Shorted rear tail lights on ‘03 Legacy.

[Clifton]

This one has got me very confused.
I have break and turn lights but no running or parking circuit.

The blown fuse seems to involve running lights for front, trunk, &
tail lamps.
I have eliminated the front by unplugging a large junction cable that
sits in the engine compartment on the extreme passenger side.
I have eliminated the trunk lamps by unplugging the junction near the
trunk hinge.
All that remains seems to be the outboard tail lights, but there
doesn’t look to be any damage here and most of it is obscured by the
trunk liner.
Where else might I look for wire damage?
I have been unable to isolate the shorted circuit i.e. nothing that I
have unplugged has been able to prevent the fuse from blowing
immediately.
I need help please. Your thoughts?

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

This one has got me very confused.
I have break and turn lights but no running or parking circuit.

The blown fuse seems to involve running lights for front, trunk, &
tail lamps.
I have eliminated the front by unplugging a large junction cable that
sits in the engine compartment on the extreme passenger side.
I have eliminated the trunk lamps by unplugging the junction near the
trunk hinge.
All that remains seems to be the outboard tail lights, but there
doesn’t look to be any damage here and most of it is obscured by the
trunk liner.
Where else might I look for wire damage?
I have been unable to isolate the shorted circuit i.e. nothing that I
have unplugged has been able to prevent the fuse from blowing
immediately.
I need help please. Your thoughts?

Did anything happen to the car previous to this or any work done on it?

Also, could this involve the parking switch on top of the steering
column? maybe a paper clip or something fell in there?


Sometimes dual element bulbs can fail in such a way that one broken
element will 'droop' onto the other element causing odd problems - but I
don't know if any of the bulbs are that style.

carl

 

[Clifton]

Did anything happen to the car previous to this or any work done on it?

Also, could this involve the parking switch on top of the steering
column? maybe a paper clip or something fell in there?

Sometimes dual element bulbs can fail in such a way that one broken
element will 'droop' onto the other element causing odd problems - but I
don't know if any of the bulbs are that style.

carl

Carl,
These are great ideas.
I will look into the shorted parking switch on the steering column.
As for the dual filament lamps, I thought of this and it does look
like it could happen but no joy.
As for body damage, well my son has put some battle damage on this
car.
I was sure the short was in the front passengers lighting cluster as
he smashed that up nicely, but as soon as I figured out how to
eliminate this by unplugging that sector, well I was disappointed.
The only other place that has taken obvious crushing damage is the
upper beam above the doors on the driver’s side.
Do any wires run through this channel?
Thanks for the ideas. Now I need to figure out how to remove that
parking light switch.
Any help out there?
Thanks,
Clif