Hello! Wonderful forum, been a long time reader, though this is my first posting here....I'm having a bit of trouble with my 1992 Mazda Protege. For some reason the fuse that controls the taillights (the stop ones, not the one's that turn on when the lights are on) and the horn keeps blowing, even when I put in a new fuse, right away it blows it. This has gotten progressively worse over the past month, while about a month ago each new fuse would last for a few days, now, as I say, it blows immidiately. The horn on my car has not worked for years, so I thought that might be the problem, but I can't locate the horn either.

So in short, anybody know what may be causing that fuse to blow, and second, anybody know where the horn is? Thanks a bunch!

 

the voltage regulator could be causing that problem, but i would double check to see if the right size fuses are in these. if they are the right size, get the alternator checked to see how much voltage it is putting off. also could be a grounding issue. check the brake lights out and make sure that they aren't shorted out anywhere.

 

Hey thanks for the quick response! Not to sound like a complete idiot, but how would I go about checking some of those things? Namely, where is the voltage regulator located and what am I looking for? Also, how would I check the brake lights for a short? Thanks for the help!

 

the voltage regulator is inside the alternator. it restricts the voltage down to about 14.1 volts of output, but when it goes bad, it will no longer do this. the easiest way to check it is to start the car, pull both of the battery connections while it is running and put a voltometer on the connections. if it reads higher than 14.1 volts, the regulator is out and the alternator needs to be replaced. to check for shorts in the taillights, you need to just look over the wiring and see if you find anything that is pinched or frayed. sometimes people pull their taillights and when they put them back on, they get in a rush and put them back togetherthe wrong way. check the ground location and see if it is well-grounded.

 

Wonderful, wonderful! Thank you so much for the help! I'll certainly try these things this evening when I get home, but at the risk of sounding like a total idiot, where is the ground location onthe '92 Protege?

Thank you again for all your help!

 

just look at the negative terminal of the battery and there will be a wire that goes off to the body of the car. it should be a small, short wire. there might be grounds off of the lights themselves. you willjust have to pop the lights out and look at them.