2002 Chevrolet Suburban, Radio Fuse Blows

This 2002 Chevrolet Suburban came in with the complaint that the radio fuse would blow. The fuse is in the driver’s side interior fuse box. I installed a new fuse and sure enough it blew when I switched the ignition on. I checked my wiring diagrams and found on this particular vehicle there was only the radio and the rear controls on that fuse. Possibly a short in the radio, kids do tend to put change in them at times. To pull the radio I removed the dash trim panel by unsnapping the edges. Dropped the tilt steering wheel down as far as it could go, switched the ignition on and dropped the shifter down to drive 1. This allows enough room to pull the trim panel out. Make sure the parking brake is applied and or you hold your foot on the brake pedal!!

To remove the radio the locking tabs on either side have to be depressed. Then the radio can be slid out of the dash. I unplugged the radio but the short was still there.

I looked under the dash to see if I could find a harness connector. My intent was to disconnect the rear controls without removing the whole center console. I found it deep under the center console area and figured it might be difficult to unplug. I regrouped and installed another fuse. I do this every time I move something in the process of locating a short. This keeps me from wondering what could have changed if the short goes away. By the way the short did go away. So I went back and looked at that harness closely and found the short. I had to remove the bottom dash cover.

I also had to remove the right metal brace as shown in the pictures below. I did have to bend the edge of the bracket closest to the steering column to remove it.

There it is. The green wire is what was blowing the radio fuse. The brown wire should have been blowing a fuse also as it has exposed wires. No arcing signs though.

Just a picture of the removed brackets and tools.

I pulled the harness some to get enough room to work on the wiring.

I wrapped each of the two damaged wires.

Then wrapped the whole harness that had been damaged.

Installed some good old split loom to further protect the wiring and this one was done.