ok guys heres my problem, my brake light fuse keeps popping under the hood and i have no brake lights, when i hit the brakes the fuse pops.

i found a guy on craigslist that said he was an electrical mechanic but i think he was lying. he looked at my truck and tried trouble shooting, the 20amp fuse under the hood keeps popping and he broke open the fuse and made a jumper "piece of metal connecting the two" and he put it in, we walked back to my tail lights to see if it was working and when i walked back to the hood everything was smoking because the idiot did the jumper, do you guys think the wires under the fuse box are now melted and need to be replaced? because i saw alot of smoke coming it, it was in there for about 1-2 minutes.

this problem is so frustrating, im a full time student with no job so i cant afford bringing it to a shop and getting charged hundreds of dollars.

the guy said its either the fuse box under the hood, or my brake light switch under the brake pedal. which one do you guys think it is? how would i be able to tell if the fuse box under the hood went bad?



EDIT: i just googled and i seen when someone installed a stereo it caused there brake light fuse to pop, now i got 4 12" subs in my truck but i have had them for years with no problems, and then about 2 years ago i blew and amp and never replaced it, i still got everything but its not working, this brake light problem started happening about 6-9 months ago so it didnt happen right after the stereo install. but could the wiring be causing this from my stereo? i brought it to a place that professionally installed stereos but when i was looking under my brake i noticed some wires that have that twist cap on them and some even have those small transistors that you see on like computer stuff, i feel like the stereo people might have did a quick ****ty job.

here is what the guy said:

"There is a wire that runs to the radio to light it up at night, the illumination wire. That wire is also hooked up to the same circuit that the tail lights get power from. If you wired up that illumination wire to the wrong wire on the radio, that will cause it to blow the tail light fuse as soon as you turn on the lights. Double check your wiring, or check to see that the illumination wire is not grounding itself somewhere behind the radio."

could it be that?

 

You would have to unhook your Batt, then take the fuse box off an look under it to see the wires, Then you may see if the wire is melted or not, An where the wires comes out of the fuse box they should have tape around then an a cover that you can undo to see more wires,, It you have a plug on the back for pulling trailers then check them wires also to see if any of them are hurt,, Have you done anything at all to your D before this prob started ??

 

i dont have trailer light harness, i looked before. no im pretty sure it happened just out of no where. i dont no much about that illumination wire on my stereo but i really feel like it could be that, i wonder if i have to take my entire dash board off to do this,

do you think the wires could possibly need to be replaced now because of that smoke? or can it smoke for alittle without damage, i never had burning wires before

 

this sounds like a short to me, unless the problem came up right after installing the stereo id say that is likely not the issue.

as much as i know it sucks what you have to do is to start tracing the wires in the brake light circuit because you have a short somewhere. I can narrow it down a little bit since it only blows when you step on the brakes the short is most likely AFTER the brake light switch (between it and the brake lights)

 

oh man that sucks, i dont no how to do that, does the brake light wire run under teh truck? or through the side pannels? because i got my system in there that i cannot take out. also, is there anyway to test the harness in the back where the tail lights are to see if its what you said? i got a tester but i dont no which ones are suppose to have power and which dont, because i tried testing it awhile ago, and some parts in the harness had no power, but i did have a blown fuse in at a time.

 

idk what year your truck is, but you should download the FSM for the appropriate year (we have 98 and 2002 available as PDFs, which should cover you for any year, just match 98-00 to the 98 and 01-03 to the 2002) and check the wiring diagrams. Use an ohm meter to make sure there is not crossing of the wires going to the back, it is possible to check the bulb sockets to for continuity btwn the + and - terminals, but that is likely NOT a complete check. If you dont know how to use a multi-meter you are in a very tough spot right now