00' prizm TAIL fuse blow

[yeding]

hi, guys. my 00' prizm is giving me problems right now. several days ago, I found my instrument panel illumination was not on, nor the tail light or gear light. I checked the fuse, it's blown. But whenever I put on the new fuse and try to turn on the tail light, it blown out right away. So I think there's short circuit somewhere. The voltage on the fuse slot is 12.8V which means the wire from the battery to the fuse slot is fine. And the resistance between one of the fuse slot nodes is less than 1 Ohm no matter I turn on the tail light switch or not. so does that mean the short happens between the fuse slot to the combination switch ?
any suggestion will be highly appreciated. thx for your time

[Monkey123]

yeding,

Like you said there is a short in your line. You have to track all of your lines and this can be very time consuming. There is a quick way to do this. Use your cigarette socket as your 12 volts source. Cut the wire from the tail light, gear light,panel illumination, and cigarette socket. Connected these wires together and this should work. Now you can not use your cigarette lighter for anything but you tail light and everything else works. Hope this will help.

Monkey123

[yeding]

hi, thx, Monkey123
but if the short is in connecting wires, even if I do use cigarette socket as the power source, the short circuit is still there>? right?
I may need to check the whole thing.......according to my Haynes repair manual, there're more than 10 devices connected to that line..... I tried already, but since the resistance for the light bulb is very low too. so Ohm meter works not so well..(I cannot tell if the wire is grounded or connect to the bulb properly, both of them are get resistance around 1 Ohm)
is there any tips to find the short circuit? thx

[gameguru1360]

check to make sure that your tail light bulb contacts are not corroded. I found out that my right rear brake light bulb contact was corroded which was causing my 3rd brake light fuse to blow every time I'd press down on the brake pedal. My brake line switch going out was a different issue

[yeding]

hi, thx for the reply. now I get confused about which one should be the tail light bulb. Is that the same one as the stop light bulb, just different filament. since my stop light bulb has two filaments. but I found other small bulb(as small as a LED) which could be the tail light bulb too. since the tail light is now on, so I cannot tell which one is which.... can any one give me a clue. thx.

[yeding]

thx, guys.
I tried to disconnect the headlight and the turning light, take off all the bulb and check for the corrosion. they r all fine, so I connect them back. after that, the problem gone.... I'm a happy man now, but still keep my finger crossed, hope there's no short circuit somewhere else.
any way, thx guys.