BAN HAMMER

So I have this problem with my 91 camry blowing a fusible link...I let it sit for a week and now when I turn the ignition on, the link doesn't blow anymore, but the battery makes a sizzling sound? WTF is that...I dont want to blow my face off. Any help is appreciated. thanks.

98formulaLS1

I'll bet you have a massive short, causing your battery to continuously discharge. Disconnect your battery and pull out the multimeter.

Set it to resistance check. Measure the resistance between the positive battery cable and the negative battery cable (or any other chassis ground)

BAN HAMMER

Alright. I have this 91 camry as My DD. About a month ago, I popped the head gasket so I changed the head gasket, timing belt, radiator, water pump fuel injectors, spark plugs, cap and rotor, and put a new battery in it.

It ran perfect before all this. So i get everything done and start it up and drive it around the block to let it warm up. it gets around the block twice and then dies. the AM2 fuseible link located right after the + terminal on the main battery wire blew. (this link controls EVERYTHING EFI in the car) so i replace the link, turn the key on and it blows again. I get the car towed back home and go through about 20 of these stupid links trying to chase down a short, I unplug shit, jiggle wires, nothing changes, it keeps blowing with the key in the on position.

THEN it just stops. I put a new link in, turn the key and its fine. I plug everything back up, its still good. So i drive it around the block again. BAM. blows the fuse again.

SO now i let it sit a week and went outside today and the battery was dead. I charged the battery, and turned the key to on and nothing popped. so I try to start the car and it blows. I go and unplug everything again, and its the SAME EXACT scenario as last time. THIS time i unplugged everything except the injectors. it still blew. when I unplugged the injectors, it stopped and didn't blow but when i plugged them back in, it DIDN'T blow. (WHAT THE FUCK) SO NOW I plug it all back up, and the car starts. Now the car runs again but I am afraid to take it anywhere for fear it will just die again.


Does this sound like a short somewhere in the harness? cause it was STILL blowing fuses when EVERYTHING was unplugged and then just goes away. its like a ghost short or something. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks, sorry for the long ass boring read.

EH3_SOHC

it sounds more like somethings grounding out. do you think it could be that when you unplug wires and jiggle them that your momentarily stopping the ground but when you drive it around your making some 12v wire ground out again from things moving?

BAN HAMMER

Thats what was thinking...but its impossible to find cause I think its in the harness.

Fabrik8

I merged the two threads. Please don't make duplicates for the same problem, just edit the one you already have.

Harness shorts aren't impossible to find, you can troubleshoot them the same way as any other short.. Once you find out what is shorted, you can find out where it is.

I doubt you've unplugged everything on that circuit. Fusible links usually either go to a pretty hefty load directly, or they go to a smaller fuse panel somewhere. I would track down exactly what you touched when you installed everything, and check it out for pinched wires, etc.

You need to find a factory manual or something with a schematic of the whole car so you can do more than just guess and unplug things.

BAN HAMMER

it was 2 different problems.

and i HAVE unplugged everything on the ignition/fuel circuit. I HAVE the factory manual and downloaded the wiring diagram. that's why i asked originally if it sounded like it was inside the harness itself, maybe at a bend, or at a union.

and I pretty much touched EVERYTHING lol, so that would be a little hard to track down.

Fabrik8

Well, if you have the schematic, unplug everything on the engine, keep the harness where it is, and start checking resistance between each wire and ground. It's most likely going to be a short to ground because not much else can make such a big current path.