[Bucketload]

[Polar_Bear]

have you got an aftermarket stereo fitted?

mine used to blow the parker/tail light fuse, until i disconnected the earth from the stereo

[Bucketload]

Think it's original (tape deck) and it worked intermitently before the 25A blew, not now. No clock either.

[alexvitara]

when i installed my stereo i kept blowing the tail/interior light fuse. the stock radio had 3 wires to it, power, acc and one that made it light up when the headlights are on. it must earth through the body of the radio. the lights wire is earthed when headlights are off so it appeared to be an earth.

the lights in the rear bumper are fog lights on mine. theres a switch/button for them to the right of the steering wheel next to the rear demister. what model vit have you got because some may be different.
mines a 93 swb

[fordem]

Forget about "bad earths, etc." - the fact that you're constantly blowing fuses means that somewhere there is a short circuit to earth - and putting larger fuses in is a good what to start a fire.

Get yourself a lamp bulb - perhaps a 21w turn signal bulb or similar and solder wire to the base and connect it in place of the fuse that you keep blowing - as long as the short circuit to earth (or rather to chassis) is present the lamp will light at or close to full brightness, and then work your way through the different lights on the circuit until you find the one where the problem is.

[Bucketload]

95 SWB soft top, so no demister.

These are the lights that have been spliced into


Switches?


Stereo

[Joe]

These are fog lights not brake lights



That switch turns on the fog lights



I don't know if that's the original stereo

[want33s]

AUTOELEC 101........ Whats the 101 mean???

[89_tintop]

Check all your brake/tail globes.. Someone has put a single filament globe in (this will bring on your front park light when brakes are applied. Can also cause a fuse to blow as the load is much higher as it is running all your park light and also brake )

[31zook]

my head lights come on when i put my foot on the brake, and when i push the stick into high beam the lights do nothing one way, but if i pull back they dip to low beam & this gives me no tail lights..... perfect aye...... layto, dave and i scrached heads for ages, but it worked out being a fuse, replaced it and everything went back to normal.... what im saying is that it will be something simple, just keep thinking in the simplest way possible.

dissconect one side of the light and check if the fuse blows, then the other, check every fuse, not just the one that controls the lights, pull bulbs out and check that the right light is in there, or just that there isn't so much rust that it's not making contact, test continuity on your earths/wiggle them, or give them a clean off. WD40 the lot, that way everything is making pretty good contact.....

[steak_knife]

That's not the original radio...

replace the blown 25amp fuse after disconnecting the wireless, I'd also be looking into how that fog lamp shit is wired up..

[royce]

youve got 2 light circuits you say dont work but only 1 fuse, which fuse is blowing?

sounds like youve left an earth off or got the single filament thing going like tintop said to make the parkers light up, or wired your number plate bulbs ass about so the tail circuit is now earthing through the bulb holder

[Bucketload]

[Scrawny]

Stop/tail light bulbs are the double filament ones. They have 2 contact points on the bum and also offset locating pins.
Don't bother wiring up the rear fog lights, just make sure any wires with power have been taped up

[stocker]

Definitly aftermarket deck. try all of the above first, at a guess if its blowing the parker/tail light circuits fuse, it could be they've wired the dimmer up on the Headdeck to the wrong wire... i've seen it at least a dozen times before...

Hope this helps

[royce]

unless the radio was fitted when it started playing up its not the problem

[Brett]

another question, will stock wiring run 90/110w globes in the head lights of a vitara with out melting them?

or do i have to do a wire upgrade with a realy before i put them in?

[SierraDan]

Brett wrote:

another question, will stock wiring run 90/110w globes in the head lights of a vitara with out melting them?

or do i have to do a wire upgrade with a realy before i put them in?

i run 100/130W globes in my zook no issues. Did the same im my old pajero too. They probably just dont shine to their full potential on the stock wiring.

[royce]

SierraDan wrote:

Brett wrote:

another question, will stock wiring run 90/110w globes in the head lights of a vitara with out melting them?

or do i have to do a wire upgrade with a realy before i put them in?

i run 100/130W globes in my zook no issues. Did the same im my old pajero too. They probably just dont shine to their full potential on the stock wiring.

the stock wiring cant run 55/60 globes properly, I lose 1.5 volts in my vit and it has the good setup stock, with an upgrade its now 0.4 and a lot brighter

bigger wattage will just melt the dipper switch and be duller cause the voltage drop will be greater

[Bucketload]

[Bucketload]

Right so gave up on trying to work it out myself and took it the pros who pointed out my stupidity. I had figured out that the fog lights lights shouldn't be wired into the brake lights and returned it to stock. What I hadn't figured is that they only work with your headlights on, what the fuck, if it's foggy I need four red lights at the back instead of two?

[alexvitara]

the fog lights should be a fair bit brighter than your tail lights