars for 3 hrs before you get serious???? I dont, I usually get it serious right when Istart on the car and have it figured out with in 10 mins...................

then I d!ck around for the next 2 hrs and 50 mins before I call the customer and tell them whats wrong.

Guy your car had substantial front end damage from what you described plus you put all kinds of aftermarket parts on it. perhaps you should start looking around where the car was hit for a short, Your failure shouldnt be that hard to find now as the wire will likely be mush from you allowing a higher amperage then the circuit is deigned for run through it [the fuse ladder you went up] you could of set your electrical on fire when you did that. look in those areas involved in the accedent for melted wires. and definitly get your self a service manual so you can test the circuits.

[s13sr20chris]

idea. when you find the short dont just cut it out and repair it. replaced the whole wire. you may have let the smoke out with all the extra amps. in fact, isolate that wire, cut it at both ends, tape it, run a brand new wire, whala.

(i have never ever done the above to a car under warranty)ok thats a lie, i have.

[jgauspohl]

Ok so the other nite I'm checking under the hood cuz maybe I'm thinking the relay or maybe even another fuse is bad...then I was thinking I wonder if the fog's and sidemarkers have anything to do with the headlights which in turn would alter the running taillights and display. Well I replaced the FR FOG 15 amp fuse ..switched out the FR FOG relay with one I knew was good off another whole s14 harness...that I didn't need to do but just for making sure....and I stuck the 10 amp fuse in the slot under the dash...it blew again... I was like Sh*t. Then I remember about how when I bought the car back in June of last year the salvage guy had cut the fog lights off and gave them to me instead of leaving them on the trashed bumper...I went to this point to check for raw wires....none...so I started remembering...about what I've done to the car since I bought it last year...and I remembered I took off the fenders...and the sidemarkers...cuz I wouldn't need them...and so I found the short or where raw wires were grounding out ...the right sidemarker part of the harness...so yeah I'm a dumbass...and now I know always to make sure stuff is taped and not done halfass when I'm wiring and messing with the harness. You don't understand though the guy who had this car ****** rigged an alarm system from taiwan under the dash and all sorts of **** ...plus who wrecks a 240 while driving drunk and listening to techno...oh yeah I got a free case of budweiser...when I bought the car from the salvage guy and that techno cd....compliments of the previous owner.