Radio blowing fuse

[martyb]

I had an aftermarket head unit installed about 2 years ago. Worked perfectly until about a week ago. Was driving with the tunes cranked for about 45 minutes and the stereo died, blown 7.5a fuse. Replaced the fuse, worked great until today, about an hour into my drive and the fuse blew again. Replaced it with a 10a and it blows immediately upon turning the ignition.

I pulled the unit out, wiring looked good with nothing shorting out.

Ideas??

 

[martyb]

I did have an issue last November where I pulled my car out of the garage, let it sit for 4 hours, then no start, no fuel pump noise, nothing. It ended up being a 10a fuse on circuit F12 that blew. Replaced the fuse and no problems since. Just wondering if the ignition switch could be the cause of both of these issues(radio and the 10a fuse issue from last fall?) I hate diagnosing electrical issues, causes me to drink too much!

 

[martyb]

No electrical gurus out there??

 

[dave6666]

Are the radio circuit and fuse F12 the same circuit? What year is the car?

 

[martyb]

Are the radio circuit and fuse F12 the same circuit? What year is the car?

Sorry Dave, 2001 GTS. They are not the same circuit.

 

[V10SpeedLuvr]

What about the cigarette lighter? Same circuit? Have anything plugged into it? Mine has blown the cig lighter fuse before when plugging in a cell phone charger. I can't remember if it killed the radio or not though.

 

[dave6666]

I'll need to confirm in my '01 factory manual but in my Mitchell CD fuse F12 to the ignition switch is 30A not 10A as you said it was.

 

[dave6666]

Fuse F12 goes to your RUN circuit. No wonder the car wouldn't start.

 

[dave6666]

The 7.5A radio fuse is a completely separate circuit of the ignition switch. I think your problems may be unrelated. One, a 10A fuse where it looks like it should be a 30A fuse in F12, and your radio is maybe going bad.

 

[martyb]

Dave,

Fuse 10 is the 10a in the F12 circuit that blew last year. My manual shows it as a 10a. I noticed my Roe fan kit doesn't seem to be working also, so I pulled the fan relays. Contacts look good, but the heavy braided wire in the high/low relay looks to have been very hot(discolored). Going to try to find some relays locally(auto parts store didn't have any) and replace. As for the head unit, its not that old. I may take it back and see if they can test it.

 

[martyb]

figured it out. Pulled the head unit out, and found two wires that were smashed together as a result of the support bracket for the factory head unit. Fixed the wires, routed them the best I could, and stereo is cranking once again. Its tough to cram all the wiring behind the unit and then secure it back in the dash without feeling a bit of resistance from the wiriing.

Also, I picked up two new rad fan relays, disconnected my Roe fan kit, hope that is the last of my issues with the F12 circuit. Not sure if that is what was causing the fuse to blow, but the fan is on that circuit, as is the skip shift, etc.

thanks all, time for a beer.

 

[dave6666]

You likely have the Roe fan kit wiring meltdown. I did a thread on it at VA.

 

[martyb]

No more Roe fan kit. I did look at the connection into the factory harness and it was a soldered connection which looked good. I don't track the car, didn't feel I needed the Roe kit.

 

[dave6666]

The Roe fan kit has nothing to do with tracking the car. It has to do with heat soak which comes from driving the car. Date night, grocery run, or Sat-Sun session, they will all get the engine hot.

 

[martyb]

Thanks Dave. I am sure the factory fan set up will do me just fine. If not, I can hook the Roe kit up in a heartbeat.