This is what I get for playing with wiring like a moron..

[TSiGoesPsSsSst]

So I have been driving my car forever pretty much with my boostgauge not wired up for the light.

The other day I decided to try to hook up the power source so it would light up (Bad decision on my part)

I pulled out the foglight switch figuring I would use my power from that source since I dont have foglamps anymore.

I cut the two wires that light up the foglamp switch and tap my boost gauge wires into it. All is good, and the gauge is lighting up fine.

Then like a complete moron, I decide to try to hook up my oil pressure gauge since I have my gauge pod out, I might as well, right?
I take one of the red power wires running from the autometer oil pressure gauge and put it to the same power wire I had my boose gauge light source hooked up to just to see what would happen. Almost instantaniously smoke starts coming from where the foglight switch is (inside the dash) and I panic. Right away, I start to check all my lights because I know I just screwed something up badly. Everything seems to be good.
The next day, I start up my car and as soon as I hit the brake, my gauge cluster goes dead immediately. Not reading RPM's, gas, nothing.
Check my brake lights. Brake lights not working. I check my fuses. Gauge fuse blown and stoplight fuse blown.
I replace the fuses, hit the brake again, and once again both fuses blow.

At this point I feel like punching myself in the face, and wishing I just left everything alone.

I then unplug the boost gauge light source and hope that helps. Nope, still blowing the same two fuses whenever I hit the brake pedal.

I know I'm a complete moron. And thats what I get for screwing with something I know nothing about.

Can anybody help me out? I'm guessing I burnt up a wire.

 

[grnchevyz]

1- Cut the wiring you added to the fog light switch.
2- Reconnect the wire as it was before.
3- Pop the steering column cover
4- Tap the power wire from your gauges to the ACC wire on the ignition switch (blue/black)

You just either shorted out the circuit or overloaded it that's all. Putting the wire back to original and replacing the fuses will solve your problem.

What I do is attach both the Orange and Red wires (usually those colors) those are the Accessory and 12V wires for the gauges and tap them to the ACC line on the ignition switch.

Never had a problem and I run 5 gauges.

Enjoy!

 

[toybreaker]

Please fuse anything you add to your vehicles electrical system

If you use the vehicles electrical system to tap your power for add on goodies, you may be tapping a powersource that is fused at a much higher current capacity than the circuit you're adding requires. Fuses are generally sized to protect the wiring, not the components hooked to them. The engineers know that if something goes awry in a component of the system, the worst case scenerio is that the fuse protecting the power for that system will pop, before the current carrying capacity of the wire is exceeded.

Now, the trouble starts when you add something that takes almost no power to run, (like a gauge or two.) The wires for the gauges will be relatively small, and yet they're hooked into a circuit fused for a current rating much higher than they can stand.

If you have not added an additional fuse in the power wire you run to the gauge, smoke is just around the corner.


What's done is done, and if it makes you feel any better, I've done it too....

It's how I know what not to do now

Anyway, I would suggest you return the wiring back to how it was. Look at the fog switch, and the harness that leads to it for trauma. If it's fubar, you may need a new switch and some harness. You can just isolate the wires if you don't want to fix it, as you weren't using it anyway, but you must be sure that there's no collateral trauma. If the harness is in any way burnt, you're going to have to peel it apart and make sure you don't have any wires touching where the insulation was melted away.

When it's fixed and you're ready to rewire your gauges again, please use a little planning and foresight. Using the ignition switch harness for power works. (as was already suggested) Make a secure connection, and make sure you have a correctly sized fuse installed in the new wire you're running, as the accessory circuit from the key is fused at a high enough rating to totally fragerfy your gauge/wire.

If you need additional help, please feel free to pm me,

John

 

[grnchevyz]

Just a tid bit of information to add to toybreaker's post...

100% agreed and I apologize for forgetting to include it in my post, fuse all power connections.

now for the info..

The ignition Accessory wire is rated to hold a MAXIMUM of 41amps of draw. Now to be efficient and safe, the maximum you should see, unless there's a short somewhere along the line, is 14.35amps in that circuit at that location at any given point in time. Now, most gauge wires are 18ga which means they can handle a MAXIMUM of 16amps. Taking that in consideration, the ignition switch accessory wire is a great connection point for this.

Now also bear in mind the following:

Although minuscule as it may be, the gauges will ADD to the current draw and thus increase the load on the accessory wire (which can handle it of course) so be careful to not add too many devices on this wire. Here's what happens...

For the sake of this agrument these numbers are fictitious.

Lets say the accessory wire has 12amps of draw on it. You add 4 gauges that draw 1amp (very unrealistic but you'll get where I'm going with this). This now means that this wire has 16amps of draw. The 5th gauge that you add puts you at 17amps, 1amp more than the 18ga gauge wire can handle...melting can start and damage result. Now if you had a 15amp fuse in-line, the fuse goes saving your gauge and the fire that COULD result.

If you plan on adding lots of accessories, my suggestion is run a wire straight from the battery 12v and put a relay in between it and a distribution block that will power your accessories. This will eliminate any other loads the car may have and provide an unloaded wire for your accessories that will be ON only when the relay kicks in once you put the key to ACC or the car runs.

Long, but hope this clarifies it even more for you!

Cheers!

 

[TSiGoesPsSsSst]

1- Cut the wiring you added to the fog light switch.
2- Reconnect the wire as it was before.
3- Pop the steering column cover
4- Tap the power wire from your gauges to the ACC wire on the ignition switch (blue/black)

You just either shorted out the circuit or overloaded it that's all. Putting the wire back to original and replacing the fuses will solve your problem.

What I do is attach both the Orange and Red wires (usually those colors) those are the Accessory and 12V wires for the gauges and tap them to the ACC line on the ignition switch.

Never had a problem and I run 5 gauges.

Enjoy!

I tried doing all those 4 things you mentioned. Car is still blowing the stop light fuse everytime I hit the brake. Argh I'm so mad at myself right now.

 

[JLangevin]

Its a long shot, but believe it or not, when you hooked to your fogs, you basically tapped into the entire vehicle lighting system.

The info you need is right there in front of you... when you hit the brake, the fuse pops... well, then its narrowed down to the brake switch or the bulbs themselves. Fortunately for you, its an easy system to access.... I would start with your bulbs.. I had a third brake light bulb in my camaro burn out, but caused the fuse to pop because of the way it died...

Check the bulbs, pull one out at a time and see what happens. I used to do auto electical repair and its one of the most tedious jobs you can possible do. Just stick with it.

There is another possiblity... when you saw smoke, it came from the insulation... The smoke comes from burning plastic and it may have exposed the wire somewhere in the dash and could be grounding against metal somewhere, and only powered when the brake switch is depressed.

Get to tracing.

 

[TSiGoesPsSsSst]

Solved the problem well atleast most of it. Turns out the wire from the third brake light was bare and grounding out on the metal on the trunk. Now my brake lights not only light up but are brighter that I've ever seen them and its not popping fuses anymore. Another problem has arised though and its pretty damn wierd.
With the car off if I hit the brakes the brake lights DO light up but the beeping comes on ( you know the beep, the ignition makes if you leave the key in the ignition )

On top of that the main gauge cluster gets powered when I hit the brakes.


Now when the car is started up the brake lights stay on. Kinda crazy.

My father in law was helping me with this yesterday and honestly if it wasnt for his help I wouldve never guessed it was the third brake light wire shorting out on the trunk that was causing those fuses to pop on me.
He was playing around with the brake light switch harness and I remember him saying that the way the prongs are on the harness it can go in both ways so I'm hoping maybe he plugged that harness in backwards or something and hoping thats why its doing this crazy crap now. Anyone at all ever experience a problem like this? I appreciate everyones help so much thus far. Thanks for caring guys, and trying to help me out here!

 

[dieseltech]

It sounds like you may have a bad ground. Check and clean all your grounds. Under the hood and such. It's common when a component has a bad ground it will ground through something else.