August 25, 200718 yr Hey all, The park lamp/tail lamp fuse on my 94 Legacy SW keeps blowing. Sometimes it'll go a couple days, sometimes a couple hours, but it always eventually blows. Note it NEVER blows as soon as I put it in, it always takes at least a couple hours of running the car, but often lasts a few days. All the lights are working, all the light sockets and pigtails look good. Any ideas? Diagnosing a dead short is no problem, but I don't even know where to begin with this one...
August 25, 200718 yr Hm....is this fuse 5? For 2000 Legacy it says to check the tailight bulb sockets for any frayed/loose wiring in the bulb socket itself. Also I know my '94 Leg has this funky relay box in the RH (pass) side rear taillight assembly....maybe that thing is going wacky?
August 26, 200718 yr Hey all, The park lamp/tail lamp fuse on my 94 Legacy SW keeps blowing. Sometimes it'll go a couple days, sometimes a couple hours, but it always eventually blows. Note it NEVER blows as soon as I put it in, it always takes at least a couple hours of running the car, but often lasts a few days. All the lights are working, all the light sockets and pigtails look good. Any ideas? Diagnosing a dead short is no problem, but I don't even know where to begin with this one... I'm just pulling things out of my rump here (no schematic at hand) but here are a few thoughts: Do you have a trailer wiring connector spliced in anywhere which could be shorting out? Have you inspected the front side marker lights and such? (All on the same circuit) Nathan
August 26, 200718 yr The park lamp/tail lamp fuse on my 94 Legacy SW keeps blowing.[...]Diagnosing a dead short is no problem, but I don't even know where to begin with this one... Intermittent shorts can be a pain to deal with. Specifically which fuse is blowing (value in amps, box location, fuse number)?
August 26, 200718 yr Hey all, The park lamp/tail lamp fuse on my 94 Legacy SW keeps blowing. Sometimes it'll go a couple days, sometimes a couple hours, but it always eventually blows. Note it NEVER blows as soon as I put it in, it always takes at least a couple hours of running the car, but often lasts a few days. All the lights are working, all the light sockets and pigtails look good. Any ideas? Diagnosing a dead short is no problem, but I don't even know where to begin with this one... this might sound weird, but do you have an aftermarket horn?
August 28, 200718 yr Author The fuse positions aren't numbered (on my cover anyway) but this is the third one from the right on the top row, a 10A fuse that controls the taillights and marker lights. Everything attached to this wiring is stock and unmodified. And as far as I know the horn is original.
August 28, 200718 yr reason i'm asking is because i put a set of FIIAM air horns in my legacy a few years ago and at one point i had the same exact symptoms that you're having and the subaru dealership found that putting the air compressor onto the factory horn wires was blowing a shared fuse. disconnected the aftermarket horns and rewired them with an inline fuse and stronger guage wire and havn't had the problem since.
August 28, 200718 yr reason i'm asking is because i put a set of FIIAM air horns in my legacy a few years ago and at one point i had the same exact symptoms that you're having and the subaru dealership found that putting the air compressor onto the factory horn wires was blowing a shared fuse. disconnected the aftermarket horns and reqwired them with an inline fuse and stronger guage wire and havn't had the problem since. i'm glad i used a relay on mine nipper
August 28, 200718 yr i'm glad i used a relay on mine nipper yeah, mine's got a relay and inline fuse. same with the hellas.
August 29, 200718 yr The fuse positions aren't numbered (on my cover anyway) but this is the third one from the right on the top row, a 10A fuse that controls the taillights and marker lights.[...]I'm assuming that we're talking about the under-dash box, and that "third one from the right" could also be referred to as "fifth one from the left", making it fuse number five (the one that porcupine73 mentioned). I was asking because the diagram I have (for the '93, but it's similar) shows two fuses that are in the same circuit, one preceding the tail/illumination relay and parking light switch (#23 in the main fuse box), and one following (#5 under dash). Anyway, if fuse #5 is the one that's blowing, keep in mind that besides tail/park/marker lamps, the license plate ones are on the same circuit. Flexing of wires going to the tailgate each time it's opened and closed can eventually damage the insulation, possibly resulting in an intermittent short; you might try slightly opening/closing the tailgate with the parking light switch on and see if that causes the fuse to blow.
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