Electrical issue: Rear taillight and Dashboard fuse blown, left side blinker randomly acts up

2002 first gen v6

Hey guys,

I'm facing an issue with my rear tail lights and dashboard fuse has blown out. The problem emerged the same day after I replaced my battery with an AGM Die-Hard. Interestingly, the fuse issue cropped up that night after I drove off a curb that night on purpose. I replaced the fuse with a new one and it worked for a brief period, although left blinker started acting up, getting stuck on.

Before the battery replacement, I had experienced intermittent battery drain, possibly due to a short circuit. I'm not very savvy with electrical stuff, and I'm tight on funds to take it to a shop right now. Can anyone offer suggestions on where to start looking for the problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Update: I also have no horn and cruise control

Also I meant tail lights

 

Time to break out your Meter and get some numbers.

I would first clean out your rear bulb sockets and make sure all your bulbs are good .

If nothing is found look for Physical Damage to the tail light harness.

Work on one problem at a time.

Has your Horn and Cruise control ever Worked??

 

Horn and tail light both go through the combination switch on your steering column. The cruise may go through the same area but I am not certain. I would definitely start looking at the combination switch.

 

Today, I'm tackling the issue. To my knowledge, cruise control and the horn were functioning properly as of a couple of weeks ago, although I don't use them frequently. Since I'm already addressing a short, I thought it wise to investigate these issues as well. Upon inspection, I discovered a potential problem with the electronic taillight converter - it appears the tail marker wire has shorted. I'm considering cutting it, but I'm uncertain whether doing so will also affect the ground for my other headlights or if it's solely related to the taillight converter's ground.

 

Just disconnect the tow harness, if it’s one of the plug and play models, while you are troubleshooting. Those are notorious for causing problems. I finally switched to a powered tow harness and it seems to have helped with the failure every two years or so.

 

That is your tail light wire that is melted no wonder they don`t work.