Fuses Popping

[JiP]

Hey, my KE30 is beginning to give me the shits. A couple weeks ago I lost my Fuel Guage, Temp Guage, Demister & reverse lights. Turned out that it was my "Demister" fuse. Then Monday Arvo the fuse broke again, I replaced it when I got home. Then when I started the car in the morning it wasn't working, so I replaced while driving to work. Then it broke less than 100m down the road.

 

I haven't changed it again, but would like to know if anyone could shed a light on what they think the issue may be??

 

thanks,

Jon.

[Trev]

Is it blowing all the time or just when you have the demister on?

[RainWarriorDregs]

do you have any stray power cables inside your dash that could be shorting on the chassis or some thing? this was happening to my ke70 and i found out there was a random cable just hanging there, shorting every 50 m!

[JiP]

Demister not in use when it happens. The reverse isn't either. The only thing thats in use is the fuel/temp guage.

 

As for the shorting cable, I'm not sure but doubt it.

[sammo[RL]]

Its gotta be a short somewhere on the demister/ reverse side of things, because if the feuel or temp shorted, they would read full hot or full Full.

 

Check wires to/from fuse box.

 

From memory its a 15 amper?

[Medicine_Man]

If you get stuck I will show you how to fix it..

 

Will be a short to frame somewhere in the vehicle..

[JiP]

I changed the fuse yesterday and it works. WOOT!!!!!

[JiP]

*sigh* Well it was short lived. Lasted 2 days then last night as a slapped her into reverse it popped. And right when you actually need to reverse lights to see where your backing up!

[JiP]

Okay, So its stating to annoy me now. It broke again when I was backing into the drive after work. Its the exact same spot as last time. I find it odd. Thinking that it has something to do with the reverse wiring, I went to do some investigation. I checked the easy shit first and that's under the bonnet where the reverse wire goes to the gearbox.

 

I found this...

Going by what was said earlier, its a wire touching metal??

Well the yellow circle is both wires leading down to the box and both have burnt through the rubber coating. The orange circle shows where it was touching metal. (Where it was clipped)

 

Now I could replace this and I will, but I need to ask some Q's. If both wires are stripped, shouldn't my reverse lights be on all the time??

 

And why have I been able to reverse several times today without it blowing??

 

This brings me to... could it be that the problem lies elsewhere??

[Medicine_Man]

Fix it first and see if it keeps blowing.

 

Or even better, replace the fuse, stick it in reverse and wriggle the shit out of the wires to see if the fuse pops again.

 

current will take the path of least resistance, lights may be very dull with a short as the current is going straight though frame back to the battery.. (would be very hard to see with lenses on)..

[ke30Rolla myles]

it is shorting out some were

look for wires that r touching the car frame or another wire all i can say

[JiP]

Read post number 9 Miles, thats where it was touching the frame.

[Medicine_Man]

you should be able to feel the wires get hot if there is a short too, if its shorting slowly that is..

[orangeLJ]

Id say that is your problem.

 

You might find it had enough clearance not to touch all the time, or to only slightly touch (thus not blowing the fuse) but when it makes full contact...

 

bang.

 

fuse dies.

 

 

Replace the wires, even if they aren't the cause of your problems (ie the fuse still blows) it is still better to have things nice and tidy/safe.

[JiP]

Okay, so I've replaced the wire. I was trying to get the wire out of my 1980 KE55 but since every Toyota gearbox has different wiring I couldn't. So I had to get this one from my KE36.

I had to cut off and modify the ends. I also wrapped it up in electrical tape in hope that the wires don't get damaged by anything around it.

 

I couldn't fit this to the car yesterday as it was getting too dark to see, so I did it today. (Burnt my hand against the hot engine.) I did remove the wire all together and replaced the fuse for work today and it didn't blow.

 

So now I've replaced it and briefly tested it. It looks good but only time will tell.

 

thanks for everyones help.

 

J.