brake fuse melts

[carl05]

hi everyone..new to this furum and this site helped me a lot on other problems before.

here is my new problem...stated a month or so,i finished at work,sit in my car,started and not able to put it in drive.So i unlcked it with the release button to get home,once home i checked my fuses and like i thougt,the brake light fuse was melted,and so was the fuse box(melted a little).Put a new fuse and all lights work fine,and was able to shift,but melted a couple of days later,and on and on.Only one of the fuses branch come very hot when i brake and melts.I know it is a short circuit but maybe someone already had this problem before and could give me a clue,that could save me from hours of searching.

thanks ahead of time and this site is great
carl

[Dave's]

Think the common problems are the 3rd brake light socket, wiring at the trunk hinge and of course the sockets on the brake lights themselves.

[carl05]

yep,my wires at trunk hinge were damaged,fixed those already,going to recheck and ckeck the sockets.....why the third socket more than the others?Is it that common and what should i check for?

thanks dave

[Dave's]

Why the 3rd socket? I don't know. But it's a pretty common problem to cause the dash light to come on intermittently. The bulb lights most of the time but when you pull the cover the socket and base are somewhat burnt. Maybe it gets loose/corroded and the resistance increases current flow? To an extreme I guess this could melt the fuse. Or maybe the problem IS the fuse holder. (I'm pretty tired right now,so FWIW.)