Short Tracing
 

Granted, i haven't checked fuses yet, and thats first on my list at sun up. But i just connected my gauges, and i have absolutely no power going through no wires.

The problem occured when i started my car, my gauges didn't work (one color did, but one didn't) then wires started smoking. i tore the console up and found the main power wire (the one that would normally supply the power to all the "night lights" was smoldering, and broke its own solder connection.


where could a short possibly occur that would cause that? something was clearly drawing some serious power. My radio, gauge needles, idiot lights all still work...


and lastly, where is a good place to patch into the light sensor up in the front of the dash? (the one that controls what turns on at night or not)

Ignore "check the fuses" comments. I'm looking for worst case scenario short outs...

is it posible to just power it off a fuse? and just ground it?

you could splice something off the dash cluster im not sure what wire is which but im sure you could get the diagram

also . idk if u thought about this the dash cluster is powered by that switch that u can roll up and down for off during the day on during the night u could possibly run it off that

Ok, update. I had one blown fuse (parking lamps) but it didn't solve the problem. I have a short (meaning absolute 0 voltage, AND continuity between positive and ground) in the wires that connect both the center cubby light AND the one that lights up the PRND123.

where do those go, and how could i possibly have 0 voltage and ground continuity on the positive... w/o blowing fuses???

The only time I ever had wires actually burn, and really burn is when the wire was to light of a gauge. I dont know why you wouldn't have power, but I would use some heavier wire.

i was using like 18g wire, when i should have been using 24. :lol:

the problem wasn't/isn't a power issue, as in, it wasn't getting enough, the problem is the fact that the two power wires going to my center console for lights (that were my main power supply) are still at a dead short, for unknown reasons.

I really need someone who knows the electrical system to chime in here. Where do those go, other then to the fuse box? is it possible that i shorted out the light sensor up in the front? what controls all of this?? BCM? and is that the box thats under the glove box? or is it all done by the PCM which is above the brake pedal?

I'm not saying i'm not thankful for people trying to help.. but this is an issue that i have no eff'n clue as to what happened, and there is no sensible reason for why its still not working. Someone with some intimate knowledge would greatly help

The first thing you need to do is go here:
http://www.aleromod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19347

And download any schematics that you might need.

those are just the haynes wiring diagrams... which don't really help me, because there are alot more wires than what are included in those.... or if they are all listed, they don't show where they go, speficically....

which diagrams do you need? Which circuits?

well.. after a little looking, the gray and black wire connecting the PRND123 lamp, and the cubby lamp, are dead. those wires are completely shorted (powers and grounds are connected somewhere)

as it stands, i have just completely removed those from the situation, and have rewired accordingly. but thats just a work-around for the problem, not a solution. where do those two wires go, and where could they be shorted??

idk man. u might just have to try and follow them from the cubbylamp back. is it possible that they lead to the left kick pannel? around where the hood release is?

Your positive may actually be a ground cherry. Its hard to trouble shoot this problem with out being there but like in my car all the lights are powered off of either a a gray and black or a white and black or a gray and black/white wire. Any of the black wires even with the stripe are grounded. Any wire with gray or white will be your either a fused 12v constant or a switched 12v constant. So I would go back and check to make sure you don't have you power leads actually hooked up to a ground. They generally run or I should say are fused in the passenger side fuse panel. As far as the transaxle lights it should be a Black (ground) and a Grey (positive), the grey runs into the the fuse block on the passenger side, from there it runs to lamp dimmer module, and from the module you should have either one or two yellow wires and a dark green wire that runs to the dimmer switch. The dimmer switch is fused 10amps at the passenger side fuse panel and turns into brown from there and runs to the auto park lamp relay under the hood fuse block, and from there as white to the BCM.

This is kind of why I am a fan of making a new circuit when wiring accesories cause you eliminate all of the above, and when it is time to trouble shoot you don't have to worry about shorting out the cars electrical system.

...oh yeah this is just from looking at my cars diagrams I don't know the year of yours but if you leave it I will see if it is similar.

thats the thing i don't really understand. (my car is exactly the same as stated above)

the gray transaxle wire is a grounded....somewhere. And its not suppose to be. That used to be 12V switched, when the light switch in the front of the dash tripped (due to low light levels) and now, it just reads as a pure ground. BUT when we checked the INST LPS (fuse on the top right of the passanger fuse panel) that still works fine... so I'm going to run a wire from that, over to where the gray USED to be, so I retain power/function. What could happen where, that would cause that gray wire to switch from power to dead ground?? obviously thats my problem (same applies to the other gray that went to the other lamp for the cubby)

All I can really think of is tearing the dash out and tracing the wire the whole length, but that still doesn't mean i'm gonna find my answer... (which is why i'm bypassing it, and not tracing)

it still pisses me off to no end. Now I KNOW there is a problem in my car that is unresolved..... :mad2: :mad2: I'd really like to find that, so i can fix it, so it won't cause a problem w/ anything else... but i don't know where that could have possibly happened, or what would even cause that.

Give me a sec cherry I got to do an install but we will figure this out.

Ok well one thing you could try is take the fuse out and test each side of the fuse that way you divide the circuit into two and can at least tell which side is shorted. That would at least eliminate looking at a lot of unnecessary stuff. Just looking at the circuit that involves the transaxle indicator light leads me to believe that they could be a splice pack for all the greys that run to the HVAC controls, Hazard switch, Instrument cluster, and compartment light, and that may be where the problem is coming from I see what you are saying where any problem with the gray would affect them all. If that wire got hot enough to break the solder joint then maybe it burned the insulation away on a ground causing a short that way. No matter how much we speculate about it, the only way to figure it out for sure is to get in there and look at the wires for burn damage and see if it is grounding out. If those wires got hot enough it is possible that they melted insulation on a ground wire and made contact. How likely that is I don't know but I saw the massive amount of wires in your dash and figure that it is possible. Any more info you can give on it?

Makes sense that the parking lamps fuse went because thats the power to all the lights, so you had to be drawing over 15amps at one point. I know you got alot of leds but those draw so little curent that I can't see them causing a fuse to blow. Do you have any larger lights on it? Also do you have all the Led's you got connected to the same circuit?

all the leds are in the same circuit, but they definitely don't pull more then 15A. They do 5A at the most. The short was definitely what caused that line to burn up. Its just a matter of finding where that short is.

and i traced all the way back to the base of the dash (before it Ts and goes off to each side) and the wire is solid, no burn marks at all. same with the ground wire that runs with it.

which is just entirely too odd.

UPDATE! woo hoo! something is really fubar'd.


as stated, we bypassed the circuit by making a new one. (fuse tap the INST LPS fuse) and whaa-la! the lights work now.


bbbuuuuttt... the second the lights kick on, while driving, the SVS light turns on too! WTF! :gun: :gun: :mad2: :mad2:

haha patients man i know ull figure it out.. its all a work inprogresss

:gun: must.... killl... carrr.... :gun:

speaking of which... we DO have an indian reservation about 15 minutes away.... if you don't see me on site for a while... i might have had the car "disposed of" and collected the insurance money...

:mad2:

hahahahha