Chrysler Repair: 93 LeBaron: IOD fuse blows, fuse blows, tackometer


Question
QUESTION: My girlfriends 93 lebaron keeps blowing a fuse wich is for dome lights doorlights oil and temp gauge tackometer. Wen this blows the raido aslo don't work but radio has it's own fuse I am completely stumped. Any info would b greatly appreciated

ANSWER: Hi Jay,
I assume this is a convertible 2-door rather than the 4-door LeBaron, but let me know if that is not the case. The only fuse that alone is involved with all these functions is fuse 26 (10 amps) in the box that is under the dash. Is that the one that is blowing? If not, tell me which one it is. I would suspect first that one of the courtesy lights has a short circuit to ground right at the bulb socket, so I would suggest that you put an ohmmeter on the 'cold' side of fuse 26 and see what resistance it shows to ground (any structural shiny metal surface nearby). It should show 0 ohms... a dead short. If so, then start removing all the courtesy bulbs, one at a time to see if there is one that will increase the resistance to a couple of ohms or so. That would be the bulb/socket that is blowing the fuse. Other than those, it means disconnecting the cluster plugs, the radio plugs to see if those raise the resistance above 0 ohms. The courtesy bulbs are: underhood light, glove box light, door lights, overhead console lights, trunk lamp, reading lamps, visor lamps. If you find that too much, then start at the radio and the cluster. But somewhere one of the objects that get power from the fuse is instead shorted to ground.
Roland

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: No it's not a convertible but I'm almost positve 26 is the fuse. And it does seem to blow wen I open or shut driver door. So thank you very much. I will check this out tomorrow as I'm doing a tune up.

Answer
Hi Jay,
On the sedan it would be fuse #2. And the same analysis is involved, most likely because opening the door causes the blow out it is the one of the long list of courtesy lamps or the sockets in which one of them is mounted that because of the design of the bulb (external crimped wires) one of those has bent and is shorted between the 12V supply and the ground return pin in the socket.
Roland