tail light fuse melting gremlin, 93 camry

[Jay P]

Hi all, another weird electrical problem....

I repaired the wires to the trunk lid on my 93 camry a few years ago, they were all frayed and shorting and generally screwed up, spliced in bits of new wire, soldered 'em up and used two layers of shrink wrap for measure.

Last week the dash and tail lights went out, fuse #10 in the dash panel was all melted in place, yuk.

Obviously, I thought, my wire repair has failed, pulled the layers of tape and loom off, it all looks perfect. crap

Next I looked at all the exterior lamps on that circuit, pulled 'em out and admired the bases, all looks good.

Then I scraped out all the melted crud and put in another fuse, everything works again. Put an ammeter in place of the fuse, there's a 5 amp draw, seems about right to me. The melted fuse was of the correct rating.

The lamp failure box in the trunk looks ok, took it apart and admired the circuit board, no obvious flaws.

Despite the melted-ness the fuse clips look sort of ok. Probably best to do a bit of rewire and relocate that fuse to a fuse holder.

I'm tempted to replace the lamp failure box for the hell of it.

So, I'm stumped, the stupid thing overheated and melted for a reason.

Any ideas? Anyone?

thanks, Jay

[LynchburgCSI]

Pretty sure there was a recall for that. Check edmunds.com

[4Cyl'erThriller]

Sounds like a short to me. Somethings gotta be grounding out.