Blinker fuse blowing

Hi, my first post here. About 18 months ago I bought a 1991 240 Wagon MT, for my son's first car. We are currently having a problem with it. The turn signals stopped working.
The relay works because the blinkers work. The bulbs are all good. And I put a multimeter on the terminals on the turn signal switch and the switches seemed to open and close as expected.

The fuse (#5) for the turn signals blows when the car is on. We did just a bit ago put in a new fuse and turned the ignition to the on position without starting the car, and the blinkers all operated as they should. Once we started the engine though, the fuse blew.

We have traced our the wiring to the blinkers and all the insulation looks intact and in good shape. The fuse list on the fuse box cover says that the fuse also includes:

I'm not sure which are the tail lamps but when the head lights are on the bottom lights (which is also the brake lights) are on. The lights on the top of the rear cluster never seem to come on at all, even when the fuse was intact and the headlights were on. All the wires back there look and feel like they have intact insulation and I don't see anything like a short circuit.


Maybe unrelated and maybe not. When we bought it we noticed that the wires in the passenger side rear hatch hinge are frayed and one is broken. That looks like a hell of a hassle to fix those. Not sure what those wire power. The wires in the drivers side hinge look intact.

If youi look at the fuse box there are supply and load wires on each fuse. The right side of each fuse is the load side. Take a look at the wires that are connected to the right side of fuse 5. You can take each wire off one at a time and test it for a short with your multimeter. Use a pair of needle nose plier so you can grab each wire and easily pull it off the fuse box. Be sure to disconnect the battery so you don't accidently short something that is live.

PS It's pretty easy to remove the plastic cover in the kick panel. There is a clip on the door opening under the edge and there is one clip holding it to the inside of the kick panel. That will give you easy access to the fuse box.

ukemike said:

The lights on the top of the rear cluster never seem to come on at all, even when the fuse was intact and the headlights were on. All the wires back there look and feel like they have intact insulation and I don't see anything like a short circuit.

Click to expand...

Unrelated to your actual problem, but - in stock form those are only used for rear fog lights. Switch on the left above the headlight switch should turn it on. I rewired mine as add'l brake lights instead.

Well we had it at the mechanic and had them track down the short. It turns out that the backup lights are on the same circuit. They had to lower the trans to get to the short to repair it.

Thanks for the help. It's good to know that those wires in the right side hinge are not needed for this car.

A Volvo 240 as a first car....yes!

Thanks for posting back. The wiring is commonly rotted under the car.

I would probably start with re-doing the entire suspension and all the fluids. What else....?