87 Brougham keeps popping a 20A fuse.

[Broughamfanatic]

The 20 Amp BODY fuse for all the interior lights, lighters, and illuminated entry keeps blowing. I've tried disconnecting the battery, replacing the fuse, then reconnecting it, but it keeps blowing anyway. Has anyone ever had this happen on their 1980-1984 Coupe/SedanDeVille or 1980-1989 Fleetwood Brougham? I haven't the slightest idea what could be causing it, or how to go about troubleshooting the problem. Thanks.

[AElayyat]

Check the cigarette lighters through out the car and make sure they are clean. The other thing I would check is the connection on the 3 doors with the cigarette lighter, make sure that each lighter is properlly grounded and that the power is connected nice and tight. Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

[The Ape Man]

Change or foil gum wrappers in the cig lighter # culpret.

[johndfw]

I had the very same thing happen to 87 Brougham. I got the car about two months ago, and none of the interior lights worked. The fuse kept blowing, then it would hold for a few days then blow again. I looked and looked and couldnt find anything. All I know is they are working now.
Im going to check the cig lighters as suggested.

Later, and good luck

[N0DIH]

Pennies and dimes fit in cigarette lighter sockets too! Kids love em!

My 91 SDV kept blowing the door lock fuse (the one that the car locks/unlocks the doors for you). Found out the rear license plate light wiring got pinched at the factory between the frame and the body, pinching the wire. So it gave a 50% of the time short circuit. I put in a autoresttable circuit breaker and it helped, but it kept blowing all the time. I found it when I realized the backup lights were not working and I decided to fix them the day before I sold the car. Go figure, the car was in the family for 14 years and finally about the day the car leaves the family, I fix it.... grrrrrr

GM uses many switched grounds, and when a fuse blows, often the power will find a new source through a light or something else with low resistance. GM wiring is fun to troubleshoot!

[Broughamfanatic]

Well apparently the problem fixed itself while I was troubleshooting. First, I pulled the bad fuse out, and disconnected the battery. Then, I removed the courtesy bulb from each door, and disconnected the cigarette lighters at the 3 passenger doors. I also disconnected the automatic day/night rear-view mirror, whose cable is frayed, with exposed wires. This way I could isolate which item may be causing the short, and at least lighten the load on the fuse, and gradually build-up as stuff starts getting plugged back in. Next, I replaced the fuse, and reconnected the battery. The fuse held-up, as the power door locks, sun visor lights, and front and rear map lights came on and stayed on. I then went to each door and reconnected the cigarette lighter, and put the bulbs back in. Everything works as it did before. Let the doors stay open, ran the power door locks a few times, and every other item on that fuse trying to get it to blow. The only difference is the mirror is disconnected. I would like to believe the frayed mirror wires are the culprit, but the mirror doesn't run on the fuse in question. I would plug it back in, but I don't feel like getting underneath the dash again if the fuse blows.

[johndfw]

Glad things worked out. Kinda like my car..........I'm not sure where the short was. All I know is that things are working again.

Cheers!

[carnut]

Had this happen once and it was a bare wire to driver sun visor vanity mirror. Look very closely at the two wires as they run along the sun visor pivot, years of pulling these visors up/down can cause the insulation to go away causing intermittant short. Ck both visors. You might also remove the visor slowly down from the headliner till the connector pulls out and inspect that length of wire, its just three screws to a visor.