Just a fuse or....?

[mechagouki]

Getting in my truck tonight I noticed the rev/odometer light were a little dim, I figured the knob had gotten moved so I twisted it and the lights flickered then went out completely! When i got home I walked around the truck to get my son out of the car seat and noticed that the tail lights were out! Not good. All the warning lights, turn arrows etc are working fine, and the headlights are on, is this just a bad fuse or a more serious problem?

 

[fourwd1]

It's hard to say.

Have you checked the fuses ??

 

[mechagouki]

I haven't had a chance yet, I'm waiting for my wife to get home so I can leave my son with her and go have a look. I found an image of the fuse layout in a 1990 and it shows gauges and tail lights on different fuses, are the I4 and V6 fuse boxes different?

 

[mechagouki]

Finally looked under the hood and there's no blown fuses - but there are only six in that location and none are labelled tail light of gauges - is there another fuse box somewhere?

 

[turboSR5]

Check your drivers side kick panel (close to your left foot when sitting in the drivers seat).

 

[mechagouki]

Got it! Never noticed the kick panel fuse box before - and mine is missing its cover. For future reference the top right fuse covers the tail lights, reversing lights and gauge lights - a bit odd, but I guess such things are determined more by amperage tahn location on the vehicle.

Thanks for your help guys.:cheers:

 

[mechagouki]

So I burned another one after about 24 hours, I know two burned fuses in rapid succesion spells trouble, but after 24 hours? I suspect it might have something to do with the 3-way adapter I have in the lighter socket - I just recently started using an Belkin FM transmitter along with my 4.3" screen Magellan GPS, is it possible they are causing a current draw that's blowing fuses?

 

[FirstGenRunner]

So I burned another one after about 24 hours, I know two burned fuses in rapid succesion spells trouble, but after 24 hours? I suspect it might have something to do with the 3-way adapter I have in the lighter socket - I just recently started using an Belkin FM transmitter along with my 4.3" screen Magellan GPS, is it possible they are causing a current draw that's blowing fuses?

Easy enough to check, but I doubt it's the adapter. I'd have to guess it's a short somewhere on that system. Check the simple things first. Go through and make sure all your lights are working. I had this happen on a Taco a couple years back. Turned out when I had been pulled over a few wks earlier, the cop smashed one of my license plate lamps with his 'stick'. I hadn't realized it happened an my marker lamps were going out regularly. Stupidly thought no way could it be something that simple and it must be a frayed wire. The weird part was that it was screwing with the alarm system, which threw me. After pulling the dash and following that wire, sure enough I found the short from the busted bulb. So def. check the obvious, easy stuff first.

 

[Crawlin85]

If you have a tow hitch wiring set up its probably that, my taillight/ dash fuse would blow out everyday so I cut the wires out of my tow package since I dont tow anything anyway and problem solved. the old bad wiring caused a draw and it seemed to happen overnight