Tail light fuse keeps blowing

[radi4fun]

he guys, I was installing LED license plate screws last night and when i tried to combine both screws wires and try and plug them into the license plate light connector, it keeps blowing out the fuse. I blew 2 fuses already. when i try and only connect just one of the led screw's wire, it works perfectly fine.

Is there any way have both led screws light up and not blow the fuse? do i have to add something in the wire like a resistor or anything? I'm on my last spare fuse and i don't want to blow it.

[DaBlue1]

Originally Posted by radi4fun

....Is there any way have both led screws light up and not blow the fuse? do i have to add something in the wire like a resistor or anything? I'm on my last spare fuse and i don't want to blow it.

Double up on the fuse amps.

[Asspire]

check your polarity and connections, LED lights should not blow the stock (10A) fuse, unless theres a short to ground or crossed wire some where. those LED bolts shouldn't pull more than 0.25A each.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Asspire

check your polarity and connections, LED lights should not blow the stock (10A) fuse, unless theres a short to ground or crossed wire some where. those LED bolts shouldn't pull more than 0.25A each.

Yes, Andy; you are feeding raw 12 volts to ground directly.

How? ....... Only you can find it, .............but I suspect of a pinched wire somewhere.

Between the (+) post of your battery and ground, you need to route the electrons to find some resistance for each circuit (a light bulb, a LED, a horn, etc.).

In your case, those electrons are finding as easier way to return to the (-) pole of the battery (no resistance in the way) and they are rushing (too many of them at once = high Amps = burned fuse).

If you have a multimeter able to read resistance (ohms), you don't need to blow any more fuses: you need to be able to measure more than 1.2 ohms, otherwise, that fuse will cook itself.

Best luck in your investigation !!!

[radi4fun]

Originally Posted by Asspire

check your polarity and connections, LED lights should not blow the stock (10A) fuse, unless theres a short to ground or crossed wire some where. those LED bolts shouldn't pull more than 0.25A each.

I have checked the wiring. The first time I had routed the wires on the side panel up the frame and then I had twisted the red (hot) wires and then twists the black (ground) wires together and inserted the red wires into the red side of the oem connector and the black wires in the black side, it blow the fuse and i heard a tiny spark noise. So i pulled the wites out to make sure that everything was ok.

I changed the fuse and I then tested each led on its own and and it worked perfectly fine. So I decide to recombine the red wires together and black ones and this time I made sure that the wires were not touching any part of the bike and it blew the fuse again. So for now I just have one led screw attached to the stock wiring harness.

Now about doubling up in the fuse amp, do I just go to auto zone or Home Depot and just get a fuse that says 20A? Is there a specific size or they should all be same?

This are the led screws I'm trying to attach http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewi...d=300893433983

[Felipe the Ant]

There's definitely a short to ground on your second LED. I have 4 green LED strips wired parallel with my license plate light and they work fine. Each strip has like 10 LEDs on it and they're bright. No way you're gonna come close to 10A

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by radi4fun

.......Now about doubling up in the fuse amp, do I just go to auto zone or Home Depot and just get a fuse that says 20A? Is there a specific size or they should all be same?

I wouldn't reduce the protection of the circuit: your 20 will blow as fast as those 10's.

Check for those tiny wires that could be out of place creating the short.

[Felipe the Ant]

Originally Posted by Motofool

I wouldn't reduce the protection of the circuit: your 20 will blow as fast as those 10's.

Check for those tiny wires that could be out of place creating the short.

It'll blow slower than the 10A allowing more damage to the rest of the circuit, never replace any fuse with a larger one unless you want a fire...

[DaBlue1]

Originally Posted by radi4fun

I have checked the wiring. The first time I had routed the wires on the side panel up the frame and then I had twisted the red (hot) wires and then twists the black (ground) wires together and inserted the red wires into the red side of the oem connector and the black wires in the black side, it blow the fuse and i heard a tiny spark noise. So i pulled the wites out to make sure that everything was ok.

I changed the fuse and I then tested each led on its own and and it worked perfectly fine. So I decide to recombine the red wires together and black ones and this time I made sure that the wires were not touching any part of the bike and it blew the fuse again. So for now I just have one led screw attached to the stock wiring harness.

Now about doubling up in the fuse amp, do I just go to auto zone or Home Depot and just get a fuse that says 20A? Is there a specific size or they should all be same?

This are the led screws I'm trying to attach http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewi...d=300893433983

Do you have an integrated tail light or stock?

[Felipe the Ant]

Try wiring the second light backwards, maybe they wired it backwards and it's shorting to ground through the screw. Or test it with a ohmmeter


Or if you don't have an ohmmeter wire them in series, if the 2nd light is wired backwards it wont light up but the other one will be normal. If they're both ok they should both light at half power


2 half watt LEDS only draw 0.08333....etc amps. nowhere near 10

[DaBlue1]

Originally Posted by radi4fun

....I changed the fuse and I then tested each led on its own and and it worked perfectly fine. So I decide to recombine the red wires together and black ones and this time I made sure that the wires were not touching any part of the bike and it blew the fuse again. So for now I just have one led screw attached to the stock wiring harness.

Now about doubling up in the fuse amp, do I just go to auto zone or Home Depot and just get a fuse that says 20A? Is there a specific size or they should all be same?

If you've tested both bulbs individually and they both worked, then when combining them they blew a fuse, there must be something else on that circuit that is drawing power, What else do you have wired on your bike?

[Felipe the Ant]

Originally Posted by DaBlue1

there must be something else on that circuit that is drawing power

Liiike.... a 0 ohm load? or short to ground. he says it works fine with only one

[radi4fun]

I have Bikelitez Integrated LED Taillight and Hotbodies Racing Smoked Undertail that I hooked up to the integrated led taillight so that the hotbodies built in turn signals also flash with the integrated LED taillight signals and the front stock turn signals.

[DaBlue1]

Originally Posted by radi4fun

I have Bikelitez Integrated LED Taillight and Hotbodies Racing Smoked Undertail that I hooked up to the integrated led taillight so that the hotbodies built in turn signals also flash with the integrated LED taillight signals and the front stock turn signals.

Here is what I was getting at...

Link to original page on YouTube.

[radi4fun]

Just curious, if i double up on the fuse amp and go with 20A and if that fuse also blew, any idea what would happen? Would that blow the whole circuit or any other fuse along with it? I have no idea what would happen if lets say a 20A or 30A fuse got blown because i had too many LED's wired up to the taillight.

I do like that video, it seems so simple to just change out to a higher AMP fuse and be done with it.

[DaBlue1]

Originally Posted by radi4fun

Just curious, if i double up on the fuse amp and go with 20A and if that fuse also blew, any idea what would happen? Would that blow the whole circuit or any other fuse along with it? I have no idea what would happen if lets say a 20A or 30A fuse got blown because i had too many LED's wired up to the taillight.

I do like that video, it seems so simple to just change out to a higher AMP fuse and be done with it.

On the stock bike the tail/brake and license plate are on the same 10A fuse, the turn signals are on separate 10a fuse.

You have integrated LED (with load resistors?) tail/ brake/ license plate and turn signals all on the same 10a fuse.

For testing, don't go higher than 20A. If a 20A blows, it's doing it's job and protecting the circuit. If it does not blow, a 15A may be better.
So that you don't have a circuit that is too hot, consider either disabling the under tail LEDs or the integrated ones so that you can put the LED license plate bolt lights on the tail/brake fuse or put the under tail turn signals back on it's own 10A fuse.

[Asspire]

if you blow a 20A fuse, means you have more than 20A draw.... That's means you have 20A or more (30,40,50?) going thru 16-18 gauge wire. I hope your insurance covers fire damage. A LED plate light and turn signals and LED tail light should not blow a 10A fuse, unless is using 3 Cree XM-L's.

do me a favor, take your two led plate lights, connect them in series. put the negative wire to battery negative, then get your voltmeter and set it to amps reading (you will need to switch the test leads around). then connect the positive test lead to battery + and negative test lead to positive led wire. if you read more than .5 amps or more(most meters go up to 10A), you got a problem. if not, check the wiring on the bike, might have something there not wired right.

[radi4fun]

Haha some crazy thing happened. I went to Home Depot and got a pack of multi amp fuses pack and I put in a new fresh 10A fuse in, turned on the ignition and it turned on one of my led screw. Turned of the bike, removed the wires and plugged in the 2nd led screw wires and it turned on. Then I plugged in both led screws wires at once and it blew the 10A fuse. So I turned off the bike, replaced the 10A fuse with 20A. I reconnected both led screws to the wiring and as soon as u turned on the ignition switch........ Haha one of the led screws wires started smoking. The wires on the led at multiple sections melted hahaha. It was a fun and dangerous. I'm assuming that the 20A was too powerful that it melted the wires on one of the led screws.

I went back and took the 20A out and replaced it with a new 10A and just plugged in the led screw that was not burnet and it turned on right a way so now I'm stuck with 1 led screw until I order new ones. Once I order new led screws, I was thinking of instead of messing with the bikes fuses and stuff, can't I just like get a 9volt battery and just use that as the power source for my led screws? I'm sure it's not too hard to wire up a switch for it and I can probably hide it somewhere and just turn it on at the night time when I actually need the license plate led? Unless there is another place I can hook up the wiring to on the bike.

I was also thinking of doing a separate 10A fuse box thing for just the extra led's but I have no idea where to start. I'd prefer this route instead of 9 volt battery as I don't know how long that is going to last.

[Motofool]

[Asspire]

[radi4fun]

It was a fun experience. I'll take some pics of the burnet wire when I get home tonight.

[Felipe the Ant]

sounds like that wire was shorted to ground..... you're lucky that was the weakest part of the circuit.


go ahead and do what you want I guess since you're not going to listen. 10amps is a **** load of leds