Blowing fuse, can't work out why.

[Winnie]

speaking from experience I see there AB.....

He is a wise man... Being that he has been there and done that haha

[TPC]

The real annoying thing is that simple mistake cost me about 3 days of puling things apart and cursing.
Also blew about a dozen fuses before I saw ET's idea of replacing the fuse with a globe for testing.

[lucus30]

Nice work mate glad you found it

Show us your USB sockets I want to see where and how you mounted them as it sounds interesting

[ako89]

All your earth's good ?

[P4trol]

Well done champ, you reached 25 posts.

[threedogs]

The real annoying thing is that simple mistake cost me about 3 days of puling things apart and cursing.
Also blew about a dozen fuses before I saw ET's idea of replacing the fuse with a globe for testing.

thats a keeper , a great idea

[DaveGQ]

I had the same issue but caused by something different. I will post here for future reference just in case. Hopefully it can save someone days of stuffing around.

Vehicle: '96 GQ Patrol DX 4.2TD

Problem: every time the headlights were switched on, the "tail light" fuse would blow. This supplied illumination to the tail lights, dashboard, center console, and possibly other components like number plate light etc.

The cause: Wiring harness for the stereo head unit. (CD Player)

As I discovered, the wiring harness for the head unit did not have an earth wire, but instead there was a PINK wire with a Blue stripe that was powered when the lights were switched on. Due to no earth wire I naturally assumed this was earth as it was the only wire left after the rest were connected, it was also tested as dead before I connected it (obviously because I didn't have the headlights on at the time). This caused an earth leakage through the pink wire and into the CD player, then out through the casing and into the chassis.

It was an easy fix, but hard to pinpoint. All I did was isolate the Pink wire coming from the loom, and then connected my CD Player earth wire to the chassis.

I was seriously going WFT, what is that wire even for??? Then it dawned on me.... the old original cassette deck units that were in there did not have illuminated display and buttons, they relied on an external power source... so when it's night time and you switch on your lights, the dashboard, centre console and the cassette tape deck all light up!

[Winnie]

I had the same issue but caused by something different. I will post here for future reference just in case. Hopefully it can save someone days of stuffing around.

Vehicle: '96 GQ Patrol DX 4.2TD

Problem: every time the headlights were switched on, the "tail light" fuse would blow. This supplied illumination to the tail lights, dashboard, center console, and possibly other components like number plate light etc.

The cause: Wiring harness for the stereo head unit. (CD Player)

As I discovered, the wiring harness for the head unit did not have an earth wire, but instead there was a PINK wire with a Blue stripe that was powered when the lights were switched on. Due to no earth wire I naturally assumed this was earth as it was the only wire left after the rest were connected, it was also tested as dead before I connected it (obviously because I didn't have the headlights on at the time). This caused an earth leakage through the pink wire and into the CD player, then out through the casing and into the chassis.

It was an easy fix, but hard to pinpoint. All I did was isolate the Pink wire coming from the loom, and then connected my CD Player earth wire to the chassis.

I was seriously going WFT, what is that wire even for??? Then it dawned on me.... the old original cassette deck units that were in there did not have illuminated display and buttons, they relied on an external power source... so when it's night time and you switch on your lights, the dashboard, centre console and the cassette tape deck all light up!

A lot of new CD players will utilise that wire too, they dim the display when your lights are on.