Vl Lights Problem :(

[Cozza88]

ok, where do i start, maybe the fact that ive only owned the car for less than 1 week now and im already considering selling it... i hooked up a BRAND NEW clarion head unit in it on saturday and on friday night was the only the second time i drove it. i drove it no more than 7kms to my mates house to get him to show me how he hooked up his head unit (same year model VL which is an 1987 vl, only difference is, is that his is an executive and mine is a berlina) and so on the trip there i blew the fuse for my low beams, and tail lights and it was night time so i wasnt impressed coz i woulda got defected nicely for that!!

and now that we have hooked up the head unit, it keeps blowing the fuse for the tail lights as soon as u turn the lights on, this is all after the front lights and interior lights blew but i got them all working again by replacing the fuses.. so far, ive tried every fuse upto a 30amp fuse and nothing seems to work without blowing GRRRRR :bang:

at first i though it was the head unit but we hooked it up the EXACT same way as my mates and his lights and everything works fine so i cant work it out :cry:

another thing, they must have had a connector for a trailer coz they had the little white clamp things on the tail light wiring harness in the boot of which i took off and retaped up with elecky tape to cover any wires or crap hanging off the wiring for the tail lights.. AND to make matters worse, some smoke started coming outa my light switch the other day wen we were trying to fix the head lights up so i think maybe thats the reason why its all mc-rooted ??


sorry this is like half a book long but i figured the more i can tell u guys the easier it is for u to tell me wat the problem is? Thanks for at least reading this and hopefully sum1 on here can help me b4 i start kicking in pannels and smashing my car lol

Regards
Cory

 

[craigvk]

It sounds like there is a dead short. Obviously the stereo is hooked up to the same wiring harness as the tail lights. If it was me, I'd test the unit on the battery directly and if that works fine, check the wiring that you used to connect the stereo in the dash? Is the wiring original where the stereo goes? Likely not. Probably backyard modified like all of them. I would be suspicious of the wiring that connects to the stereo. You can always run a seperate 12v wire to the battery and run a seperate wire to the ignition switch.

I had a similar problem in my car. Occasionally the stereo would stop when I put my foot on the brake. Somehow the stereo was interfering with the brakes as it is on the same fused circuit.

 

[Cozza88]

nah i still had the stocko tape deck in there so i just used to harness that was in the tape deck .. and yes i was careful which wires i cut.. even though there was only one harness in the back of the stocko tape deck.. and i used to same wires as my mate did

 

[craigvk]

Unlikely, but you never know. Try and hook up the unit to the battery directly. Pop the hood and connect it up and use an inline fuse on the constant 12v wire, then connect the ground and turn it on by connecting the ignition wire from the stereo. Does it blow the fuse again?

 

[Cozza88]

there was a stocko tape deck in it man, there was no mistake that i used to same harness that was in the stocko one.. and its blowing my light fuses not the head unit fuses...

 

[craigvk]

Ok then did it blow when the old deck was in it? If not, then you know where I am getting at.

 

[Cozza88]

nah it didnt blow the tape deck.. it worked perfectly.. i can kinda see wat ur gettin at.. it may be my head unit thieving too much power or sumfin? if thats the case, then im just gunna have to run a direct line from the battery to my head unit all the time yeah?

 

[craigvk]

No, I mean did all this crap happen when you had the old tape deck in?

You could run new wiring if you can't find the problem. But obviously it's better to fix it if you can.

 

[customcaraudio]

Man an easy way to check if it is ya h/u, just unplug it and then try it. If it doesnt blow the fuse than u mite have hooked the ground to the h/u to the interior illumination circuit therefore while the lights are off it reads ground and the unit works perfect, but when you turn the lights on it goes to batt+ and blows th efuse on the car.

 

[Cozza88]

ok well like i said, the lights blew on the way to my mates place and that was b4 i put the head unit in...