Usually if a fuse blows, it means that there is an electrical fault in the circuit that it protects. However, a lot of times, when a fuse blows, people will just replace the fuse and not check to see why it blew. This car came in with the brake light fuse blown for a second time. I knew that there had to be a problem in the brake light wiring.

The car had an aftermarket spoiler with a built-in high-mount brake light. Aftermarket accessories are always a suspect when it comes to electrical problems. When I opened the trunk I found that it wasn’t even currently wired in, the factory brake light was, but the old wires hadn’t been dealt with properly. I found bare wires simply twisted together and hanging out in the open, both power and ground wires. For the fuse to blow, all that had to happen was for the bare power wire to touch any part of the inside of the trunk and cause a short circuit. To fix this I taped up all the bare wires so there wouldn’t be a way for the circuit to ground itself and blow the fuse again.

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-Dan