I would like to pick the brain of all you SRT6 or Crossfire owners and see if anybody knows why my instrument panel and license plate lights keeps going out. I checked my fuse box on drivers side door and noticed the 7.5 amp fuse was blown out and replaced it with another. The problem I’m having now is that the same 7.5 amp fuse keeps blowing out after a few miles of driving. Some key notes: I’m not drawing battery with any other additional fancy add-ons. It’s practically stock with the only possible add-on that would draw additional power that comes to mind would be my new BT pioneer radio deck (50Wx4). Also, my fog lights are not working thus causing my fog light indicator light to turn on (not sure if this could be causing the short). If someone could “shed some light” on this issue, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

If it happens over and over, but not instantly, I would wire up an ammeter via the fuse, and check and see how much current is actually being drawn. Then you can start tracking down where the draw is, if it is excessive. 7.5 amp while one of the lower fuse sizes, is still about 100 watts, so it should be something that would be easy to find, if it isn't a random short to ground. Check the liftgate for worn/rubbing wires.

 

Good idea, but maybe even better would be to pull the fuse and hook a 12v bulb across it's sockets in the fuse box. That way you could see the bulb light bright as you are driving.
( use one of the blown fuses and solder the wires from the bulb to the pins )
( if there is a circuit to ground, then the bulb will glow full brightness )
Also raise and lower the hatch a few times while watching the light.

 

I am assuming that by 'fog light indicator' you mean the green light in the light switch? As all the dash lights go out as well as the 'bulb out' indicator. This should not be part of the main problem as far as I see, but my eyes are not too good.
How many miles on this car? How long have you had it?
This may be a silly question but do the lights have to be on when the fuse blows, if not then surely the problem lies in the dash somewhere.
When did this start? Suddenly or slowly build up to a shorter interval?
It could be in the ICM, that is the Illumination Control Module or more commonly called the light switch. Have you played around in that area?

 

Thanks for all these trouble shooting tips, folks. I'll try them on Sunday and get back with you all. @onehundred80 My SRT6 black convertible has 172000 miles on it and owned it for about 2 months now (got it for $1500 with one owner). It's a very fun car to drive minus these little electrical issues I'v encountered. The fuse ends up blowing while my lights are turned on and this started happening recently out of the blue. I'm not sure where to start on finding the ICM but I assume it entails me removing my dash and other panels. I did download the SRT6 mechanics manual and could use that. I already replaced the convertible top on my own using this manual so I'm sure it's good enough to guide me through this. But if you know of any short cuts to avoid pulling out the dash, please let me know

 

To get to the light switch, follow https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...y_fix_v5.pdfup to step #8, the switch drops down with the panel.
With the lights on it could be anywhere on that fuse circuit, but if it does not blow with the lights off then the tag light circuit looks to be the culprit.
You could find the wire(s) at the light switch and measure the resistance to see if it is over that of the two bulbs there.
There are enough wires at that switch to coke a horse, so look at the Service Manual for the wires.

 

I forgot to mention that I changed out my license plate lights and rear side markers to LED lights. Would that be causing my panel lights fuse to blow?

 

Simple test, put the old ones back in.

 

Just want to chime back in and let you all know the outcome. Little by little on my days off I finally found the problem of the reoccurring blown fuse for my dash panel lights and license tag lights. I discovered the culprit was two bad license tag light harnesses. The bulbs were rubbing against the plastic harness thus causing the short. I can tell by the melted plastic from where the bulbs were leaning on it. The new tag light harnesses were hard to find, so I resulted in going through the stealership($40 a piece). I sucessfully tested everything out by placing a new 7amp fuse in and new light harneses. The dashboard light stayed on, the license tag lights are lit and fuse did not blow. Win!