Short circuit blowing tail light fuse

[aum108]

Hi all,

When I turn on the lights, the tail light fuse (engine room) blows instantly. Headlights (low/high beam) work fine, brake lights work fine, tail light does not work. Meter lights do not work, meters themselves do work, warning lights on dash do work.

Mechanic agrees with me - there's a short in chassis wiring, something in the tail light circuit or nearby, needing the attention of a specialised auto electrician. Mechanic replaced the light switch stick, so that's ruled out now as a cause.

I've downloaded the electricial wiring document from this site, but am finding it tough going (my background is software, some electronics, but definitely not auto electrics).

My question is - has anyone seen this fault? Can anyone point me to directions for narrowing down the problem areas? Hopefully to save me a few hours of head scratching, trying to figure out how to get to areas of chassis wiring, figuring out the connectors etc? Or to save me a couple more hundred dollars and risk of overservicing.

All help appreciated

Cheers
David

[Muad_dib77]

Funnily enough - I had this same issue over the weekend..

Make sure your sidelights aren't blown - and check all wiring around the bulbs..

Make sure to replace any blown or mis colored bulbs..

Check for shorts in the centerconsole - remember a couple of "lives" there that run off the light circuit..

[aum108]

Funnily enough - I had this same issue over the weekend..

Did you have exactly the same symptoms?

Where did your short turn out to be?

[Muad_dib77]

One of the terminals had falled off the back of my cigarette lighter and was touchign the chassis..

I choose to believe that was the cause..

but the fact is I had 3 blown bulbs as well - so either of those could have caused it as well I guess.

[aum108]

One of the terminals had falled off the back of my cigarette lighter and was touchign the chassis..

I choose to believe that was the cause..

but the fact is I had 3 blown bulbs as well - so either of those could have caused it as well I guess.

Took the car to an independent mechanic, who found a short in the 3rd party sound system (which was there when I bought the car) - whoever wired it had mad a completely wrong connection and introduced the short.

I told him about your remarks/experiences and this forum, and printed off the electrical wiring manual and the chassis wiring section of the workshop manual. With all this, I believe he found and resolved the problem much more quickly than without that input.

Will make some folks here laugh that a Mitsubishi dealership's service department couldn't find the short, and told me they needed to take the car to another workshop.

Anyway, to you, muaddib, and to all the FTO-Ireland community, I offer my heartfelt thanks. Even though I was impatient, and didn't take the time to learn and do the job myself, you - and one of those rare entities, an honest mechanic - have saved me a lump of cash.

Cheers
David

PS - I'll be striving to learn about FTO servicing and mods from now on.