my mav had it's turn signals removed under the front bumper before I got it. so I finally decided to wire up some new ones. I got some marker lights from wall-mart. each light has two bulbs in it. I used the origonal turn signal wiring, and set them up so that one bulb would blink for signals, and the other woud be a running light. They worked fine for about a day and then.....I was taking a turn and I noticerd a small amount of smoke coming out of the steering column. after I saw this the blinkers stopped working. to make a long story longer, I checked fuses,bulbs, pulled out the entire signal switch and its wiring harness. the smoke was from one of the signal switches power wires melting. is It possible that my new two bulb system was too much power draw on the switch? Now I have no signals in front or rear, and the dash indicaters dont work either. But when I turn on the hazards everything blinks? I checked the wires with a test light, and the flasher unit is getting power, but the power wires for the signal switch barely light up the test light. I hope I didnt make this too complicated and if I did I'm sorry. Adam
sounds like you have a slight ground on your "power wires for the signal switch " which would cause the low reading. I'd check the wire from the column all the way back to it's origin, makins sure there are no bare wires exposed (caused from the heat build-up). I'd use an in-line fuse and a relay when repairing/rewiring it. All this is, of course, if this is in fact the problem. :confused:
Usually when you smoke wiring it is either caused by too much current being drawn or a short. I'd tend to think in the direction of a short in your case. It doesn't take much to create a short circuit. All you had to do is to nick a spot of insulation in a wire in the column or elsewhere and it's contacting metal. Generally, a situation like this would trip a fuse before it would fry the wires. I have to assume that your new circuit wasn't properly fused. You are going to have to check all the wiring in the curcuit and replace everything that burned. With any luck, one of the wires you replace is the offending one. Never put anything electrical in a car that isn't fused properly. Not only can you risk a situation like you experienced, you put the entire car at risk for an electrical fire.
so should I put a fuse inline to the lights? Speaking of fuses, who the hell put the fuse panel where it is. very hard to get in there.
If you're not going to use the fuse box, then you have to use an inline fuse. Before that, you have to find out why you smoked the wiring in the first place. I'm sure that's what you're doing, but I said it anyway, no insult intended. The potential for damage to the electrical system is too great to risk it using circuits without fise protection. More than one well meaning backyard mechanic flamed his ride because he didn't protect a circuit and something happened, either a short or a mis-installed portion of the circuit.
