I have a '00 AP1 and here in the past week or so I've been burning through fuses pretty quickly. The fuse I speak of is one inside the driver footwell and it controls the tail lights, tachometer number lights and the lghts for the radio.

I hanged the fuse last week and it died last night. Thinking it was a fluke I put another fuse in. Well not 10 minutes later while driving the fuse dies and the lights die. I change it again for it to die again.

I feel like I'm dealing with a wire gremlin...or a bad ground somewhere. Am I missing anything obvious or should i start chasng wires down?

 

first off, your window lock is activated. flip the switch on the driver's door and it will work again. n00b mistake

2nd of all, do you have an aftermarket radio? professionally installed? I'd guess you have a crap installation on an aftermarket radio and something is shorting out.

 

Turn the main switch back on on the drivers door.

You have a short to ground somewhere on the other circuit blowing the fuse.
DO NOT put a larger amp rating fuse in the fuse box. You will cause a electrical fire.

 

Lol figured out the window. Felt stupid.

Chasing wires and foun a disconnected ground hope that does te trick.

 

Doubtful. A disconnected ground will cause an open circuit (no current flow). You would 'see' something not working. The only complication is if the loose ground wire were touching a positive (hot) wire. In that case, it'll blow the fuse for that circuit every time. So, was the ground wire touching any other bare wires or connectors?? If not, keep looking!

 

And stock radio btw

 

Unfortunately it sounds like a gremlin. Does it blow the fuse when hitting a bump, or randomly? Has the car gotten wet recently? Been left out in a hard rain?

 

When I installed my test pipe the o2 sensor location was a little off. So the o2 sensor was hitting the frame, it eventually rubbed a hole in the wiring causing similar symptoms

 

Well...it was doing it after bumps or spirited acceleration...it seems to have stopped for now.

 

Put a test light ( 21 watt brake light globe) in place of the fuse. Use whatever bits of wire etc you can.

The globe should glow dimly during normal operation, if there is a short to ground the globe will light up bright. The resistance of the globe limits current so you wont burn out anything ( unless you use a 1000w search light).

Go for a drive and watch the globe, or shake around your wiring loom till you find out where it is shorting.