15 amp fuse keeps blowing out any thoughts?

[idlafie]

Originally Posted by monkeyslide17

89 s13 coupe well goto the gas station and found out that my brake lights are not working, so pulled out the light tester and come to find out the fuse is blowen. all the other fuse's are fine, just the brake lights. well i replaced the fuse and tapped the brake and the fues pops right in front of me, change the fuse from 15, to 20, to 30 and all pop right in front of me again. roll from the gas pump to an empty spot and what do you know put in another 30 fuse and its works, roll more then half way home and then it blows out on me again. any thoughts?? im confused at this point . I have not done anything to my car that might have crossed any wires, have not changed anything.

MK...
First & foremost, don't ever exceed the rated amperage listed for a fused circuit on ANY electrical circuit!! You'll burn the insulation on the wires & create the potential for an electrical fire. If it says 10 or 15 amps for the circuit, stay with a 10 or 15 amp fuse. If you use a greater amperage fuse such as a 20 or 30 amp fuse on a electrical circuit that only is supposed to use 10 or 15 amps, the current draw will melt the insulation on the wiring exposing the wire & can possibly lead to an electrical fire. The fuse acts as a safety device preventing that possibility. You bypass that safety device & you are only making your problem worse!!

Okay...with that said....your problem sounds like it's with the wires on your brake light circuit only- a circuit which is easy to work on provided you know what you are doing!! It doesn't sound like your driving lights/marker lights are shorting out cuz you can still see your dash lights when you drive at night. When your dash lights & front/side/back marker lights aren't lighting up, it's because somebody did a bad job installing your car radio....they hook up the wrong wires or short out the wires to your illumination circuit....or you have a short in the wires leading to your front/side/back lights. Everybody else seems to think that in their replys to you....

The brake circuit primarily consists of power coming from your fuse box, the electrical switch at the top of your brake pedals and the wires which run to the back of your car to the brakelights - bulbs & sockets. S13's are notorious for having bad connections at either the brake light socket or ground point on the brake light socket. You'll have to open your trunk, remove your tail light from the inside of the housing & inspect the wires leading to your brake lights. Chances are 1) the base of the electrical connector where the bulb twists into has shorted out - pull the bulb out & look into the socket bottom & see if the bottoms are melted. If it has, you'll have to replace the bottom part of the socket with a two wire replacement you can get at your local auto parts store for like $2.99. (Sorry I don't have a picture of what it looks like or the exact name of the part). Or 2). The ground wire connecter on the tail light assembly has shorted out. Either repair will require you to cut out the back connector/connection & replace them. It's an easy repair...you'll just need wire cutters/crimpers, electrical connectors, (butt plugs...don't laugh...that's the name of the electrical connectors!!), and the replacement parts which will cost you less than $5 bucks and a test light/multimeter to make sure the connections work once you repair everything.

It's an easy repair to do....I've done them several times on S13's. It's a damn shame I haven't done a photo-writeup on how to do it.

Anyhow, hope this helps!!!

ID