So that people understand what my question is without having to read the essay below I'll start it simple. I keep blowing Fuse no. 2 on my 1998.5 Audi A4, which is Hazzard / Turn Signal fuse. How can i determine what the problem is? --> Here is the background.......

Around 1 month ago my Turn signals started playing up. They would blink as normal and then stop blinking and stay on. It progressively got worse upto the point where I physically had to use the turn signal lever to create the blinking / flashing as the car was not doing it. Then last week everything gave up. Turn signals and Hazzards...... Having read the forum's this was a common thing and knew I had to buy a new Hazard Flasher Switch for the centre console.

Whilst I waited the 3-4days for it to be delivered I took the old one out, took it apart just to see if I could find anything obvious (which I couldn't) I put it back in the car, and although It didnt work, it did give a faint and very quick light so power was definitely getting to it.

Now the new one has arrived, and I have put it in the car but got absolutely nothing out of it. Checked the fuses and it had blown. So having bought 5 new fuses I tried the new one again and nothing works. Again it blows the fuse. I even tried putting the old one back in and that also blew a fuse. (I have 3 fuses left )

Having messed with the system, I know the fuse blows when I try to use the hazzards. It doesnt blow when I try to use the Turn signal's. But either way nothing works, and it results in a blown fuse once you mess with the Hazzard switch. So my question is how do I trace the problem which is causing it to blow a fuse all the time?

Thanks in advance.....

 

One idea is to remove one turn signal bulb at a time (have a bunch of fuses on hand) and then activate the hazards. If the fuse still blows, put the bulb back in and remove another and try again. If you find that removing one of the bulbs allows the hazards to work without blowing the fuse, and then reinstall the bulb and you blow the fuse, chances are either it's an incorrect bulb (unlikely) or a problem with that particular bulb socket. If you try all the bulbs this way (including the fender bulbs) and it blows the fuse each time, you've at least eliminated the bulb sockets as a problem area and have to look into interior wiring - potentially something in the combination switch even.

 

Thanks for that Devil its something i didn't think off.......

I've been out all Lunch trying to work through the options. I decided to just unhook the light harness's completely, and then test. I started with the Front's , where it still blew a fuse. Then to the rears, but with the old hazzard switch installed. It didn't blow a fuse, so I hooked everything back up and with the old Hazzard flasher switch is DIDN'T blow the fuse (still no turn signals tho as you would expect given that its broken somewhere). Tried the same with the new hazzard flasher and it did blow the fuse..... This is in contrary to my first post.

I thought I had tested this before (hence my original post) but no matter what i did this time i couldn't get the fuse to blow with the original Hazzard switch, so now I'm thinking it could be something to do with the type of Hazzard Switch I bought.

The place I bought it from are 100% that it is for my car, but the one in my car is very slightly different than the one I bought. In fact the one I bought looks like it's from an earlier model than my 1998.5...

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Pihran...87871602717874

In the following slide show the one on the right is from my Car (ie its broken) and the on the left is the one I bought..... Connector wise they are identical. In terms on Length my original is longer, and appears to use newer technology (LED's instead of Bulbs).

My Old switch will still click when you use the turn signals (even if the turn signals or hazzards don't work that magnet inside it does), but the new one will not.

Does anyone know if I have the wrong part, or should it work?

 

How long have you had the car and has it ever been wrecked that you know of. A lot of "so called" body shops do crappy repairs and maybe there is a wire shorting out when you operate the turn signal lever. Also it could be a turn signal switch. If your determined to fix it right, get a wiring diagram for your particular year/model and start pinning out the wires associated with the turn signals and the flasher. It's going to take time and patience. All wires are color coded and if you pin out both ends of the wire, with an ohm/volt meter, you can tell if there is additional resistance within any particular wire.

 

it's your turn signal relay. just replace it and you'll be fine. I had the same problem and got it fixed the same time I got the car repaired from playing chicken with a deer.

 

well i bought my hazardswitch from purems.com check there site out also my issue was differnt but my turn signal just stoped working i bought a new hazard switch and bam not a issue ever again now with your issue im thinking that there could be water in a socket or somthing for it to keep blowing under load of the hazard switch being on weirdd your saying the newer style uses led's wtf? inside the switch?? that cant be right