fuses for brake lights keep blowing

My brake lights stopped working, found blown fuses, replaced them, and the new ones blew. Probably a short, but how do I find it? I don't want to have to take the car in and pay a bunch of money if I can fix it myself, but I have no clue as to how to find the problem and fix it. Please help.

Does fuse blow almost immediately when put in new fuse and apply brake?

The stop lamp circuit runs thru quite a bit of the vehicle so potentially a little hard to isolate.

Do you have any electrical troubleshooting know-how?

Do you have any other problems with rear lamps on vehicle that you know of?

Just a note: Make sure you use the correct amp fuses first. I would suspect pressing the brake pedal makes it worse. With the lights, battery and fuse removed touch the hot wire leading from the battery to the fuse to a ground with a ohm meter. If you get continuity then the hot wire is grounded somewhere or in other words a short. You should also test between the switch and fuse and switch and socket to ground.

OK, it blows as soon as I touch the brake with a new fuse in and I am using the correct amp fuses. There are no other problems with the rear lamps that I know of. I took the bulbs out, put a new fuse in and it still blew. I practically took apart my car following the wires, and they are so wrapped in tape and insulation (which I didn't undo) that I don't know where the short will be. Today I am going to try the switch from the brake peddle(a friend who knows a little more about cars is going to help out, since I am not sure how to do that). Then I am going to do what RalphT suggested. If I don't figure it out and get it fixed by then, guess I'll just take it in to the shop. Thanks for the help.

Well it sounds like you are willing to (and already have) gotten it details a little so here is a suggestion.

Underneath the front passenger seat (under the carpet) there is something called the main body harness. Right at this location you will find a flat "lump" taped into harness which has several small light blue wires going to it. It likely has several larger dark blue wires.

Focus on the light blue wires. There should be 5 of them in different "cavities". These wires are one end of all of the stop lamp circuits in your vehicle. If you can locate this and remove the metal "comb" you can separate the circuits and then check each with a test light and maybe find the one that looks most like a direct short to ground to isolate issue a bit more.

Let me know if you want more details.....also does your vehicle have a spoiler with a center high mounted stop lamp or is that on the "rear shelf" between the rear speakers on your vehicle?

Can someone help me please! My daughter has a 1999 malibu. I recently changed her all the bulbs for her tail & stop lights. But now she has no tail lights when she attempts to turn them on manually. Has anyone had this problem?

Can someone help me please! My daughter has a 1999 malibu. I recently changed her all the bulbs for her tail & stop lights. But now she has no tail lights when she attempts to turn them on manually. Has anyone had this problem?

Did you have a problem before you changed the bulbs? Did none of them work or was there only one burnt?

Did you have a problem before you changed the bulbs? Did none of them work or was there only one burnt?

Thanks for the quick response. Yes, before I replaced the bulb there was one blown bulb on the right passenger side. However, I discovered when I was attempting to replace that bulb, I was replacing it with the wrong bulb! This caused the inside bulb housing to smash together (for lack of better terms) so I separated the little pieces that were smashed together and was able to insert the new correct bulb and put in a new fuse. This worked, all the brake lights then worked. But now the tail lights do not work. Everything else works ok.

Could you tell me what I did wrong that could have caused all these problems? I know, the first thing I did wrong was to touch it in the first place. However, most of the auto places that I talked to wanted 75.00 just to isolate what the problem could be. I thought that that was way too much money, especially since I was able to fix it myself with 8.00 worth of bulbs and 3.50 for fuses.

Unfortunately, I just created what seems like a bigger problem. Please help me if you can. I figure at this point maybe it's something simple that could fix the problem.

Can you tell us what bulb type you were and are now using? I think the tail/stop lamp (2 per side) is dual filament #3057 and the back-up and rear turn are both a single filament #3156. That number would have appeared both on the lamp itself and any packaging. I wonder if you are still using wrong type of bulb which is why the tail lamps don't work

Can you tell us what bulb type you were and are now using? I think the tail/stop lamp (2 per side) is dual filament #3057 and the back-up and rear turn are both a single filament #3156. That number would have appeared both on the lamp itself and any packaging. I wonder if you are still using wrong type of bulb which is why the tail lamps don't work

Thanks again for the quick response. Yes, I made sure that the bulbs were correct as you stated #3057 for the tail/stop lamp and the #3156 for back-up and rear turn signals. I also replaced the #15 mini fuse for the bulbs. The break lights & turn/back-up lights work fine, just no tail lights.

Any suggestions you may have would be most appreciated.

OK, do to front marker lights work when you turn on park lamps (either by switch or via automatic light control feature)

Does your license lamp work (also fed off same circuit)

OK, do to front marker lights work when you turn on park lamps (either by switch or via automatic light control feature)

Does your license lamp work (also fed off same circuit)

There are head lamps either by switch or the automatic light control feature. I do not know that there is a bulb where the lisence plate is located. But when the switch or automatic light control is featuris used, there is no light over the lisence plate.

Any other thoughts?

There are head lamps either by switch or the automatic light control feature. I do not know that there is a bulb where the lisence plate is located. But when the switch or automatic light control is featuris used, there is no light over the lisence plate.

Any other thoughts?


Sounds like you may still have a burnt fuse. Did you check the fuse inside the car and under the hood? You may want to swap them with a known good fuse being that sometimes they are hard to see it they are burnt.

I agree you should check Park Lamp fuse again underhood to make sure not blown. There are also what are called parking lamps on front of vehicle which you should see if they don't work as well. These are supposed to be on when your headlamp switch is in the Parking lights position. Likely they aren't working either.

Ok. I attempted to look at those fuses yesterday. However, I can't seem to get them out. I was afraid I may break them off.
Is there a quick way to remove them and can the fuses be purchased local, say at autozone?

I thought there was a fuse puller provided in the left hand instrument panel end cap. However it might not be there any longer on your vehicle. It is just a small white plastic thing

Fuse you want to look at underhood is #45. The 15 Amp Park fuse - blue color.

If you have a test light there are test probes in top surface on each side of fuse you could also check for voltage.

AutoZone should have tons of these minifuses. I am not as sure about the larger Maxifuses or relays.

You can probably pick up a fuse puller at any automotive place for $5.00 or so. I've pulled them out with needle nose pliers before. Just make sure that you don't apply to much pressure and break the fuse.

You guys ROCK!...I was able to get the tester and checked out all of the fuses. As you stated the #15 (blue) fuse was bad. I replaced it and walla! TAIL LIGHTS!.

Thanks you all sooooo much for all your quick responses. I will continue to use this site for help. You all save us sooooo much money and headache!

A MILLION THANKS! Have a Terrific Thursday!