Fuse 32 intermittently blowing

[highamsm]

I'm having a problem with my 2001 focus, my fuse 32 keeps blowing taking out my dash lights and rear lights whenever I turn on my lights, I have checked for shorts in the rear lights, raised brake light and rear number plate light and removed the dash unit but the fuse still blows. I have even removed all fuses from the central fuse box except fuse 32 and on turning on the lights the fuse still blows, would this suggest that the short must be before the fuse box so located under the bonnet somewhere or in the wiring behind the fuse box. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Sponsor]

[Focus_ZX5_SES]

Did you happen to check the wiring in the rubber accordion tube that moves from the body to the hatch (assuming this is a hatchback)? That can cause a mess of problems and is apparently common to break.

[TerryB]

Wiring from body to hatch.

[highamsm]

Thanks for the replys, I have checked this and all the wires look fine, I tried most things suggested in other posts on the site except the checking for a bad earth as I'm not sure where this is located.

[Monoblanco]

Hi highamsm -

A bad earth should not be able to cause a fuse to blow - rather it would cause dimming of your affected lights due to total circuit resistance increasing, resulting in less, not more, current flow.
Looking for an exposed hot (positive polarity) conductor touching a grounded (negative) conductor, or a previously unenergized positive conductor which goes to an additional load, are your best bets. If you have a complete and correct wiring diagram you can investigate everything after fuse 32 untill you find the culprit. There may be additional loads beyond what you have mentioned, one of which may be your source of trouble. In any case the problem almost has to be downstream of the failing fuse, and could be a defective or failed component (eg lamp) or component's socket.
There are wiring connectors down stream of the fuse, so you may try opening the connectors one at a time as a means to isolate and identify the culprit.
After doing some research in the factory wiring manual:
On 2002 USA models (what I have, ZX5), F32 feeds directly into the GEM (general electronic module). From the output side of the GEM are fed the lights you mentioned, the instrument cluster turn signal indicators,the hazard flasher switch and the multifunction switch (high beam, low beam, etc). so, lots of stuff to go wrong.

Good luck,
Monoblanco