Frequent blown brake light fuse

[rustymutt]

Hi everyone - haven't been active here lately but I could use some guidance.

I've had my brake light fuse blow a good 3x or 4 times in the last 6,000 miles. (I'm only driving about 2,000 miles a year so 3x or 4x is a guess). Has happened twice since late spring - maybe 1000 miles at most during that time.

I'm not sure what's causing the fuse to blow and was curious if anyone here ever had a similar issue and could point me in a smarter direction to troubleshoot it than blind guessing.

The only seemingly relevant electrical anomaly I've experienced in the last few years was when I would park in my garage, shut off the car, and then step on the brake - I'd hear a low-pitch rumble through the speakers. Suspected a bad battery - I put a new one in this past spring and haven't noticed it since. Coincidence, or...? Regarding the bad battery - the car sometimes sits for a week or two or three without being started. This probably lets the battery run down enough to make it go bad, as it had about 3 yrs / 6k miles on it. I'm guessing the blown fuse isn't related, but wanted to share this anyway. I've been purposely driving a bit more frequently since then and may put it on a trickle charger if that changes.

Open to thoughts and ideas of where to look first.

'01 with 112K miles, 4.0 V8

Thanks

[sall]

Are you certain your are replacing with an appropriately rated fuse and that you have the correct bulbs installed? I would pull all the bulbs and inspect the sockets, clean the bulb base and apply a small amount of dielectric grease. Intermittent issues can be hard to track down. I don't have the diagram handy but perhaps some wise engineer included some other peripheral on the brake circuit as well. CHMSL wiring could be a suspect as well. Again I don't have the diagram handy to verify if they both are on the same circuit.

[tigger]

Fuse should be 15A, bulbs are 3057LL...

CHMSL is indeed on that circuit;




As sall said, intermittent problems are a pain...