Fuses Blowing Argh!

Driving normally, suddenly dash cluster dies - no revs/speedo/fuel/km's etc. Stereo, windows, indicators and remote entry also dead. Revs are also hunting erratically from 1000-4000 or so.

Fuses are blown - any suggestions about why they would all go at once? I replaced a few and they blew again so there's obviously a short somewhere

Have checked loom near turbo, all looks fine. Can't find any signs of anything else melted or frayed etc. Do we have any looms running under our front guards above the tyres?

what fuses are blowing, and in which fuse box?

main wiring loom runs from the fuse box in front of the battery, under the battery tray and through the firewall into the cabin behind the glovebox, then most of it heads across the firewall behind the upper dash to another fuse panel between in the drivers side kick panel. from those fuses it heads in a couple of circuits to the dash and other instruments, as well as the abs and trc computer and to the rear of the car for lights and fuel etc

If you have an aftermarket headunit (from memory cookies car did, you might want to check the wiring.

Remember those dodgy IEC improvisations to power your amp? Well the workmanship seems like its starting to show. Have a look around and see what you can find. A good multimeter and the old half split rule should do you well...

Fuse Box at drivers kick panel. Gauge, Dome and a few others.

I replaced the headunit when I did the amp and all that, I'll pull it out and have a look I guess, but I did everything neatly and properly.

May just send it to an Autoelec friend to sort out for a bit of cash, cbf!

Something tells me all roads point to your headunit, might be faulty...

If you didnt terminate your illumination for your headunit (most am units dont use illumination control) it might be shorting to earth, this could explain why that one has blown (from memory its a 7.5 blade in the kick pannel)

Thanks I'll check the head unit out - it's a few months old so spewing if faulty. Will hopefully have some time to look at it over the weekend.

If its that one illum wire, then that wouldn't really explain why my cluster and all the other seperate circuits are shorting at the same time?

Note: This is semi-unrelated to me deciding to sell the car , I was already on the edge and this was just the catalyst haha. Will fix it and keep driving till it sells

Yea I kind of figured that. Trust me I been there and done that many times but im sticking to my guns and enjoying the ride...

Yea thats exactly right and it left a question over my head too but it could be a start...

Just went to burson to grab some fuses, before i could go though i couldn't start car. ECU-IG fuse was also blown now lol.

What could possibly cause so many circuits to short at once?! A central grounding point perhaps?

Might have water in either the fuse box or the relay housing. Grab a can of contact cleaner and spray a shit load of it in and around your fuse holders once all the fuses are out.

It hasn't rained in the last few days

Alternator appears not to be charging. Under 12v at idle - could this cause fuses to pop as well? Maybe voltage reg went bad?

Waiting for tow truck....

Suggest slow down and have a good look at what you had done in the past - the head unit, take this out completely and see if this stops the fuse/s blowning.

Just take one step at a time, if you are not ok with fixing or finding the problem get someone in to help you.

Sometimes the replies you get here also need to slow down and take things one step at a time and really think about whats happening.

Alternator problem sounds to me like you have not yet found the real problem. Like the alternators still trying to supply power to a fault within the car and if this is so, yes the power will be down.

get that head unit out and let us know what happens.

Thanks for the input, I was thinking along those lines and was going to try and isolate the problem.. however the fact that on the way home tonight it was progressively getting worse to the point where it completely gave up, climate control/hazards/lights going nuts and giving the typical alternator symptoms.. I'm going to assume the Alternator was on it's way out and was causing these issues, and has now completely died. Hopefully.

Next question - Reco or new alternator?

Solved. Replaced alternator for no reason - have a spare now if anyone needs lol

After hours of diagnosing and ripping the car apart I found that the loom near the upper rad hose (to ecu box) was being slightly squashed by cooler pipe and a few wires had started to rub into each other internally and were shorting out... this would only happen when the loom was in a certain position which made it rather difficult to track down. Patched them up, re-insulated and cable tied out of the way.. car now charges again and everything works as it should.

Only 1 issue was I couldn't get power to the Stereo ACC+ wire (Black, white trace) and no fuses are busted as far as I can tell - I ended up just finding another acc wire and using that instead for now... can anyone tell me what (if anything) is powered by that wire/circuit? As far as I can tell it just goes to the stock amp which is powered by the Radio fuse (which is fine)

Bed time

Drove to work without a hitch, apart from being incredibly tired!

I had this exact same problem in the weekend, Car started blowing fuses and the battery was slowly going flat. Turned out I had a short from my reversing camera wiring and the car body. Its a bugger that you had to change your alternator first to find that out.

Yea I didnt think It was the alternator. I fix electronics for a living and logical fault finding does my head in so I feel your pain. Chances are your radio loom has been broken but if it all works now ill give you one phrase of advise

Ignorance is bliss!

Haha thanks man, I think I secretly knew it was unlikely to be alternator.. but just kind of hoped that it would fix it! Least I didn't have to send it to an Auto elec so I'm happy