I love Electronics... Fuse keeps blowing.

Impatient people: skip next two paragraphs.

Here's the story... This 94 XJ SE sat in a driveway for a year. I tried to start it, and the 4 cyl fired right up, no problem. Actually I had to jump it... but anyway, the dash lights didn't work. Fuse #19. I replace it. I then pull the dash cover off to fix the radio, and when I turn the Jeep back on, fuse 19 is out. I put it off for a while. I didn't really need to know how fast I was going... and I could pretty well judge by the sound of the engine anyway.

Anyway, last week I was replacing the blower motor, and I figured, hey- why not take 15 seconds and replace the fuse? That night as I was leaving work, I pull out the switch... LIGHTS! Like a monochrome Christmas tree! As I pulled out of the parking lot, *pop* no more lights. The idiot lights and gages still work, but no instrument lights.

Long story short, what would cause the instrument light fuse to blow over and over again?

Thanks ahead of time...

SirXJ

Just an initial guess, but while it sat, could some woodland creature have chewed on a wire that is now grounding out on the frame or something? I'm wondering if it's more of a short that can be taped up than something major... I had a friend that had a car that was experiencing some similar electrical issues... he found a rats nest (literally) in that area between the windshield and the hood under all that plastic... and a couple wires had been chewed through and were arcing against the body of the car when the car was running.

First of all the interior lights run off the fuses under the dashboard so for a woodland creature to chew on any wires that would cause that problem the windows would have to have been left open allowing the animal entrance to the inside. Now onto the solution before the vehicle was parked was any interior electronic work done like changing switches, bulbs anything like that. I would check out this link as it sounds like something that is hooked into that fuse is shorted out causing it to blow.

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/15/3f/bc/0900823d80153fbc/repairInfoPages.htm
check out that link and from the description you either have the fuse block in fig 4 or 5. I would look at what is controlled by that fuse and start check each part to see if one of them is bad or if you can unplug each one individually and find out which one is causing the fuse to blow. If after unplugging all of them and the fuse still blows then it's possible that the wiring going to one of the items got over heated and melted the insulation allowing the wires to short together.

Thanks, guys.

I'll give these a shot... and I'll get back to you.

Neither of those pics that you linked to were like my box, but It is fuse 19 that keeps blowing. The owners manual lists that fuse to be for the Instrument Lights and Radio Backlight.

I didn't see any bare or broken wires looking under the dash, so I think I'll try pulling out the radio and throwing in another fuse.

You don't think it could be a bad headlamp switch, do you?