dbailey

Guys I give up. All of a sudden for no apparent reason my brake light fuse under the hood on my 90 Civic sedan with cruise control is blowing. Pulled the brake light switch out and checked it for continuity and its all good. Don't see anywhere where there is a bare wire causing a short. The little nub that is on the brake pedal that the brake light plunger hits and turns the brake lights off when you release the pedal had broken off and left the lights on until I assume it blew the fuse. When I went looking for the problem that is when I found that little nub in the pedal broken out and laying in the floorboard. Put what was left of it back into the pedal and the lights worked OK for a little while. All of a sudden the the fuse blew again and I thought that little nub had fallen back out. Nope! Still in but the fuse is blowing. Tried to replace the fuse again and it immediately blew. A 20 amp fuse too! I unplugged the connector to the brake light switch and I replaced the fuse again and this time it didn't blow. That sorta tells me that there must be a short somewhere but I don't have the first clue where to start looking. Any suggestions/ideas? I did verify that the switch is good by taking it to the parts store to make sure I was checking the continuity correctly and I was. The new part did the same thing when tested so that told me my switch is good. Any help gents would be GREATLY appreciated.

dbailey

Well I think I found the problem. One of the little electrical thingys inside the connector where you put the bulb was like melted. I took the bulb out and the fuse doesn't blow. Put the bulb in and it blows. The wire that feeds that thingy is kinda melted too so I'll keep looking and see if I can figure out why it melted. Wierd!

TJChad

Don't EVER put in a higher amp fuse then what is called for. Somehow your circuit is shorting to ground, just figure out how/ why

bradennicely

you have a short to ground somewhere

sepheroth

I had the same problem, the inside of my brake light socket it melted and blew the fuse. I beleive that water got in and was causing the problems. The rubber seals on the rear tail lights go bad and can leak water into the housing and into the trunk area. I replace my seals with weather stripping from home depot. Go to your local junkyard and yank off a rear light and then pull the little wireing harness out of it. They will probably sell it to you for like 5-10$.

dbailey

Thanks for the idea. I think a new set of light sockets is like $10+ at the dealer. Come in a full set of all 3 on each side. I thought I had fixed it by isolating the melted socket by taking the bulb out and initially it did fix it. Went away for awhile and POW! Blown fuse again. Cut off the socket and taped the end of the wires and put ANOTHER (the 5th fuse) back in it and the lights seem to be working now. Will go back out and check again later. Any further ideas as always welcome. Thanks guys.