The better suspect is broken and frayed wires between the door hinges. A simple trick to finding a short is to replace the blown fuse with a pair of spade terminals, then use small jumper wires to connect them to a twelve volt light bulb. A brake light bulb works well. When the circuit is live and the short is present, the bulb will be full brightness and hot so be sure it is not laying on the carpet or against a plastic door panel. Now you can unplug electrical connectors and move things around to see what makes the short go away. When it does, the bulb will get dim or go out.
Open and close the door while watching the bulb, or try flexing the harness. If you see the bulb flicker, you are in the right area. It is possible for the overheating safety cutout switch to short in the lighter socket, but that is not real common. Some of the older ones had just a single wire to pull off. Most of the newer ones are mounted in a plastic part of the dash, so they need two wires. Typically there is a release tab to press, then you can pull the connector off.
Nov 22, 2017 at 1:53 AM
