Electrical short or bad ground?

[tonyo123]

We have a 1999 explorer, my interior lights, windows, 4x4 lights in dash all either not working or flicker on and off......We have taken it to the dealer the put a fuse in and a week later the fuse blows? Anyone had this problem..

[Scrapper]

take neg. cable off and make sure every thing is off on it then touch neg cable back to battery if it sparks you no you got a short..good luck.

[jd-autotech]

if your blowning fuses you have a short so pull the fuse hook a test light to the + side of the battery and probe the fuse recepticle the light should stay out if it lights it found a ground so start chasing moving harness around til light goes out that will get you close to short hope that helps you i know those electrical problems can really try patience

[shorod]

Originally Posted by scrapper1

take neg. cable off and make sure every thing is off on it then touch neg cable back to battery if it sparks you no you got a short..good luck.

Since the radio and PCM draw a small amount of current when the battery is connected. They also contain a fair amount of capacitance, so if they are discharged, they will cause a short spark when a disconnected battery is connected.

The better way to check for shorts is to do like jd-autotech suggested and use a test light in series with the power source. The brighter the light glows, the higher the current draw. A dead short would be full intensity. A light that dims after a few seconds would indicate a circuit with capacitance, such as a circuit containing the radio or PCM.

Which fuse is blowing? If you know the circuit number, we can check the wiring diagram for what all is on that circuit and possibly narrow it down to a few likely components.

-Rod