Fuses blowing 90 GXE Max

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Chris H - 08 May 2005 04:40 GMT

My 90 GXE has been blowing the Stoplight 15A fuse and the Tailight 10A fuse
tonight. So I replaced w/ new and now when I step on the brake, the
instrument panel lights come on and the lights-on chime rings. If the motor
is on, when I step on the brake and have the headlights on, these fuses will
blow simultaneously.

The manual doesn't show there to be any relays in these circuits. The only
thing I can think of is the headlight stalk-mounted switch. It has
malfunctioned in the past by not turning on both high beams, although it has
never failed to turn on the head & tail lights. This has never happened
before and I haven't been fiddling around with any electrical component
lately.

Any thoughts??

Chris
90 & 94 GXE's

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Carl 1 Lucky Texan - 08 May 2005 05:16 GMT

I dunno - one very slim possibility, if you have any of those dual
element bulbs, weird things can happen if one element burns out and part
droops down in the bulb to put power on the other element.

That's all I got.

Carl

> My 90 GXE has been blowing the Stoplight 15A fuse and the Tailight 10A fuse
> tonight. So I replaced w/ new and now when I step on the brake, the
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> Chris
> 90 & 94 GXE's

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Professor - 08 May 2005 14:14 GMT

Carl is right... I have seen this several times. It makes the
electrical system do strange things with the dash lights and other
indicator lamps. Certainly worth a looksie. Remember, check simple
things first!

Professor
www.telstar-electronics.com

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Chris H - 08 May 2005 21:40 GMT

I found the problem:
On the 3rd gens, the fixture that holds the stoplight bulbs in place in the
tail light assembly gets really hot when holding at a stop. This causes the
contacts on the bulbs and fixture to deform with age and eventually they run
together, creating a short. I had a spare from a replacement tail light
assembly that I cut and soldered into place- problem solved.

It's not a bad idea to check and replace all tail light bulbs on these old
cars as I've had several bulbs pretend they are burned out, when they
actually had bad contacts due to aging.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Chris
90 & 94 GXE's

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ppointer@nospamindspring.com - 08 May 2005 13:41 GMT

> My 90 GXE has been blowing the Stoplight 15A fuse and the Tailight 10A fuse
> tonight. So I replaced w/ new and now when I step on the brake, the
> instrument panel lights come on and the lights-on chime rings. If the motor
> is on, when I step on the brake and have the headlights on, these fuses will
> blow simultaneously.

The last time this happened to me was when I connected my trailer. The
stock fuse couldn't handle the extra load. You don't mention trailer
lights, so perhaps that isn't the problem here.

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