I had the courtesy light fuse blow on me yesterday,i had put another brand new one in but i think my lights were on at the time and i didnt notice and it sparked on me, next thing i know the wire harness that started in my trunk started smoking and slowly melting away the wire, i took the fuse out and shut the lights off as fast as i could and stopped the wires from burning deeper into the car but now im wondering if i just have to replace the section that melted away and check any other wires in the vicinity of the melting because i noticed my speaker buzzes and and my radio says cd failure if the speaker is connected but if its not it works fine, but as far as i can observe it was only the courtesy/interior lights that were affected.

 

The original fuse probably burnt due to a line melt. Best to check all the wires in the bundle, separate them and check good. you may find where the original melt or bare wire started. I usually go about 2 feet either side of the actural bare wire, just to be sure. and before you bundle the wire up, put in a new fuse and recheck.
What ever happened to your brake fluid leat in Jan? What fixed it?

 

Hey, thanks for the reply

I had had my front pad/disks changed but there is nothing electrical down there to have caused the burnt fuse in the courtesy light circuit...but when i replaced it with a new one that's when it sparked and the meltdown began...I can see where it started out, its very much bare at the beginning and it spread a good 3 feet towards the inside of the car. I stopped it in time so that I can see a good 2 feet of unburnt (and at the time, not superheated) section of wire before it goes down deep past the rear seats and into the car.

My only problem is that I have to check the speaker wire and anything else that shared the "plastic tubbing" that they put all the wires in because it might have melted away or merged other wires, like my speaker wire because my radio says cd error if the rear speaker is connected, the only other signs of wierd activity would be the "open trunk" indicator which is always on...but very dimmly lit. I haven't gotten around to checking all of this but the fuse is removed to avoid any other problems till i check the wires, do you recommend maybe I replace the melted section only or maybe the whole wire plug to plug, however long that may be...i just don't wanna have to worry about the whole thing melting away again once i pop that fuse back in when all the melted wire is fixed

As for the brake leak i'm not so sure, i was thinking it was my left caliper but i havent notice any leaks in months so maybe it was a momentary thing.

 

The best Safe suggestion is yes to change the wiring out in that section if you can find one from a wreck. This way you can see what you are putting in and conditon. Even if you fix the burnt out part of the wire on the old one, somewhere else not seen by the eye can be causing the short. But if you know for sure the hot spot that caused the short, then just fix that area. Then put in a fuse, and recheck.

 

yeh im going to check the local scrapyards for a 92 accord so i can just cut up the trunk section of the wireing and replace the burnt sections with it, is attaching the wire and using electrical tape good enough or should i sauder the connections just in case and then taping everything up?

 

Hey acmech52, i've figured out the extent of the problem after taking apart the trunk side panels and even the rear seats...the harness itself is all intact exept for one wire which actually seems to have started burning from the front end of the car backwards, i'm comtemplating replacing the whole harness or just that one wire (which happends to be a blue/white wire, not quit sure what its for besides maybe connecting to the fusebox)...either way im gonna have to have my way under the carpeting.