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Mr. Hyundaitech Again

I all of a sudden have a problem on my '02 Hyundai Elantra. My son has no instrument panel lights.

He had put in a different radio, and indeed, the radio works fine.

I diagnosed the problem as a blown fuse. I found and replaced the faulty fuse, tried the lights, and instantly the fuse blew again.

That tells me it's a short. I know that often a short is nothing more complicated than finding a bare wire somewhere that is touching where it shouldn't, and putting some black electrical tape around it.

Here is my question. Since the fuse blows instantly, and hence I have no current, how does one find such a short?

I have been told that good mechanics sometimes work hours trying to find the problem, and then I have seen some of these found and fixed in five minutes.

I guess it is here where I show my limited ability to work on cars. Any ideas for me.

Thanx in advance!

Tom Wenndt

Reply to
Rev. Tom Wenndt
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Tom, I know you asked this question of our " Hyundai Hero " but I had the same problem a couple years ago. Start by pulling the radio back out again and make sure its WIRED CORRECTLY !! Some radios have a wire especially for the light in the radio and it may not be hooked up right, and while its out you can check the rest of the wires and make sure thier all taped correctly and none are bare or touching what thier not supposed to be. I would do this before you wasted anymore fuses. Also make sure the power wire and the ground wire are where they should be.

Tunez

Reply to
Tunez

"Rev. Tom Wenndt" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@enews2.newsguy.com:

I'm not Hyundaitech, but I'll give it a try. At least on my 01 Elantra there was a wire in the harness going to the radio that went to +12V when the dash lights were on. Offhand I don't know which color code wire it is, but

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may have it, or hopefully your son who installed it should have the information. Anyway, I would start with a visual inspection of the wiring behind the new radio, focusing specifically on that wire. If there are no visible problems, I'd disconnect the whole radio at the harness and see if the lights work again. I'm presuming they will, since this all started when the radio was installed.

Lastly I would disconnect this dash illumination wire and make sure the problem has gone away (and make sure all the functions of the radio still work) to confirm that we are looking at the right wire. If when the wire is disconnected the dash lights and radio work normally, you either have a short somehow in that circuit (which you should have found before) or it's possibly just not connected to the right wire on the radio. Either way it should be well narrowed down by now.

Good luck. Ben

Reply to
Richard Dreyfuss

Tunez and Dreyfuss are right on track here. There are two wires going to the radio for the illumination circuit. Most aftermarket radios don't use these-- they keep illumination on anytime the radio receives ignition power. Make sure they aren't for some reason hooked up to the aftermarket radio, and make sure there are no bare ends that can touch things behind the dash. If you unplug the radio to recheck, remember that you'll need to reconnect the rheostat found on the left side of the dash facia you've removed to get to the radio.

Reply to
hyundaitech

Unless you have a TDR instrument, the only way I know of is to trace the circuit starting and one end and working towards the other. Did the problem start shortly after the radio was installed? It so, then a good chance that these events are related. I'd pull the radio and look for a wire that was pinched when the radio was installed.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Thanx for all the fast replies. Did I mention that everything in the radio works just fine??

I will still look for that supposedly "extra" wire.

Thanx again!

Tom Wenndt

Reply to
Rev. Tom Wenndt

Do like they sugested-- disconnect the radio. I would suspect a problem with the grounds on the new radio speaker & (-) grounds hooked together in some mannor causing a short

Reply to
sqdancerLynn

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