Electrical Gremlins in a GQ

[mitsi challenge]

hey all,

i am having an electrical gremlin that is now giving me the royal shits. i am constantly blowing the park light/dash light fuse in the fusebox in the kickpanel on my 95 GQ patrol. I have managed to find two separate electrical issues that were causing this to start with, but now i cannot find anything at all. i have tried to follow all of the wiring through the car (not an easy job) and am now at a loss to explain why it is blowing. i can leave the car sitting there with the parkers on, and the fuse is fine, and driving it appears fine, until i hit a big bump in the road which then causes the fuse to blow. i have tried a bigger fuse (15A), but that blew as well. currently i am running a 30A fuse as a bandaid fix while i am on night shifts, but dont really want to be doing this for much longer. does anyone know where i should be looking to find the fault, or how to test for the fault?

i am a bit of a noob with auto electrical stuff, so dont have much knowledge on how to track the problem. all help muchly appreciated.

[nastytroll]

behind the centre dash, where radio, hazard light switch, ash tray, clock, cig lighter ect, is a bunch of pink with black stripe wire. Pull this panel out and check there are no sections of these rubbed through (or cut off as ruff radio fitters do) and shorting on big bumps.

Check inside tail light holders for water or caroded bulb holders, same on front park/indicators in grill and bullbar if fitted.

[AFeral]

I had the same problem with mine. As i was up at mt isa at the time I just bodged it. Any auto work there costs an arm and a leg. I mangaged to diagnose the problem as being between the ignition switch and the plug under the passenger seat. Will take it to an auto elect soon. Will be intresting to know what is causing your problem. Will have a look at what nastytroll recommended too.

[hokey]

check for dodgy trailer plug wiring aswell. had that problem in mine for a while. be careful with bigger fuses. don't wanna start a fire

[05stillalive]

just had the same problem. installed new radio. pink wire black stripe as used in old radio shows as an earth point and is used as earth with that shit old thing. but this wire also dims the old radio face when you switch parkers/lights on. this is ok with the old system but new systems dont use this method and as soon as you have radio on and switch the lights on you slowly do the fuse.
disconect the pink black stripe. pu a blank conector on it and find a real earth point
very anoying

[Rhysta]

pink black stripe isnt a earth wire its a accessories wire used as a +ve for dash lights etc

[mgundle]

running a 30a fuse will cause you more grief than you want ie melting looms together !!
youll find your short because thats where the melting started from the only problem is it will travel halfway across the car back to the fuse box.
my advice is eliminate newly installed accesories ie radios etc.
ive had the harness that runs along the chassis on the right hand side rub through after lpg gas conversions so possibly there. but also check the install of the trailer plug for all you know it could be wires twitched together behind the light.
also ciggertette lighters can fall apart and become loose causing parts to move around where they shouldnt be.
failing that take it to an auto elec.

[in24bn]

have you sussed out you rear brake and blinker light . is there water in this . i hads my fuse blow because of this . so give it a clean and a spray with wd40

[danaz]

I had the same problem on mine. It ended up being the wiring loom for the right hand headlight had rubbed through to the body, under the windscreen washer bottle. Mine would only blow when driving, never when stationary - which sounds very similar to your problem.

So maybe pull the washer bottle out and have a look, it may have been a bit of a design fault?

By the way be careful with the bigger fuse, I put a 20A in mine at the time and the loom ended up melting and the headlights couldn't be turned off

[njw89]

Getting the same problem with my 89 GQ except mine blows when i try to move the electric aerial. Only started happening when the new stereo was installed. Does anyone know of a decent auto electrician in adelaide who knows their stuff(unlike the last one I went to. Or if someone wants to have a look themselves and might be able to fix the problems(yep, there more then just that). Let me know the soloution to the problem when found.
Cheers Nathan

[skip-unstuck]

Getting the same problem with my 89 GQ except mine blows when i try to move the electric aerial. Only started happening when the new stereo was installed. Does anyone know of a decent auto electrician in adelaide who knows their stuff(unlike the last one I went to. Or if someone wants to have a look themselves and might be able to fix the problems(yep, there more then just that). Let me know the soloution to the problem when found.
Cheers Nathan

Check the switch for the aerial, Mine fell apart inside the switch and shorted out and blew fuses etc.