Caliraised OEM light switches burning out

So I bough a 3 4WDKING lights with harnesses and changed the switches to caliraised light switches but everyone of the switches has burned out? I triple checked all my connections with a multimeter. All look good. What i was experiencing was that one of the switches only the backlight led would turn on the other 2 wouldnt so i tried all the switches on all 3 lights , one light would burn its the fuse everytime. Now all three switches are burnt? Why is the fuse shorting out? Ive tripple checked the the wiring. When i bypassed the the switch mech altogether the fuse wouldnt blow and the light operated normally. ???

The relay came with an inline fuse with the opt to use 10a, 20a, or 30a depending on the length of the wire. It burned through all three.

I have the red wire with the inline fuse for all three lights stacked and connected to the pos pole on the battery and the 3 black wires stacked to the chasis.

All three lights are connected with the same harnesses but one seems to be burning up the switches and fuses.
Maybe a bad relay? How do i test for that?

 

China junk

 

Bluetaco i see youve applied occums razor. Not a great deal of help but you got to start somewhere i guess

 

Are you using relays? I’m not an expert at all, but i ran my BD Squadron Pro Ditch lights with a relay into a caliraised switch and havent had problems running it a lot for nearly a whole year. The relay is super important, otherwise you’re putting too high of amps through the switch itself.

 

Yes i am. Thank for your question

 

Hit this thread up, they will figure it out. Include all the info you have about your lights, wiring route, and parts used to help them know exactly whats up. Pictures of your set up may help them.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ken-the-electrical-guy-q-n-a.632969/

 

TY OilCpt

 

What amp rating is the fuse for pwr into the switch? I limit my switches to 2A except once during install a 7.5 was lowest i had on hand and it still didn't burnout switch.

If relay is wired correctly and none of your terminals/connections are shorting across one another, the amp draw through switch should be low.

May just be bad batch of switches, hard to say.

 

I tend to agree, it sounds like something's not wired up correctly. Would help if you posted your wiring diagram, including terminal numbers you used on your relay.

 

The relays are each fused with 20amp or 30amps which came with the harness from 4WDKING(Amazon). I have all the reds from each harness tied into the battery stacked one on top of the other and the grounds stacked together on the chasis. Could this be the problem. Only one of the lights was blowing its fuse and when i had them all hooked up to the battery the truck wouldnt start but the cab lights and dash turned on?

 

Might need to change out the relays. Either that or you might be getting some kind of short somewhere. It doesn't make sense as to why the switches are burning out unless they are receiving too much current.

 

Again, I’m definitely not an expert, but the “truck wouldn’t start” part is mildly concerning to me. Please hit up the thread I posted above that has experts willing to take Q&A’s. I think you’ll find they are amazing at figuring stuff out.

 

I sent my dilemma on to Ken. Thanks for that

 

Only one harness was burning through the fuse. Its set up exactly the same way. I bypassed the switch and could operate the light without blowing the fuse? The switch smelled of burnt plastic and even saw some smoke

 

Something just doesn't seem right about the wiring, but, like you said it could always be the switches too. I have two CaliRaised switches, one to a CaliRaised hidden light bar, and one harnessed to Baja Designs ditch lights. Both work perfectly. I hope you can get an answer to the issue soon.

 

May be a bad relay? How do i test for that?

 

This is what I think it is too. I think the harness has the wrong relay(s) in it. Either that or it's bad. OP, look up how to test a relay because that I'm not sure of.

 

This sounds like the current is coming through your switch—especially since you smelled burnt plastic. The switches aren’t mean for the current that powers the light to come through the switch. My understanding, again I’m a nobody, is that with a relay you are essentially setting up two circuits. The main one to power the light which has a lot more amps, and a second one with the switch that controls the first one through the relay. I would not hook up another switch until you have someone better than me looking at a diagram of your wiring.

 

Thats how i understand it. The harnesses and wiring are the same so its got to be the relay

 

Green to fused power, red 1 to post 86 on relay, red 2 to switched light power, black to ground. Run grounds to body ground, but make sure you scrape paint off under the ring terminal (or chase the threads to get paint out of them so the bolt gets a good connection to bare metal). If the ground is bad, it can cause issues.