[MRGeep]

So I'm worried I have a short somewhere that's causing my M13 fuse to continue to blow up. I have yet to be able to track down anything helpful and I keep blowing up fuses trying to figure out the problem.

This all started 2 days ago, I had her detailed on Saturday, then Sunday when I'm out around town the NoFuse indicator pops up after a visit to Home Depot. Starts fine, everything runs fine, but the clock reset, the wipers have to take a a swipe across the window, and the key fob no longer works (but the alarm will go off if the doors are locked by the power locks and I unlock the door with a key).

So I check the fuse box and M13 is blown, I tried to replace it to see what was going on and it blew up as soon as it touched the fuse box. So tonight I started digging a little deeper. I unhooked the battery, replaced the fuse, and reconnected the battery. Fuse blows up instantly. Trying to see if there are any obvious issues, I was able to find a fairly heavy gauge (guessing 10g) yellow wire coming out of a black box just to the drivers side of the engine and going into the wire loom on the firewall. There was a splice in this yellow wire that I'm assuming was put in by the previous owner and it appears that they basically spliced in a piece of wire (blue insulation, so I'm assuming it's not original) without actually putting in any type of connector and just wrapped it all up with electrical tape. The tape was basically melted away. So I removed the hack job, tried to replace the fuse again to see if it would still blow and, of course, the fuse is fracked again.

So now I'm not quite sure where to go with it, but of course (again) I've got me a nice vacation planned for Saturday and I need my baby running smooth for the next 10 days. I'm lost as to what I should do to try to track down the problem (finding a short in the mile of wiring) or if I should just cut my losses and get her to a mechanic. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm not used to the electrical system on these, the rats nest on my old 89 YJ was a whole lot easier to work with for me...

Thanks!
Matt

 

[MRGeep]

I forgot to add that the only mod to the electrical system was an LED light setup on the front bumper about 3 weeks ago. No issues with the install, I used a harness supplied by the company I bought it from, it does not go through the fuse box currently and does not tap into any of the existing wiring. It has a relay mounted to the passenger side fender adjacent to the fuse box and is ground to a bolt with an existing ground on the fender. I tried disconnecting the entire system and it did not affect the fuse blowing up. Not sure if that means it's not involved or a potential culprit.

 

[wrangled]

Does the yellow wire the previous owner added have power to it when the M 13 fuse is removed? If not, I would start by finding out where that is fed from, and goes to. It might be that there is too much amp draw on that circuit.

 

[thedirtman]

Did you ever find what the problem was?
My wife has a 2007 JKU Sahara with power everything and keyless entry and last week the power locks quit working. It is a fuse and installing a new one just blows instantly. I tried unhooking the battery to reset the computer, searched the wire harness for rubbed wires, unhooked all the doors and still have a short some where. I am at a loss here and she just has to go old school now and unlock the doors with the key.

 

[ronjenx]

Did you ever find what the problem was?
My wife has a 2007 JKU Sahara with power everything and keyless entry and last week the power locks quit working. It is a fuse and installing a new one just blows instantly. I tried unhooking the battery to reset the computer, searched the wire harness for rubbed wires, unhooked all the doors and still have a short some where. I am at a loss here and she just has to go old school now and unlock the doors with the key.

Which fuse is blowing?

 

[thedirtman]

The fuse for the power locks. M38

 

[MRGeep]

The fuse for the power locks. M38

I did eventually find my issues, at least I think I did. My fuse that was blowing was M13 though. I had 2 fried wires where it appears the previous owner had removed some of the wire insulation and very crudely spliced on some new wires, which were removed by cutting them but leaving the splice just wrapped with electrical tape prior to being sold. Both had melted through the tape when I discovered them. One was on the firewall and I believe went down to the starter as part of the factory remote start and the other went to the coil IIRC. It has blown once since but I think it was from getting splashed from below in a heavy rainstorm. I replaced the fuse and it did not blow again. Knock on wood...

Hope that helps. I might have some additional info on some of the other Jeep forums, I can try to track it down if you think it might help.

Matt


Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App

 

[thedirtman]

Thanks.