Fuse Blowing for Tail and Dash Lights.

[Devin]

I replaced the 15amp fuse in the cabin that says Tail to get my tail and dash lights back on. This held for about a half hour of night driving and blew again. I put another one in and it instantly blew. I made sure the tail light sockets were in snug but it still blows right away. Do I have to look for a short in the dash? Electronics is definitely not my strong point. Would appreciate and tips! Thanks.

[dlb]

shorts can be real boogey men. check to make sure there is no corrosion in the tail light sockets and clean them out with emery cloth or heavy grit sandpaper. did you recently did anything in the car involving wiring, like stereo installation?

if it's not either of those, it's time to start looking for exposed wires and corroded grounds. tedious work but that's what you get with a 25-yr old car.

[Petros]

Not likely there is a short in the dash, look for damaged wiring in the tail light system (abraded or cut wires) that will be shorting after you clean all the contacts in the socket. Or wrap the fuse with foil, and the it will make finding the short easier, you just watch for sparks!

[takza]

Could be at the top of the hatch where it flexes a lot? There is a writeup of sorts on this.

[Devin]

The contacts at the lights seem to be clean and snuggly attached. I also checked inside the little rubber protector where the wires enter the hatchback and all seems to be ok. This last fuse stayed on for about 5 minutes. Where can I start checking for grounds?

[arbskynxnex]

Before you do all that work, replace the bulbs and check that the contacts in the sockets aren't indented (causes poor connection with the bulbs) and that could cause the shorts and would be the easiest thing to remedy. My sister's 4runner had tail light problems from that. 2nd thing I would check is your instrument cluster if the first step doesn't fix it. I would think this would be the most likely since you are blowing your fuses really fast and that is caused by excessive draw in amps. So essentially you have a resistor of some sort drawing amps beyond what was designed. The instrument cluster would be a good spot for that to happen with it's circuit board, pull that out and check for burn marks or the like. If that isn't it, if you've done any work recently on the car that is near where the wiring runs, check that.

Grounds should only go bad they are rusting, the bolt comes loose or the wire breaks. The wiring diagram for the tail fuse is on pg 882 of the pdf. The ground locations are labeled by letters on the bottom of the page telling you where to look.

Oh and the diagram says the rheostat for the heater control is on that circuit as well, that might be a good thing to check too, where ever it is at.

[dlb]

i had to look up the definition for rheostat but i believe it is the set of 3 coil resistors located just behind the glove box. just pull the glove box and you'll see the plug and wires up and to the left. you can see it in the pics here:

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php? ... =15#p44527