A new problem

[95TwinTT]

Was this Viper a recent install? I did pick up some better schematics today. It shows the mirror circuits separate. Nothing special there. That ctsy fuse does handle the motors in both mirrors. It also shows wire colors of that entire circuit, if it turns out to be involved.

The illuminated entry module is said to be located under the center of the instrument panel (5 wires). The remote keyless entry module should be near it (4 wires).

If the viper is a recent install, do you have anything that would identify wire colors?

 

[bsamoul]

The Viper was installed last July. And that still works just fine. I stick my head under my dashboard and I can't see much. There are so many wires, and I think neither of those modules have the wires sticking straight down so I could see them.

 

[95TwinTT]

OK, well then, the only thing that is left to do is start tracing down the orange wires. You may just want to turn it over to a dealer to chase.

If you want to do it yourself, it will probably require opening up some panels here and there. The diagram shows a junction in the harness close to the fuse that splits the circuit out into five separate orange wires. If you could get access to that junction, you could cut them one at a time until you found the one that was the problem.

You could get a 20 amp breaker rather than wasting a lot of fuses. If you want to go ahead, I will do what I can to steer you through the wires.

In the end, I expect a wire will be found that has been cut or pinched somehow.

Maybe the dealer has some magic way of finding the problem without cutting any wires. Might be worth a call.

 

[Slammed]

you know not for nothing but I had the same problem and after 2 weeks of searching my mechanic looked in the cigarret lighter and there was a metal piece of a plug left behind (like from a power cord) and pulled it out and no more blown fuses

 

[95TwinTT]

That's a different fuse...........

 

[bsamoul]

OK, well then, the only thing that is left to do is start tracing down the orange wires. You may just want to turn it over to a dealer to chase.

If you want to do it yourself, it will probably require opening up some panels here and there. The diagram shows a junction in the harness close to the fuse that splits the circuit out into five separate orange wires. If you could get access to that junction, you could cut them one at a time until you found the one that was the problem.

You could get a 20 amp breaker rather than wasting a lot of fuses. If you want to go ahead, I will do what I can to steer you through the wires.

In the end, I expect a wire will be found that has been cut or pinched somehow.

Maybe the dealer has some magic way of finding the problem without cutting any wires. Might be worth a call.

Do you have a general idea on where that harness is? I'm thinking it may be time to start taking apart the dash to find all these wires that I'm looking for. Do you think there's any chance that it could be the fuse box itself? Probably not... I still wanted to think it had to do with the headlight switch, but that doesn't seem likely

 

[95TwinTT]

Ok, the orange wire leaving the fuse block, will branch out into five wires within a foot or two of the fuse block. One or two wires will head up the door post pillar towards the roof. They should be together with white wires which are the ground side of the lamp circuit.

I would chase the wires going to the “under dash curtesy lights†and the glove compartment first. Those wires, I believe have been exposed to things like the radio swap and the alarm installation. I would be on the look out for a wire that may be rubbing on something. Like perhaps a wire leaning against the brake pedal arm that could have worn through after a year or so.

The white wires coming from the various lamps go to the headlamp panel and dimmer switch. From that switch, the purple wires go to the door switches and the black goes to ground.

If you are successful at finding that bundle of orange wires, be sure that you have enough room around the wire, to make a splice before cutting them. You would be cutting them one at a time and checking to see if the fuse would hold before splicing them back together.

The illuminated entry module is also being fed by an orange wire. The schematic say’s it is under the middle of the dash. It would have the five wire plug. It is possible it went bad, but would have to be unplugged to find out. The remoter keyless module has a four wire plug.

Hope this helps……..

 

[Slammed]

oops LOL :gy:

That's a different fuse...........

 

[bsamoul]

Ok, the orange wire leaving the fuse block, will branch out into five wires within a foot or two of the fuse block. One or two wires will head up the door post pillar towards the roof. They should be together with white wires which are the ground side of the lamp circuit.

I would chase the wires going to the “under dash curtesy lights†and the glove compartment first. Those wires, I believe have been exposed to things like the radio swap and the alarm installation. I would be on the look out for a wire that may be rubbing on something. Like perhaps a wire leaning against the brake pedal arm that could have worn through after a year or so.

The white wires coming from the various lamps go to the headlamp panel and dimmer switch. From that switch, the purple wires go to the door switches and the black goes to ground.

If you are successful at finding that bundle of orange wires, be sure that you have enough room around the wire, to make a splice before cutting them. You would be cutting them one at a time and checking to see if the fuse would hold before splicing them back together.

The illuminated entry module is also being fed by an orange wire. The schematic say’s it is under the middle of the dash. It would have the five wire plug. It is possible it went bad, but would have to be unplugged to find out. The remoter keyless module has a four wire plug.

Hope this helps……..

Is it possible to reach the wires by taking out the dash cover off, then taking otu the speedometer, I know there's a wall, but is it possible to remove that to see all of the wires behind that? Because if that were possible, I would think that all of the wires would be easily accessible that way, right?

And I know that I used an orange wire when putting the new radio in, it's for illumination, and the radio does dim... I'm thinking maybe pull that all back out to see if anything is up. Let me know if you can do what I asked with the dash, because that seems almost like the perfect way to access all that stuff.

 

[95TwinTT]

Just sitting here pondering the meaning of life and it occurred to me, there's an easier way. If you were to pull out all of the interior lamps from their respective sockets, you could take a continuity tester and check the hot line, "orange" to ground of each lamp socket. That should isolate the problem section of wire.

It is important that all the lamps are out, to open that side of the circuit. With the fuse out, each lamp socket should test "open" on the hot side.

It may also require unplugging that one module that has yet to be found under the center of the dash. That is the five wire one with the gray, orange, white, pink and black.

 

[bsamoul]

Just sitting here pondering the meaning of life and it occurred to me, there's an easier way. If you were to pull out all of the interior lamps from their respective sockets, you could take a continuity tester and check the hot line, "orange" to ground of each lamp socket. That should isolate the problem section of wire.

It is important that all the lamps are out, to open that side of the circuit. With the fuse out, each lamp socket should test "open" on the hot side.

It may also require unplugging that one module that has yet to be found under the center of the dash. That is the five wire one with the gray, orange, white, pink and black.

Hm, I did that already and it read 1 each time.

 

[95TwinTT]

Well, then we need to get back to following those orange wires. The most likely ones would be the two going across the bottom of the dash to the passenger side curtesy light and the glove box. The next one in the list of most likely would be the drivers side curtesy light.

The dome lights and vanity mirrors are unlikely as far as being near anything that could have moved or shifted them.

You could get one of those test lamp probs that has the clip lead on the end of the wire and the light in the handle of the prob. If you stuck that prob, in the curtesy fuse connection, the side that feeds the orange wire, and try moving any of those orange wires under the dash to see if the test light goes out, that might make it easier to find.

The test lead needs to be hooked to a +12, it would light up until you disturb the "short".

This is assuming that one of those wires has been cut or skinned and is leaning against a part of the frame or chassis that grounds it. A simple movement one way or another might disturb it enough to identify which wire it is.

Just trying to come up with a easy way to find this short.

 

[bsamoul]

I'm going to look into it this week. I really hope it's really close to the dash so I don't have to tear too much up...

 

[bsamoul]

SO, I took out that little 4-hi mod/relay out, and now my highs work amazing and so do my interior lights! I don't get it, unless the mod was somehow pulling juice from the interior lights and overloading the circuit. I'm so happy!

 

[wilb3]

Sounds like relief- glad that worked out for you.

 

[GMCYukalade]

- Well it all depends on how the relay was wired up, did you do the Mod yourself or buy a kit?