Tail light fuse blowing

[smithtaka4n1]

The fuse for my taillights blew so I replaced it. As soon as I turn on the lights "pop" there goes the fuse again. How do I find a solution to this problem. I also have no dash lights, so I am assuming they are on the same fuse. I took out the whole speedo tach unit (man I just drew a blank to what it is called) and unplugged the wires from there still same problem. Any helpful advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks,Aaron

[Seth]

i messed mine up when i put neons underneath. driled right threw the harness. it runs under the driver seat next to the door. so i had to pull the carpet up and fix all the mangled wires from the drill bit. hahaha.


i dont know about your car. but thats what i did in mine. =/

[jglutz]

I'm not sure about the dash and tail on the same fuse....typically they are not for safety reasons.

Best start....remove all of the rear tail bulbls....including the license plate. Repalce the fuse...if the fuse still blows...the problem is between the fuse block and the sockets.

Recently when I sent mine in for inspection I checked all the lamps and found one of the plate lamps out. When I opened it up to change the lamp, i found the assembly melted to almost nothing. On my list next time to the bone yard.

[Axlander9289]

If you have access to a wiring diagram, it would be a great help. You'd know what wires go to what, and then you could bust out the old DVOM and check for shorts. You definitely have a short, the question is where.

[smithtaka4n1]

Alright I unplugged the tail lights via the plug inside the access panel in the hatch.(looks like it goes to all lights in rear) Replaced the fuse turned on the lights and pop there she blows. So my questin is how do you find a short using a voolt meter? And does anyone have a wiring diagram they can scan? I just moved and dont know where my haynes is. Thanks guys.

[smithtaka4n1]

Anyone? This car needs to get fixed soon.Please help!

[zrice88]

After I put in my aftermarket CD player the fuse kept popping and I found that the wire for illuminating the back-lighting on the factory radio had not been taped up and kept shorting to ground, blowing the tail light fuse. Hope this helps you.

[smithtaka4n1]

I think that was the wire that was shorting in mine also. Took the interior out of the car followed wires to the back, no problems. So I took the dash out and after a couple hours of swearing finally found the problem.

[peytonel]

Same problem here....

Speak of the devil, I just purchased a '91 Festiva off of ebay last Saturday with 74k original miles (I used to own an '88 back in the day). I installed an Alpine CD player yesterday (local sound shop didn't have any harnesses so I cut the original Ford harnesses off to get it wired up). Here I am with the same exact problem. I'll go out to the car and see if I find the pesky wire.

[smithtaka4n1]

Maybe not the smartest way but when mine went I put in a 30 amp fuse and watched for the smoke. Led right to the problem.