Driving Taillights and Dash Lights Not On

[tomdietrying]

Has anyone experienced this yet? The fuse that controls the driving taillights and the dash lights blows out after about 2 minutes. Has anyone had this problem and can direct me of where to look first?

I took it to a shop and had them look around for half an hour. After $50, They said it was one of those things that is fixable but it could take 30 more minutes or several hours. He didn't seem very confident and suggested another place for me to take my VX to.

I thought I'd ask for advice from the experts.

Thanks.

Tom

[pbkid]

Tom, unfortunately thats a difficult thing to track down. My suggestion would be to take one bulb out of each light at a time and see if it persists. Ie, I would start with the front fender markers (the triangle ones) and see if it still does it, since you can drive around without those in, legally. Then maybe the tail light bulbs ( the main red ones). You obviously would need to be careful because the others behind you wont have warning that your stopping.
Check each bulb that is affected when your parking lights are on (not the headlight position on your steering column).

My guess, is that one of your bulbs is not in good shape any more and its shorting out, causing the fuse to blow out. if the wiring im your vx was bad, it would be very intermitten, or every time you turn them on.
It could also be any of the lights on your dash or radio shorting, but less likely because they are surrounded by plastic rather than metal like your exterior bulbs.

Lemme know what you find.

Ps- I thought you sold the vx? (sorry if you already explained this in the sale thread, I generally dont read much into those). if you changed your mind, thats great news!!

[Y33TREKker]

If it is one of the current bulbs that's causing the problem, maybe you could narrow the problem down to drivers' side or passengers' side by turning the headlight switch to the fully on position then switching your turn signal from side to side (to engage all bulb filaments) and see if the operation of either side blows the fuse instantaneously? Otherwise, disconnecting each individual connector like pb suggested would be a very good way to isolate the problem.

Are we to understand that you've simply been turning your lights on with no further activity (stepping on the brake pedal, etc.) and after a couple of minutes the fuse then blows? Stepping on the brake pedal brings other electronics into play like the high-mount led taillight section with it's own circuit board and suppression circuit.

Does the fuse blow out quicker if you adjust the illumination brightness knob on the dash? That could be an indication of problems with the solid state illumination controller.

You could also just make simple brightness comparisons side to side and front to back of similar type bulbs. A bulb with a filament getting ready to fail will usually burn brighter and brighter until the filament burns apart.

[Triathlete]

Tom,
There is a wire harness that is known to rub and short out that causes fuses to blow. Of hand I can't remember where it is but there is a thread on it here. I believe Lisa (vxcrazy) has had this issue and might know the location. I believe it is behind one of the headlights.

[nfpgasmask]

I say blown fuse too. I had the EXACT same problem in my Trooper. Blown fuse. The tricky part is finding out why the fuse blew, but in my case, it has something to do with bad wiring in the aftermarket head unit install, probably the tie in to the dash illumination.

Bart

[Triathlete]

Here you go as quoted from LDub in another thread...

That happened to Anita, where the harness bundle comes through the bulkhead behind the headlight on the drivers side of the radiator.

Had my peeps mixed up...it was Anita (and a few others)

[tomdietrying]

Thanks! That's a good starting point. I knew we had a lot brains on this forum.

Are we to understand that you've simply been turning your lights on with no further activity (stepping on the brake pedal, etc.) and after a couple of minutes the fuse then blows? Stepping on the brake pedal brings other electronics into play like the high-mount led taillight section with it's own circuit board and suppression circuit. No, it will go off just driving down the freeway.

Does the fuse blow out quicker if you adjust the illumination brightness knob on the dash? That could be an indication of problems with the solid state illumination controller. I haven't tried that yet.

[BigSwede]

If you have a trailer hitch, unhook the trailer light converter and see if the problem is fixed.

[Gussie2000]

Tom go and remove the kick panel cover on the driver's side,once you remove that cover there will be three relays exposed to your eyes.

The relay that is more likely to be causing your fuse to blow up is the one in the middle.

All three relays are the same,if you want you can swap the middle one for either the one on the top or the bottom and drive for a while to see if the fuse blows up again. If not then you know the relay have to be replaced.

[Y33TREKker]

Tom go and remove the kick panel cover on the driver's side,once you remove that cover there will be three relays exposed to your eyes.

The relay that is more likely to be causing your fuse to blow up is the one in the middle.

All three relays are the same,if you want you can swap the middle one for either the one on the top or the bottom and drive for a while to see if the fuse blows up again. If not then you know the relay have to be replaced.

X2

Another good possibility.

[Y33TREKker]

Tom go and remove the kick panel cover on the driver's side,once you remove that cover there will be three relays exposed to your eyes.

The relay that is more likely to be causing your fuse to blow up is the one in the middle.

All three relays are the same,if you want you can swap the middle one for either the one on the top or the bottom and drive for a while to see if the fuse blows up again. If not then you know the relay have to be replaced.

X2

Another good possibility. It could even be that the relay is just loose.

[Y33TREKker]

So why does the "EDIT" button down there on the right say "Edit/Delete" when you roll your mouse over it, but if you click on it there's no way to delete a duplicate message like I've just made?

[nocturnalVX]

I hope you've had this problem fixed, but here's my $.02 if not. I had the same problem last year, tried a few things at The Stoop in Moab to fix it (including yanking the trailer wiring), even brought it to Arches Repair Center in Moab (big mistake), but nothing worked & I had to deal with the issue all the way back home to Chicago. My mechanic found a short at the right front fender light. After fixing that and the damage Arches did to the fuse box, it's been fine ever since. Hope this helps...