2001 Buick Park Avenue fuse blows

Tiny
RSANDIFER
  • MEMBER
  • 2001 BUICK PARK AVENUE
  • 3.8L
  • 6 CYL
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 256,000 MILES
When I turn my ignition switch to on a fuse blows under glove box. Fuel pump has been replace so that's not it. Car turns over fine but want crank won't rev. Up. I've found ALOT of bare wires on crankshaft sensor pigtail could this be the problem
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Thursday, September 4th, 2014 AT 10:41 PM

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Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,699 POSTS
Hmmm. Fuses blow when bare wires short together. You have a blowing fuse, and you have bare wires. Try this:

A simple trick to finding a short is to replace the blown fuse with a pair of spade terminals, then use small jumper wires to connect them to a 12 volt light bulb. A brake light bulb works well. When the circuit is live and the short is present, the bulb will be full brightness and hot so be sure it's not laying on the carpet or against a plastic door panel. Now you can unplug electrical connectors and move things around to see what makes the short go away. When it does, the bulb will get dim or go out
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Thursday, September 4th, 2014 AT 11:03 PM
Tiny
RSANDIFER
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Ok that's cool I just wanna know if I replace the crankshaft connector pigtail theres really no need 2 replace the whole sensor if I can clearly see where the bare wireis. There couldn't be anything else blowing this fuse could it?
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Thursday, September 4th, 2014 AT 11:24 PM
Tiny
CARADIODOC
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Do my light bulb procedure, then unplug the crank sensor. If the bulb gets dim, that's your short. If there's no change, you have to keep looking. At that point you'll need to determine what circuits that fuse feeds.

This also depends on where those bare wires are. If they're on the sensor side of the connector, unplugging it will make the short go away. If they're on the harness leading up to that sensor, unplugging it there won't help.
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Thursday, September 4th, 2014 AT 11:33 PM
Tiny
RSANDIFER
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There on the plug side I've had the bare parts taped but when it gets hot it powers car off and blows fuse
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Thursday, September 4th, 2014 AT 11:57 PM
Tiny
CARADIODOC
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The light bulb will limit current to a safe level, but it can also limit it so much that the circuit doesn't work. If you find the engine never starts with the bulb in place of the fuse, use a larger bulb, like part of a headlight bulb. A tail light bulb will allow about an amp of current to flow when it's feeding a dead short. A brake light will pass about one and a half amps. A typical low beam headlight will pass around five amps. That's usually enough to let circuits work, and the bulb will still just be full brightness when the short occurs.

If you can drive the car that way, and the bulb goes from dim to brighter when the engine stalls, that's the time to leave the ignition switch on and start unplugging things. Don't overlook a wiring harness to an oxygen sensor falling down onto hot exhaust parts and grounding out.
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Friday, September 5th, 2014 AT 12:06 AM

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