In Depth How to Find A Short with Test Lights
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- Опубліковано 7 тра 2024
- Let's take a deep dive into my process of finding shorts in vehicles. I talk about how I use a test light bulb to power the circuit and track down the issue while limiting the current that can flow.
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#topdon #diagnostics #Picoscope #autorepair - Авто та транспорт
Great video! I also have a buzzer set up so when under a vehicle I listen for it to quit when the short is located. Thanks for sharing.
Well Jake very informative video but I should not be watching it at 10pm . My eyes are open but my brain is sound asleep. Lol I’ll watch it again in the am. Thanks for sharing. 👍 Artie
Extended class in finding shorts to ground with a test light. Great job, Jake! I particularly liked the idea of powering the faulty circuit from the relay socket, to avoid having the ignition on.
A man spends 41.05 mins of his precious time on top of the time editing making a informative video and there are numerous comments about it being TOO informative smh. I am just a self taught diyer without a mechanical/ electrical background and was able to follow the information. There are plenty of short form tiktok videos available to serve those with goldfish like attention spans us adults truly value detailed information more than 30 aeconds long!!! Thank you very much for your time and energy. Don't give energy to negative people you don't owe ANYONE a explanation for giving your time and expertise. Hands down the most informative video on using test lights and great examples of real world uses. Thank you for your time and energy in making this video.
Thanks you for the super thanks and more importantly thank you for watching the video and being able to follow along.
@@autodiagyt your very welcomed
I get a cap from a spray can, drill a hole in it and glue the lamp in it. So now you don't have to worry about burn spots from the 💡, excellent video again!!
Greetings: It melts and burns the cap 1st.
Great demonstration. I like that once you found the short at the tcm, you proved that it wasn’t down stream from the module. One thing many forget to do. I enjoy watching your videos. They sometimes give me a quicker or more accurate way to diagnose. Once again awesome job
Fact is you took your time out and went through this showing voltage, voltage drop and amps using bulbs. That puts a clear picture in ones mind how does an electricity play a part. That means a lot and truly appreciate you put this together, very informative. Thank you for showing us.
Tremendous video / coaching !
Thanks for special edition extended lesson . 👊🏼 🔥
🧰💻📈💡
VERY COOOOOOOOOOOOOL ,,,,,,,,,,, FULLY UNDERSTAND LIKE USING A BUZZER AND THERMAL IMAGER PLEASE KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK !!!!!!!! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Great idea mentioning the use of the heat sensing to find the short
This was an excellent video. Worth weight in gold.
Thank you for taking so much of your time to make this video (as well as the rest of your videos). It is greatly appreciated! Greetings from the UK
Great thorough examples of current flow, your definitely up there with Pine Hollow, Eric O', Super Mario etc and other great diagnosticians. I hope your UA-cam channel grows & grows.👍🙂
Pine Hollow is hard to beat...
Jake, thanks for contributing to our community
also you can add the old style flasher relay to a horn or sound device it will honk the horn or sound device on and off as an audible alert. so if you cant see the light while under a car ,when sound stops u no you have taken the short away. try and show that set up for people to see
EXCELLENT!
Straight to the point, no long drawn out Ohms Law dribble.
Great visuals.
You should change the name of your channel to, 'Horse Sense Diagnostics' 🤪
Giddy Up!
Great video. I've used a ''dim bulb tester'' on old Tube type Ham Radio Transceivers when powering up a radio in unknown condition. If it lights up bright theres a bad short somewhere. I never thought of doing the same in automotive circuit faults. Thanks for the info.
For the love of God, too many wires, too many bulbs, too many meters. I'm an electrical engineer and I understand everything you said. Simply demonstrate with the test light that ground is on the other side of the fuse when it should not be. Connect the test light to the battery and probe the none power side of the fuse holder. If the light turns on there is a path to ground. Disconnect the modules one at a time. If the light turns off after disconnecting then the module is shorted to ground.
This video is meant to be very in depth. The basic video on the Nissan is exactly what you just said.
I have a short to ground on my truck. Your explanation makes sense.his is confusing thanks for chiming in
@@hayzersolar sorry this video isn’t for people without a good understanding of electrical flow. My other video “how to find a short with a light bulb” is very basic and only uses a test light. This video was mean for the people that watched that video and requested more detail and explanation.
@@autodiagyt no worries some videos will go over people's heads for me it was too much of nothing. If you would have a real case and was walking us through it then it would be awesome. South main auto Eric is the best at real life situation and walks you through it.
This is not for Electrical Engineers…
excellent video my friend. and a very good way to find shorts indeed . one caveat i would add is low and understated what current that circuit can take . seen a fella beck in the day use a high amp bulb . found the short ok because it was smoking 🤣🤣🤣🤣 did need some wire repair work on that one . but seriously when you get your head around the method it’s an awesome way of finding shorts . plus i loved the way you showed how to test the output side of it to , just to check its not something on that side . like you said you need to be mindful of what is still in circuit that might consume the load your testing with 👌
Great job explaining and sharing!
Thanks!
great video Jake going to have to watch this one a few more time to fully absorb everything
Nice video and explanation the only thing my brain is struggling with is the spaghetti of leads. It’s hard to keep track of what is plugged in to what since there were multiple test lights and meters.
Yeah that’s why I was trying to say the path the current is going
Great educational video,love to see more of that!
Thank you for this video. Good way for testing circuits.
Great instructional demo Jake!
Great video Jake , thanks for sharing and giving your time , good job
Great video, ignore the haters. Good explanation on using a bulb to restrict current flow in the circuit to enable testing
I love watching your videos but dang this was confusing only because I don't get it I'm not much of an electrical guy but I would really love to learn more I watch your videos everyday
Great lesson on basic circuit troubleshooting! No reason to apologize for content like this.
Nice technique and tutorial. Thank you Jake!
I have diagnosed a million circuits for shorts or failed components in the computer repair industry over the past 25 yrs, and another hundred or so in mentoring High School Robotics over the last decade plus, and have a great understanding of exactly everything you just said and showed in your video (though I would have taken the rough of divide and conquer and always split every circuit in half...unplug in the middle, test one side, then the other, then split the offending circuit in half again (no need to even test the good side again), to find the good quarter, bad quarter, etc, rinse and repeat, since you know the other 3/4's is good, and boil it down to 1/8th, 1/16th, 1/32, eventually finding the harness short or component failure.
It is just faster than tracing from battery all the way through a full circuit beginning to end.
Like I said, I understand the diagnosis method, and all the tools you used, and the math behind it all (without any actual formal education in electronics or electrical engineering or diagnosis), but, what you just taught me is, without having good known good operating swap in electrical components to replace questionable components to help with the diagnosis, to actually disconnect all components from the harness first, jump across the gaps w/ leads, then test the harness first, if no faults are found, you can now test just the components next.
If harness faults are found, then you will have no need to even look at the components, so no need for the addl. good known components, at least until you have repaired or replaced the harness. Then, once that harness is repaired, just disconnect from fathest away, the harness jumpers, replacing or reinstalling the components 1 by 1, until all work, or you find an offending component, and if you find one (usually damaged from the harness short), then you may have a need to have an extra good known component to add in place of a suspect component.
It is the same process I have used to find buggy software in a computer registry forever.
Just open the startup folder in the registry, turn off half the startup items, boot it, if the issue no longer exists, shut off the other half, turn on the other half as the issue will be there on next boot up, then turn off half again on only the offending half, if there again, turn off half again, until you find the offender software program. Each time you are just getting rid of all the searching time for more of what you need to find. And looking for shorts can be done faster using that divide by 2 process a ton faster.
If I had to track down a short though in an automobile (and I did not have extra parts and components to swap in), you within a certainty would with your basic understanding of current, volts, amps, and all your basic though extensive, test lights, and multiple multi-meters available and collected by you, would be my go to guy to have you track it down.
Then, I would take your extensive diagnosis and fix it. I appreciate your painstaking detail of finding a short in a car, as that is tough, as you have shown. You have the patience and perseverance of an auto electrical God! I worked on a neighbors Toyota truck that had an issue similar, a dead short in a circuit, that was even tougher to track down, and I never did so much work ever on a single circuit in my life, as it was in a brake light circuit farthest from the batter/under hood fuse and power distribution block, and it would fix and fail 3 times (over time), before I found it under dash, as someone had miswired up a replacement turn signal wand. That repair alone took lots of hrs to trace out, and we threw minor parts and rewiring at it along the way to a real final solution. I also used 8 test lights and 3 meters and a dozen jumpers on the harness at one point doing the half/half divide and conquer method to track down where the offender was located. It was flat out maddening. We finally replaced every headlight and tail light pigtail in the vehicle before we found that backward wiring issue under the dash leading to that multi-use turn signal wand (so the mis-wiring caused a couple of further shorts or overheats at a couple of the actual sockets). Once those were replaced, we found the dead short not long after.
It took the patience of a Saint, and I nearly threw up my hands twice and told him to take it to an electrical guru, but I said ok, let me try again, and again. Until we fixed it.
Yes I divide up the circuit when there is inline connectors but on this particular circuit there isn’t any.
Another great informative diagnostic. Thanks.
that was the video we all have been waiting for, thanks.
A great way to find shorts ..i was told points of contact on harness on potential shorts .. Thanks for the videos and information
Thank you for sharing your knowledge I’ve learnt a lot from watching your videos along with pine hollow, scannerdanner and all the other great diag channels out there
GREAT JOB JAKE
Great video man ive been having trouble wrapping my head around this but i got it now. The lightbulb finally went off🤣
Wait! I thought the light bulb was supposed to go on!
@@romanpendzich1781 depends on which light bulb lol
😂
@@romanpendzich1781
You have to clap your hands to make it go on ! 💡👏🏼
😉
@@romanpendzich1781 depends where your from🤣
Hi Jake, please make a playlist for easy way to finde those and other videos on that topic.
Thanks you for your work.
I will try to one day.
great video jake!!!! one of the things i found is there are times you have to contort into a limited space where you cant see a bulb or meter.. i had modified a warning chime module from mack that would give me an audible signal.. you learned to be fast as the other guys in the shop wanted to kill you yet they wouldnt help you or if they did you never knew if they were just messing with you. yeah paybacks a bitch lol. it was far better for finding opens on trailer wiring using bybass wire method but a few times it was a lifesaver on shorts.
A lot of guys like a buzzer but my brain has gotten so used to key dingers and things that it ignores them unless I’m focused on the sound. So if I’m focusing too much on the area I’m working or if the noise is on constantly my brain just tunes it out. So for me a bulb with extension leads is best for me.
Awesome!! Thanks for sharing.
Excellent keep these coming more great learning
Well done 👍
Loved it.
Cheers
Thank you for this video
Great splanation, thanks
I was shocked at Rainman Ray's video where he melted the FLUKE test leads AND the vehicle wiring harness. I also couldn't believe the comment section where viewers were impressed that he found the short while overlooking the carnage.
I brought this up in our HScope Telegram forum.
Your video on the heels of Ray's isn't a coincidence, I suspect.
I rank you right up there on current limiting while troubleshooting shorts. And it was your combined use of voltmeters + test lights that inspired my GADGETS#186 a while ago.
I've not seen Rays video. I'll have to look up your 186 video.
Oh man that was painful to watch... Hopefully he finds one of my videos.
INTVITIVE, Automotive Diagnostics Programming
Tutorial 'Outstanding ' from the start to finish loved it
👍
Bottle of water 💧 very good for your body, enjoy your weekend
From Nick Ayivor from London England UK 🇬🇧 ⏰️ 13:20 Good Afternoon
exselente dianostic y mui buena prueba master
Thanks man. Awsome
A simple explanation about substituting a fuse with a bulb. If not you would blow alot of fuses while looking for the short to ground.
Need to rewatch video a few times. But a quick question. The side of the fuse box without the power you tested. If I’m getting 2.3 volts on that side is that a short to power? With 1 lead of meter connected to ground and that side on fuse pin with fuse removed, with meter set to volts. If car matters it’s a 2012 VW CC.
That could be a few things. Water/corrosion in a connector or module causing a voltage back feed, or it could be voltage stored in capacitors inside a module. Went you see that use a small test light like a 194 bulb(250ma) to load it and see if the the voltage goes away.
THANKS FOR THE VIDEO.
great video.
Very good. Wish you found the real short to ground...we only know TCM, Tranny Control Module. Were there green crusties in the TCM side of the connector or under the cover ? To many modules get disgarded for no reason. For the beginner in a school environment it would be best to have a schematic drawn out , so you can describe how the connections are being made. Those plastic connectors you push in and out make it hard to visualize the flow, sometimes in parallel and sometimes in series and sometimes both !
No visible damage to the TCM. What ever is shorted on the board isn’t noticeable. To further test and repair it would be more cost then the replacement salvage yard module.
Grasias
Good video, useful info, ... but in the same category, what's the best way to load test 5v ref...?
GM test light J-35616-210
Hey Jake I just stolen the way You marked amp draw on the connector instead of the jacket of the bulb holder (genius) Why I never thought of that. Jake I enjoy all your videos CHEERS I like substituting bulbs for loads mainly for voltage drops . Also use bulbs with solder t pins.VD=IxR
Thanx Jake 🤙
What sockets and bulbs do you use?
194, 3157, h13 is the main ones.
@@autodiagyt thanks
Very detailed Jake! I get it, but unfortunately most other people do not have a multimeter let alone all the test leads, test bulbs and test connectors etc. It can be very intimidating to the average DIY’er to troubleshoot at this level, even on a 4-pin harness vs a 20-pin one, that’s when the parts cannon gets fired. In this instance replacing the TCM worked, but what made it fail? That should to be addressed also. Nice work Jake!
So at first I thought this vehicle was a lightening strike vehicle but no the alternator regulator is gone and it was getting close to 30 volts when you reved the engine. It has a bad TCM, ECM, abs, airbag module and a wiper switch.
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Jake, please tell me if I am wrong. Let's say I have a circuit that has a dead short somewhere in it (I just do not know where), and it is a complicated circuit, headlights, high and low beams, tail lights, brake lights including 3rd brakelight, turn signals, towing lights plug, etc.
Say it is a 20 Amp circuit. And I start at distribution block, and unplug and jumper every plug In the harness, right down to the last ground in the farthest light socket, halfway to the end I introduced a 10 Amp test bulb, put the multi- meter in just before the last ground and it reads 10 amps, that proves the harness is good correct?
If so, I can discount the harness as an issue, start re-attching all the other grounds working backwards, still no issues, then it must be a component plugged in, and as I add those components back in and find a different result (it is probably that component I need a swapping component for)? I am just taking what I learned from you and adding in a time saver to the same result in half the time with fewer testing equipment costs. Jumper wires and test lights are cheaper (and easier to make up), than collecting a bunch of meters. And finding out that a harness is good first (or tracking down a dead short in one), will lead to fewer failed components or worse a fire caused.
I once bought a car to race, cheap transmission cooling line crack repair, for 200 bucks, great car, but unbelievably the car had an issue I knew nothing about, a dead short in a tail light circuit, it kept blowing fuses on him, and unbeknownst to me, he had taken a blown glass fuse ACC type, and wrapped a foil wrapper for a stick of gum around it, and I found out at my very first night bracket race (first time I ever drove the car in darkness), and the very first time I actually turned on the headlight/tailight circuit, and drove the car at full throttle (of course with the alternator putting out all the (90), charging amps possible), right at the 1/4 mile 1,320' mark that my under dash fuse block was a ball of flame, now lapping up out of the right defroster plug and had flames going up the inside of the safety glass windshield hitting the passenger side visor. I stopped the car in the grass, jumped out, opened the hood, stood up in the engine bay and with sheer determination ripped the ground cable off that battery.
Just about that time, the windshield blew out, safety glass shards everywhere (hood up saved me from a glass shower), just as the safety crew arrived and spraying white powder all over my black interior, and my engine bay.
It took a year and a lot of trips to pick-a-parts in SoCal to rewire the car headlights to tail lights, and all points in between. I learned tons about auto electrical systems, and that dead shorts (even if not your direct fault), can be costly, very costly, and fix them fast, but fix them correctly. And that proper fusing is very important (zero shortcuts), there. I was furious when the safety crew guy, who was an actual in real life fire investigation guy w/ a local Fire Dept., found the offending wrapper (the ash film at least, that he could still read the words Juicy Fruit under a magnifying glass), wrapped around that fuse.
My fault though, I boughtTrans. I wanted used but really cheap, that had another issue besides a simple cracked steel cooling line for his auto trans., and electrical issues can be really expensive and dangerous especially dead shorts. And they can ruin even your best day if they end in wire overheats and flames at speeds in excess of 90 mph.
Bought the car I wanted, ....not Trans...
Rainman Ray Repairs I hope you watch this 😊😊
Yeah but where are you getting the banana jacks to build your lights. Working on a 06 bmw 530xi, parasitic draw. Close to a amp. The rl2 or teminal 30 relay is staying energized and cR access system is still awake. The seats still have power and light for the shifter stays on. Im new to alldata so it takes me forever to find what im looking for but if i unplug the relay it goes right down to .030.
Amazon link in the description
How do you hook the bulb up to the fuse that's blowing to detect the short
It is just put in place of the fuse.
👍
so if you had a short to ground that would blow a 10A fuse and you put a 2A bulb in front of the fuse would it still blow the fuse
That is correct. If it's in series with the fuse it limits the current to 2 amps.
Have you ever sat and watch this video back, has some realy good stuff but and yes there is the but it got to complicated to early to messy.
Yes I watch everything as I'm editing. This was intended for techs with a pretty good understanding of electrical. Just watch it again knowing the bulb is allowing the current to flow a limited amount and the meters are just there to give measurements.
In a lot of cases the jumping the relay is the easiest way to get power to the fuse but in this case I would have used power from the battery to the load side of the fuse. Also I seen comments saying you didn't talk ohms law dribble and your entire video shows ohms law at work and the better you understand ohms law the easier this type of work is and I know you know that but some viewers don't.
And great video keep up the great content
Yeah I don’t get into ohm’s testing and stuff because it will only tell you the correct thing on a good circuit or that you have a definite bad circuit, but there are instances where it tells you the circuit is good but in reality it’s not. So I try to avoid doing test that can give a false good reading.
@autodiagyt I wasn't talking about using ohms to test a circuit I was talking about ohms law and knowing how resistance voltage and amperage affect each other
Great video but too many leads, meters, bulbs all over the place makes it a bit hard to follow- keep it simple. A hand drawn diagram could really help. Thank you for explaining
The simple video was the Nissan and I’ve gotten a lot of comments and emails asking for a more detailed explanation.
@@autodiagyt Thank you- a little too detailed LOL. The lamp current current draw discussion was useful. Don't use a high current bulb in order to protect the circuit. Like the thermal camera idea- wish the prices would come down
@@georgerocks5191 topdon has a thermal camera for your phone that’s pretty reasonable. Ivan at Pine Hollow done a good comparison video of phone thermal cameras last year you might could watch.
Label that last book, a hot time on a Saturday night....needless to say, my first bracket race round win, was not as much fun as it could have been. It wasn't drivable to make the second round.
How do I get Free wiring diagram
I'm not sure. I pay for my service information.
so the bulb is your overload protection limiting the damage that can be done.
Yes
One word . Pulsar
What does a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles have to do with this lol
I am lost
Sorry. The Altima video is very basic.
Too complicated. Set your meter to check continuity (the beeper). Put one of your volt meter leads on the load side of the fuse. Attach the other lead to battery ground. Leave the key off. The meter will beep if there is a short to ground. Start disconnecting the consumers on the fuse. When the meter stops beeping you found your short to ground. You don’t have to keep looking at the bulb to light up. If you want to do it at a relay unplug the relay, put the lead that was at the fuse to the relays output. Easy peasy!
It's not complicated at all, it's necessary. The method you're describing will be very misleading as your meter will beep the same on every load that is normal on that circuit, see the example with that solenoid that sucking 7 amps.
Indeed you can do it just with a light bulb strong enough to make sense but not too strong to burn things up while testing.
How to destroy a Meter ?
It’s not complicated at all, bright light bulb is a strong path to ground, dim light bulb and there is some resistance in the circuit before it goes to ground. Your continuity test, at what resistance will it stop beeping at? How much current does it need to flow to turn the beeper on? Is the beeper even in the circuit or is the meter turning it on or off with a transistor? Until you know these things you don’t really know the limits of that testing method. I can tell you for a fact I’ve found higher resistance shorts to ground with a test light that the beeper in a meter wouldn’t find.
Jake... Question for you.
Where would be a good place to find male pins that fit in fuse sockets?
I want a few dozen for building test leads and lights...
I’m not sure where the best place would be really.
GTC062 on Amazon