Dimmer Switches Keep Burning Up

[360glitch]

Hi guys,

Last weekend a buddy of mine and I bought a Talon to fix up for autocross. It was $450, so needless to say, it had some issues. The low beams, did (and still do not) work, the taillights didn't work, the corner lights didn't work, the interior overhead lights didn't work, and the gauge lighting didn't work. I probably left something out, but the only problem we're having now is the low beams still do not work, along with the gauge lighting. The bulbs look great and as the wiring in the engine bay looks fine. The gauge lights still don't work. We installed a new dimmer switch and it immediately burnt up. When this happened it blew our taillight fuse. The fog lights work and the high beam works. I'm not sure what's going on. Anyone have any tips?

 

[interex]

It's called a short, you can use a volt meter on the plug that the light switch plugs into to find out which wire is causing the short, then you can look from there what that wire goes to, to solve the problem.

 

[360glitch]

It's called a short, you can use a volt meter on the plug that the light switch plugs into to find out which wire is causing the short, then you can look from there what that wire goes to, to solve the problem.

Ha, I pretty much assumed it was a short but I didn't know if there were any specific areas to look. I'll check it with my multimeter tomorrow and go from there. Thanks for the tip!

 

[360glitch]

-bump-

Anyone else have any other tips before I head home tonight and try to tackle this?

 

[kevingst]

Well, the obvious has been covered. Just look over all your non-stock wiring first and see if you can find anything there, including radio wiring. I remember a long time ago on the 95 I had, I was wiring up a radio... can't remember which wire I crossed where, but it blew my dimmer switch. Read your pwr wire for volts and amps. See if you can find someone else to compare readings to. Also check pwr wire for continuity to ground. Are there any other accessories that may be wired to it that may just be drawing too high of a current load?

 

[97GSTee]

haha, get your voltmeter or a multimeter and see if you're getting 12volts if not, find another 12v source and wire it up, see if it helps. and of course check your fuses, interior and under the hood just to make sure...simple mistake but also very common. oh yea, make sure your ground wires are grounded properly, use the continuity mode on the multimeter if you can.

 

[360glitch]

Thanks for the tips guys. I just got the multimeter today and I have had very little experience with them in the past but now's as good of a time to learn as ever!

 

[ScreamSalvation]

Whenever you try to find those wiring gremlins lemme know. If need be I'll swing by and give you a hand. Brian has my number.

 

[360glitch]

Whenever you try to find those wiring gremlins lemme know. If need be I'll swing by and give you a hand. Brian has my number.

Sounds good. Thanks man...

 

[97GSTee]

its real easy man...when you test for voltage just make sure you have the negative lead on any ground, meaning any part of the chassis, maybe scratch a little paint away or you can def. use some peices of metal under the steering wheel. and if you get it wrong, all it will do is show up as (-) on the meter. and to test for ground, look for the continuity option, mine beeps when its found a ground. and all you have to do for that is touch one lead to a part that you know is a ground, like near the fuse box or you can scratch a little paint off by the door (when i say scratch it off, i mean like the size of a pencil tip if that). and then touch the other lead to what you want to test for continuity(ground)

 

[360glitch]

its real easy man...when you test for voltage just make sure you have the negative lead on any ground, meaning any part of the chassis, maybe scratch a little paint away or you can def. use some peices of metal under the steering wheel. and if you get it wrong, all it will do is show up as (-) on the meter. and to test for ground, look for the continuity option, mine beeps when its found a ground. and all you have to do for that is touch one lead to a part that you know is a ground, like near the fuse box or you can scratch a little paint off by the door (when i say scratch it off, i mean like the size of a pencil tip if that). and then touch the other lead to what you want to test for continuity(ground)

Thanks for the detailed explanation

 

[97GSTee]

no problem man, let us know what happens

 

[360glitch]

Alright, just got back from fooling around with the multimeter. I do not claim to know what I'm doing what but here is what I found. The first thing I did was check for 12v. I attached a picture of the plug. There is one plug used on the top row and three across the bottom. Lets number them 1-4 (1 up top, 2-4 on the bottom). Plug 2 gives me ~10.5v, Plug 3 gives ~11.3v, Plug 4 gives 11.3v. Plug 1 gives me nothing. I'm not sure if it should? Anyone know? Also... How else can I test this thing? I truly am a newb when it comes to this but I really want to learn. Thanks...

 

[97GSTee]

if you have one lead on the ground, and the other on the source that you're checking, turn the lights from low to high, see what changes and then at least you'll kind of know which wire does what, or at least get an idea. im not too sure on this so i'd wait for someone elses opinion as well, also there might be a relay involved somewhere, which to me would suck. look up Bosch Style Relay, and try to find out how it works, it'll explain a little more. relays are my enemy

 

[tunernewb92]

I think the reason it is giving us 11.3V in two of them is because we can't crank the car due to not having an ecu right now so I think our battery is wearing down because we keep having this light issue. Im not sure on this.

(BTW I'm the other car owner, not the same person).

ALSO, without the dimmer switch, the headlights will come on and off like normal with high and low beams, but the guage lights and the interior lights don't work....so maybe its some accesorry wiring that has gone bad?

 

[360glitch]

I bought three dimmer switches this afternoon. Any others tips before I try to not burn all of them up?