So i got some new off road lights for my grill guard and installed them but the problem is that for some reason when i went out to adjust them i turned them on and had my door open so my dome lights were on and my car was on too for the radio. long story short i opened my passanger door and all the sudden my lights and radio went out! all were wired to the fuse box but no fuses were blown they just shut off. all my basic stuff works i just lost my radio, custom top lights, off road lights, and my dome lights. how can i go about fixing it?

 

To the fuse box? How? Why when the actual battery is so much closer to the lights? You werent just plugging the hot wire into one of the live sockets in there were you? Maybe using the fuse to jam it in there? Thats never a good idea. You have checked the fuses with a tester? Or by pulling them and having a look? Did you try a new fuse anyways, cause sometimes they dont snap in the center where you are looking and break down where its tough to see. It didnt happen right away cause lights dont pull the full power until everythings warmed up. Im sure all you did was pop a fuse in this case. Thats alot of power (2 pairs of high output lightsdesired by a circuit that usually only needs to supply a stereo/interior bulbs. Thats probably too much of a load to be pulling out of there on a small fuse and should go to a main source - the battery - instead of hijack off some other circuit. I guess the interior lights turning on was the straw that broke the camels back in a sense. You could even make some kind of power block like the stereo guys use for the live leads for all the lights.

In short - Hardwire the power and ground leads to the battery for all the lights, and the 3rd wire leads to your switch most likely inside... If your switch needs power for the light inside it cause its a fancy switch, then run THOSE wires into your fuse board if you so desire as they only power a tiny bulb. The hot and grounds for the lights can stay underhood, and the only wire leaving the cab is the turn on lead.

Im sure theres other ways to go about doing the same thing, but this has always worked for me.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Or switch them to HIDs that take much less power! Muahahah

 

ok i will go switch out all the fuses i need to do it anyways. well the way i got it set up the switches (3, bass, neons, and now the off road lights) are all located in the center console for easy access so it was closer to the fuse box in that sense. thanks for the advise i will go try it out.

 

Ok so i changed out all the fuses and none broke and all my "BATT" fuse slots lost power so i rewired all my lights directly to the battery but my dome lights and radio still dont work. Any other ideas???

 

BATT does not power the radio. RDO does, and the interior lights are probably on INT fuse. If you kick panel lights work, but the roof light doesnt, then check that bulb over it may have popped.

Guess next step is to trace back behind the fuseboard and find the wire that burned up drawing too much power through it. Thats the problem with jacking power out of there, depending on which side of the plug you jammed your wire into, its fused or not at said value... Know what I mean? the fuse bridges the hot side to the circuit when plugged in and privides the amp limit. If you took a fuse out and stuck a paperclip int there, you could draw much more than the 15A but the wires cant take it so they burn. Start tracing back the hot lead from whichever slot you overloaded with those 2 pairs of lights and replace it when its found. The casing on the wire will be brittle and burned up to help you aid in finding it. The fuse plugs into 2 little terminals, one is hot and one it NOT when there is no fuse in the slot. If you are going to do it that way, take the fuse out, probe the terminal to see which is not powered, and jam the wire into that side so the load is still fused.

So Im guessing you plugged the lights into the BATT slot. Pull down the fuse panel so you can see the back and see which wire comes off that slot and start following it into the truck body. Its going to go into a huge harness full of other wires, so make note of what color and stripe color it has to find it underhood to continue your search. Or live without a dome light, and run a new hot lead for your aftermarket stereo to the battery, and that wire to the "hot all times" wire for the stereo. Use the ign turn on wire from the dash as you have been doing. You should always run a new hot lead for aftermarket stereos as they are much higher power than factory units most times.

Do you have power on the RDO fuses slot? even thought he fuse is not burned?
Do you have power on the INT fuses slot? Is there power at the light itself?

Next time dont go plugging wires into the fuseboard to power your toys - do it right an add your own curcuits and fuses for extras.

 

ok thanks i will go try that after work and see what i can do.