[MR2] '88 el woes recap

[Kurt Krueger]

On 4/26/2010 11:37 AM, ron ewing wrote:
> Hi guys.  I wrote a while back about my 88 mk1 blowing fuses when I turned on the running lights.  After unplugging/replugging the rears the problem went away - apparently a bit of corrosion causing the extra draw.  No problems since anyway.  I love it when life is simple  :)  Cheers, Ron.
>    
It is impossible for corrosion to cause extra draw.  So something else 
changed when you
plugged and unplugged the lights.  Like a wire that was shorting.

In the old days, when the body frame was used as the ground for lights, 
all sorts of strange
things could happen when the ground connection was lost due to 
corrosion.  Less of a problem
now with a separate ground wire for the light sockets.  But I still see 
cars with strange taillight
behavior.  Like when they apply the brakes, one light gets bright and 
the other goes out.

Missing ground problems virtually never cause fuses to blow because what 
usually happens is that
the current gets routed through another bulb on the same circuit and 
then to ground.

Anyway, glad the problem went away.