Bill Knight wrote:
> Have a 2K Durango blowing 15A Park Lamp fuse. This is labeled as "14" on
> the block. I have physically removed all parking lamps from the harness and
> the fuse still blows as soon as parking lamps are turned on. Have no
> illumination on the cluster either, or on the rear defroster button. All
> warning lights work, headlights work, fog lights work and so do the turn
> signals. Everything else appears to be functional. Just no parking lamps
> or clust illumination. I do have 12 volts on both sides of the blown fuse.
> So I know I definately have a dead short. My question is what are the
> chances of it being the lamp switch itself? If the chances are good I may
> just go with that a nd skip the dealer all together. I did get the extended
> warrenty but with my luck they will tell me it is not covered. I've only
> had the vehicle for about 6 weeks. Thanks for any and all help. Bill
>
if you have a 3 year 36K mile warrenty on that Durango - something liek
this SHOULD be covered under warrenty. A good honest dealer would
repair it ant not charge you. However due to the complexity of
electrical gremlins (and I HATE working on electrical stuff myself) -
the dealer may not want to bother with it or will want to charge an arm
and a leg for labor. What you could do to narrow down the possibilties
is this:
Find another switch and try that one - if it still happens - you know
odds are the switch is not causing the blown fuse.
Next you could try a circuit tester (OHM meter I think they are called?)
not positive as I down own one - basically a little gadget that tests a
circuit for resistance etc - to see if a line is bad. I don't know
about the new switches on the new Daks/durangos - but the switch on my
1989 isnt hard to remove or test. I would imagine its pretty similar on
new trucks - a switch with a multipl-way connector harness to the
accessories. It would help to have a service manual to identify what
wires go to what. But basically use the tester to check each individual
line. That way you should be able to narrow down and emiminate where the
short is. (tail lamps, park lamps, licence plate lamps, or the instruments)
This would also allow you to see if a dealer is telling you the truth.
If you know for sure the short is somewhere in the instruments for
example... you could take the truck in - tell them whats wrong - and see
what they say hte problem is - if the answer or estimate they give you
doesnt jive with what you know - you can stick their nose in it and yell
bad dealer!
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