Brake light fuse keeps blowing?

[Vix]

Tonight i got pulled over by a cop because my taillights were off but when the brake pedal was pressed they lit on.

My guess is that i may have a short circuit somewhere?
The fuse for the brakes was blown, i replaced it, turned the lights on and it blew again. I suppose this will continue happening until i find where the short may be (if that's what the problem is).

Now i had two questions:
1) Since i have not very much experience with electrical components nor any type of wiring besides plug&play. Where could be the most logical place for me to start inspecting for a short? Could the short be from any wiring not having to do with my brakes?

2)It seems like this problem is responsible for why also my halo rings in the headlights have suddendly shut off, or vice-versa. Does this particular fuse give power to both of these components? Or are these two completely separate problems? What could be causing the halo rings to go out?

Both happened at the same time apparently.
I would just like some advice from the rest of this great community.

07 Camry SE

Thank you,

Vix

[Luna2]

Originally Posted by Vix

Tonight i got pulled over by a cop because my taillights were off but when the brake pedal was pressed they lit on.

My guess is that i may have a short circuit somewhere?
The fuse for the brakes was blown, i replaced it, turned the lights on and it blew again. I suppose this will continue happening until i find where the short may be (if that's what the problem is).

Now i had two questions:
1) Since i have not very much experience with electrical components nor any type of wiring besides plug&play. Where could be the most logical place for me to start inspecting for a short? Could the short be from any wiring not having to do with my brakes?

2)It seems like this problem is responsible for why also my halo rings in the headlights have suddendly shut off, or vice-versa. Does this particular fuse give power to both of these components? Or are these two completely separate problems? What could be causing the halo rings to go out?

Both happened at the same time apparently.
I would just like some advice from the rest of this great community.

07 Camry SE

Thank you,

Vix

Double check your fuse that you replaced. Are you sure it was the brake? From your description, it could be the taillight / parking lights fuse you replaced. The first thing to do is disconnect the halo rings, then try the fuse again.

The taillights only work with the parking lights head lights and should light up both red lenses of the tail lights and the rear license plate. The brake lights only light up the outer red lens of each side and the third brake light in the back window.

[Vix]

You may be right, it was fuse #14 (15A) inside the car.
And how would i go about disconnecting the halo rings? This is probably something i'll have to find answer for myself but these headlights are the aftermarket ones that already comes with the halo rings installed.
The H.I.D. lights turn on but not the halo rings.
Are you saying that the 'taillight / parking lights' fuse is the fuse that are not allowing the halo rings to go on?

[Luna2]

Originally Posted by Vix

You may be right, it was fuse #14 (15A) inside the car.
And how would i go about disconnecting the halo rings? This is probably something i'll have to find answer for myself but these headlights are the aftermarket ones that already comes with the halo rings installed.
The H.I.D. lights turn on but not the halo rings.
Are you saying that the 'taillight / parking lights' fuse is the fuse that are not allowing the halo rings to go on?

That would be correct for the halo rings, as they should be connected to the parking / tail lights circuit through that fuse....

[Vix]

Thank you for the input! Do you think that there might be a short somewhere? or what could be causing this problem?

[Luna2]

Originally Posted by Vix

Thank you for the input! Do you think that there might be a short somewhere? or what could be causing this problem?

Yes I do, and the first place to look is any add on devices or recent changes to the car.
The tail light fuse is 15 amp and the brake light fuse is a 10 amp. (I don't have a quick access to the position numbers in the fuse block.)

There should be a plug or tap behind the headlights and the halo's should be connected there. The connections that the tap should be on is A46 or A47 for the left side A50 or A51 for the right side and the connectors are the light sockets.

[Luna2]

On a side note, none of the interior lights should have worked. The only lights on would be the (IPC) instrument panel cluster and maybe one or two others. This is a symptom of a bad parking / tail light fuse.

[gdanaher]

This may all be a side benefit of installing after market parts from eBay! Disconnect those Halo rings. With the assistance of a friend to press the brake pedal, use a multimeter to check the positive wire that powers the rear tail light that is not working. Check for continuity between that wire and ground. Have your friend press the pedal and try it again, just in case something even more weird is happening here. This will quickly tell you if there is a short. I don't expect that you will find a short. Even if you found a short, disconnect those rings. Reinstall a new fuse of proper value. Someone above said 15 amps. Check the tail lights. They should now be working. Now go to the halo rings and do further investigation. There might be an internal short, or more likely they have aged and are drawing too much current, causing the fuse to fail. Reinstall the original headlights if they are still available.

[Vix]

Originally Posted by Luna2

On a side note, none of the interior lights should have worked. The only lights on would be the (IPC) instrument panel cluster and maybe one or two others. This is a symptom of a bad parking / tail light fuse.

Every light inside works.

Okay so the fuse that keeps blowing according to the manual is;
"14. TAIL 15A: Front side marker lights, tail lights, rear side marker lights, license plate lights, front turn signal/parking lights".

So could this short be coming from one or more of these wires ONLY? And not coming from ANYWHERE else in the car?

And just to be sure so i can check, would the 'front side marker lights' be for the halo rings?

Also my front/rear turn signal lights work fine, shouldn't this be not working as well?

[gdanaher]

Originally Posted by Vix

Every light inside works.

Okay so the fuse that keeps blowing according to the manual is;
"14. TAIL 15A: Front side marker lights, tail lights, rear side marker lights, license plate lights, front turn signal/parking lights".

So could this short be coming from one or more of these wires ONLY? And not coming from ANYWHERE else in the car?

And just to be sure so i can check, would the 'front side marker lights' be for the halo rings?

Also my front/rear turn signal lights work fine, shouldn't this be not working as well?

1--You don't know that you have a short because there is no indication here that you checked for that yet, so hang on.
2--Any problem you have is with this specific circuit, because nothing on other circuits is misbehaving.
3--Since the halo lights are after market and added by someone other than the factory, there is no way of knowing without testing to which circuit they are connected. What you told us earlier was that the halos went out at the same time as the tail lights. Read my note above. Please disconnect the halos, install a new fuse, and see if the tails then work.
4--Did the tail lights ever work at any time after the halos were installed and if so, for how long?

[Luna2]

Originally Posted by gdanaher

1--You don't know that you have a short because there is no indication here that you checked for that yet, so hang on.
2--Any problem you have is with this specific circuit, because nothing on other circuits is misbehaving.
3--Since the halo lights are after market and added by someone other than the factory, there is no way of knowing without testing to which circuit they are connected. What you told us earlier was that the halos went out at the same time as the tail lights. Read my note above. Please disconnect the halos, install a new fuse, and see if the tails then work.
4--Did the tail lights ever work at any time after the halos were installed and if so, for how long?

So now we are back to post #2. Please disconnect the halo rings to isolate them from the rest of the circuit.....

[Vix]

Originally Posted by gdanaher

1--You don't know that you have a short because there is no indication here that you checked for that yet, so hang on.
2--Any problem you have is with this specific circuit, because nothing on other circuits is misbehaving.
3--Since the halo lights are after market and added by someone other than the factory, there is no way of knowing without testing to which circuit they are connected. What you told us earlier was that the halos went out at the same time as the tail lights. Read my note above. Please disconnect the halos, install a new fuse, and see if the tails then work.
4--Did the tail lights ever work at any time after the halos were installed and if so, for how long?

I'll definitely be checking if a short is involved
I will try out your suggestion of disconnecting the halos and trying a new fuse.
I bought the car a year ago, the owner before me had just recently bought these headlights not too long ago before he sold the car to me, the halos and the tails have always worked fine together.

The problem started yesterday, and i remember seeing my halos turned on in the evening before leaving then later in the night for some reason the fuse just blew.

I was also bumping the subs (2 12"), if this even have anything to do with the problem.
I had the amp wired about a month ago at an audio shop.
What's funny is that my fog lights stopped working the day after the installation, i told them about it and they said that what they did would have nothing to do with the fogs, of course they'd say that.
The fuse for the fog is good and the fog light indicator in the dash shows that are on but no response from the lights. And now this happens... Even though i don't want to sound like i'm blaming them for my electrical problems, you never know if they may have done an accidental mistake. But this is another problem i still need to look into, one thing at a time, and most importantly are my tail lights at the moment for driving at night.

[Luna2]

Originally Posted by Vix

I'll definitely be checking if a short is involved
I will try out your suggestion of disconnecting the halos and trying a new fuse.
I bought the car a year ago, the owner before me had just recently bought these headlights not too long ago before he sold the car to me, the halos and the tails have always worked fine together.

The problem started yesterday, and i remember seeing my halos turned on in the evening before leaving then later in the night for some reason the fuse just blew.

I was also bumping the subs (2 12"), if this even have anything to do with the problem.
I had the amp wired about a month ago at an audio shop.
What's funny is that my fog lights stopped working the day after the installation, i told them about it and they said that what they did would have nothing to do with the fogs, of course they'd say that.
The fuse for the fog is good and the fog light indicator in the dash shows that are on but no response from the lights. And now this happens... Even though i don't want to sound like i'm blaming them for my electrical problems, you never know if they may have done an accidental mistake. But this is another problem i still need to look into, one thing at a time, and most importantly are my tail lights at the moment for driving at night.

The coil part of the fog light relay is wired after the tail light fuse, soooo if the fuse (15A Tail light) is open the fogs will not work.

[Vix]

Problem resolved! Turned out to be the wrapper of the wires attached to the left leg of the trunk lid. The wrapper had a pinched/broken part and i could see the wires inside, so i thought i'd try wrapping it with electric tape, put a new fuse on and the tails worked again along with the halo rings AND the fog lights!

So i'm back in business, but i noticed one new problem that just came up, one of my halo rings seems to be burned. . . possibly caused by a spark somehow?
Just so i don't have to make another thread, does anyone have information about fixing a burnt ring? Would dissamble be required of the headlight hausing?

[Luna2]

Originally Posted by Vix

Problem resolved! Turned out to be the wrapper of the wires attached to the left leg of the trunk lid. The wrapper had a pinched/broken part and i could see the wires inside, so i thought i'd try wrapping it with electric tape, put a new fuse on and the tails worked again along with the halo rings AND the fog lights!

So i'm back in business, but i noticed one new problem that just came up, one of my halo rings seems to be burned. . . possibly caused by a spark somehow?
Just so i don't have to make another thread, does anyone have information about fixing a burnt ring? Would dissamble be required of the headlight hausing?

Good find! Pinched wiring can be very difficult to locate.

I am not familiar with halo rings. I assume it is cold cathode florescent lamp. The one part of the CCFL that will go bad first, will be the bulb itself. If that is the case, you will have to open the lamp housing. Do you have a replacement bulb? Or know where to purchase one?