Tail Lights/Interior Lights Keep Going out, Help!

[Nitsua98]

I have a 2001 Pathfinder LE. About two days ago in the middle of the night, all the lights on the inside of the car went out. (Everything that lights up the dashboard, center console etc) To my dismay, I also found that the taillights and license plate lights were out. I checked, and the tail light fuse was blown, after replacing it everything came back on. However, shortly after the fuse blew again. I've put two new fuses in since then, (Mainly just so I have something to drive home with) and it blows again each time. There doesn't seem to be any special timing to when the fuse will blow, it just does.

There is a fair amount of custom lighting/audio in the car, however I haven't had any issues up to now, ad those installs were done some time ago. Any ideas?

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Please post a complete list of the modifications you have done to the vehicle.

[Nitsua98]

There's a good amount of LED/Strobe emergency lights all around the vehicle. There's hideaways in all the front/rear lights, as well as lights in the Grille, Windshield and back window. Power for these was drawn off of the various cig. lighters around the car as the voltage LED's draw is so small. These have been in for a long time, and I've never had any problems as a result of them.

About a week or so ago, I installed a new head unit/scanner as well as a set of subs. Again the head unit works fine, I followed all the instructions on installing the harness and what not. Power for the subs was drawn directly off the battery. I've never taken power off of the tails or any interior light lines. Maybe something on the stereo harness messed something up?

[Pwnin O'Brien]

You most likely did not connect the illumination wire for the head unit properly. That wire controls all interior illumination as well as the tail lamp relay (I'm not too sure about the license plate lamps tho). I would check the wiring harnesses, specifically the illumination wire. The wire may be touching some body metal and grounding the wire, thus blowing the fuse for illumination.

[Nitsua98]

I'll be sure to check that out thanks. If it makes any difference, the head unit doesn't dim or turn off. That still functions fine. The display on the climate control also stays lit, however the backlighting on the buttons goes out.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

Yeah, the head unit will stay on and function perfectly fine, but it probably doesn't dim when you turn on your headlamps. On the A/C unit, it will dim the display when you turn the headlamps on, if the unit stays at full brightness (when you turn headlamps on) then that is indicative of a bad illumination wire/fuse.

[vannaksao]

Hey Guys,

New to this site, great info..so far.

I've been having a few problems, interior and brake lights being one of them. My passenger tail light keeps going out (lights fine w/o brake depressed- once brake is pressed...light goes out) and now, my center console lights are out. It's funny though, it almost seemed like there was a "loose" wire. I would smack the side of the center console a couple times, and it would light up. Now, the smack wont even work. It's complete dead. I haven't opened it up yet- I'll reply once I do. Any thoughts?