QuestionQUESTION: went to start my car and it would not start, no turn over, clicking or anything. I thought the battery was dead so we tried to jump it. I got power to my brake light, head/tail lights, and windows. No power to my top, that is stuck down, windshield wipers or other dash lights. Tried to charge it overnight. Still same thing. Checked the fuses and found that the ignition fuel starter fuse was blown. Replaced it. When I went to crank it I got all dash lights and it clicked 4 times. It did not crank. I tried it again and back to the original nothing but the brake light. Replaced it again and same thing...4 clicks and nothing but saw the fuse burn out. PLEASE HELP!!! Would like to fix myself if possible.
ANSWER: Hi Wanda,
I assume that the fuse you describe is 20 amp, #8.
If you don't have a volt-ohm meter there are a couple of things to try: with some extra fuses in hand you could pull the starter motor relay and then see if the fuse blows. If not then either the relay is bad, the solenoid switch on the starter motor is bad, or the wire that connects the two (brown) is shorting to metal some where along its path. Similarly, if the fuse doesn't blow then pull the fuel pump relay and do the same fuse blow test. Same possibilities:fuel pump relay, fuel fuel pump motor, or darkgreen/white wire that connects them. If you have the meter then just check the resistance as measured to ground between the outer-most pin of the starter relay socket and the next to inner-most pin of the fuel pump relay socket. (Outer and inner are with respect to the power distribution adjacent box side) One or the other will be less than one ohm and that is what is the circuit that is blowing the fuse. Futher detail testing to differentiate the wire from the component may be necessary (disconnect wire at the component and measure again, etc.).
If those two relay circuits pass the test, then the ignition switch itself (which has 3 separate circuits powered by that same fuse in the "start" position) will need to be measured with an ohm meter. Let me know and I can tell you how to do those tests.
Good luck and let me know.
Roland
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QUESTION: My dad is not sure how to check the fuses. Can you walk me through that. Also, would it matter if the floorboard got wet as it rained very hard and my roof leaked and the floorboard had standing water. Is there anythign under there that could be shorting the fuse out?
ANSWER: Hi Wanda,
I presume you mean that he isn't sure how to check the resistance of the circuits, because you have recognized when a fuse is blown. But just in case, I meant if you don't have a meter then buy a few more fuses and repeat the attempt to start the car just like before but with either the starter relay removed or the fuel pump relay removed and see if the #8 fuse blows and if so which relay was removed when it blew. The circuit whose relay was still in place would then be implicated as the bad actor and we would go from there.
But thinking further, you probably would want to own a volt-ohm meter to solve this and future problems. To measure resistance you just set the meter for resistance readings, the lowest number of ohm full scale setting. Then notice that if you touch to tip of the two probe wires the meter will read very close to 0 ohm, and if in fact it has a zero adjustment you set it to read 0 ohm when you have the probe tips touching. Then to measure the resistance from one of the pin sockets that I described you merely place one probe on the negative post of the battery and the other probe on the pin in question and see what the reading is. An alternative place to put the first probe would be any structural metal part of the car that is shiney metal as all of that as well as the engine/transmission are attached to the negative post of the battery too. We call that "ground" as all measurements are made with reference to those parts.
I doubt that the wetness is shorting out the fuse in question as none of the circuits served by that fuse are on or near the floor. If the fuse box itself got wet then you might temporarily have a short in the box but that should pass pretty quickly when the water evaporates.
Again, I am assuming that fuse #8 is the one that is blowing, correct?
So let me know what develops.
Roland
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QUESTION: I worded it wrong. Dad is not sure how to check the relays. He has an ohm-meter. Yes it is fuse # 8 the ignition fuel starter fuse.
AnswerHi Wanda,
By removing the relays, one at a time, I am not trying to test the relays but rather the circuits that the relays power. When the relay is removed, the circuit no longer draws on the fuse #8. He could check that the relays are not shorting out, but that is highly unlikely to be the case. As he does have a meter, just skip the 'fuse blow when relay removed' test and instead he should check the resistance to ground of the relay pin sockets that I described. Look in the socket for pins 79 (starter relay socket) and 27 (fuel pump relay) and measure their resistance to ground. It should be at least 2 ohms.
If those measurements are OK, tell me the ohm reading, and then we have to check some other pins. If the reading are not OK then we check the items that they power.
Roland
