Tail light short help please!

[CKerr]

My boys 91 Acura Integra four door blows the tail light fuse immediately upon trying to replace it, we just got this car for him and this has been an issue from the start, i asked the prior owners about it and they acted like they had never had an issue with it.

i have tried all the common sense the things like checking the wiring at the tailights.

as the horn is apparently on the same fuse i checked it out well as it has a grant aftermarket steering wheel, it seems fine, i even unhooked the wire from the switch and tried replacing the fuse to make sure, and it still blew the fuse, is there a horn relay that could poss be bad or the horn itself causing a short?

i did do some searching on here and found a couple posts with similar problems that suggested an aftermarket radio might be the issue, but at the moment there is no radio in the car at all, although an aftermarket wiring harness is still wired up, i did check this as well, to make sure it was not the issue i unhooked all the powerr wires on it and still had the same problem.

i am at my wits end as to what it could be and would really appreciate any suggestions as to what else to look for.

 

[Prozon]

My best guess would be to trace all of the wiring for the lights. If any of the stereo wires are exposed, tape them off regardless.

Sorry I can't help more, but at least this will bump your thread back up.

 

[Ominous G2]

I had this happen to my teg, was just a wire from the head unit harness. That's where I would start.

 

[CKerr]

thanks guys, i am going to dig deeper into the radio harness, i did notice the red hot wire looked like it had gotten hot as the coating is melted looking, not melted like someone used the ole bic lighter wire stripper method, but like something shorted causing the wire to get hot, gonna go check it out and report back later.

 

[CKerr]

success! as i had suspected and others suggested the stereo power wires were apparently the culprit, i traced the some what melted wire i feel is the culprit a far as i could but couldn't find the actual short, but as i was doing this i looked over and saw the fuse box and thought to myself ( and im sure this is obvious to others) but why not try and just remove the stereo fuse, and that did the trick! i put a new fuse in the fuse block under the hood for the taillights and it didn't blow, and all the lights are working now.

man what a relief! my wife has been on me to fix this or take it to a local auto electric specialist and im sure that would have cost a fortune, i will just have to run a new power wire when i get around to putting a radio in it for my boy, no biggy

once again thanks to those that posted suggestions, Chris

 

[rexpepper123]

horrible problem! i replaced alot of things and found it was a running light up front was shorting lol duuh its always the last place ya look lol